1688973 - missing bookmarks in firefox bookmarks sidebar

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[John Estes]

Attachment: On the 21st of this month unpleasant surprise.docx

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/84.0

Steps to reproduce:

The problem is always present on one computer, but not on another computer.
Both computers each have identical FirefoxProfiles.

Actual results:

The FirefoxProfile on the computer that is working properly was migrated to the Firefox computer that is not working properly. I had an incredibly hard time locating a website showing how to migrate FirefoxProfiles to other computers, and I was only able to find 1 website that showed how to do this, but it was only partially successful--the bookmarks sidebar on the recipient computer does not show the migrated bookmarks.

Expected results:

The 2 computers having identical FirefoxProfiles should display identical bookmarks sidebars.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.

Comment 2

[John Estes]

The problem of having bookmarks on one computer copied to another computer (by copying FirefoxProfile to the second computer) and having the bookmarks not show on the second computer is a minor problem for me. THE MAIN PROBLEM is that the update to Firefox version 84.0.2.2 wiped out all of my bookmarks and settings, and Mozilla's instructions on how to get this information back did not work for me. This is a HUGE PROBLEM. Before any update Firefox should automatically make sure that the bookmarks, at the very least, can be safely and easily restored to the the newly updated version. If this can't be done Firefox should warn everyone that this can't be done, enabling them to decide whether or not to allow the upgrade . Alternatively, the best solution is to give the option to easily, simply, and directly revert to an older version of Firefox until any problems with the new version can be resolved. Some of my important bookmarks are irretrievably lost because I can't find a way to get them back. This update to firefox version 84.0.2.2 is the second time that I have lost important information with an update. Last year both Firefox and Thunderbird sprang unexpected updates that wiped out my bookmarks and catalogued archived emails, and it was a moment of panic for me before I I found that I could restore them by using a Mozbackup backup. People who did not have a backup lost them forever. Everyone should be warned when such a major update is coming to allow them to prepare to do what it might require to get the information back. Mozbackup doesn't work with the new version of Firefox, and there is no easy way for the ordinary user to backup their information. This problem should be addressed and a solution implemented. FIREFOX AND THUNDERBIRD ARE USELESS WITHOUT SAVED BOOKMARKS AND ARCHIVED EMAILS.

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Hello, Firefox stored backups of your bookmarks for AT LEAST 15 days. Those backups are accessible from the Library window (Show All Bookmarks item) in the Backup & Restore menu. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks
The best way to bring bookmarks from one computer to another one, would have been to save a backup file, and then restore it on the other side.

Unfortunately to be able to give you further help, we must know exactly what you did.
Did you just copy over the profile folder across 2 computers?
Which version of Firefox was the source computer? Are them on the same version?
Did you check whether the new computer is using the correct profile through about:profiles?

Comment 4

[John Estes]

Firefox updated 3 computers to v. 84.0.2.2 unexpectedly, and, desperate, I tried Mozbackup to try to restore them. When that didn't work I spent days searching the internet for a solution until I finally stumbled on the fact that I could import bookmarks from Internet Explorer. I was able to use an old Firefox installation on another computer that had bookmarks, and then I imported those bookmarks into Internet Explorer. I was then able to import those bookmarks into Firefox. But the old Firefox installation on the other computer was not up-to-date, and I lost many bookmarks, even some bookmarks that I am reasonably sure were old enough to be in the old Firefox installation before I imported these bookmarks into Internet Explorer. I then uninstalled Firefox and attempted to install an earlier version several times on first one computer and a second one in futile attempts to get a version that would not unexpectedly update and wipe out my bookmarks again. But, of course, as soon as I installed the older version Firefox updated it to version 84, and later to versions 85 and 86b over the time period that I was trying to find a work-around. In all of my searching the web for a solution I did not find the link that you gave in your above reply. Just now I checked the third computer that I have not used since the update and I found bookmarkbackup in the FirefoxProfile folder, and there are bookmarks there, but that profile was not up-to-date when the update erased the bookmarks from my Bookmarks Sidebar. Why did Firefox not give this information to all users before the update was released so that they could be prepared to use it before the information in the bookmarkbackup was lost in futile attempts to recover that they would inevitably try to make? In addition, this is a very cumbersome way to backup and restore Firefox that is likely beyond the ability of the ordinary user because of lack of time to learn and gain proficiency in the use of the computer. The later versions of Firefox have become very user-unfriendly. I have been using computers and helping friends keep their computers going since about 1990, and you see what a mess I made in trying to work through this problem. Instead of developing more bells and whistles in the Firefox app that are useless to people who can't properly maintain Firefox in their computers, why not put that much time and energy into developing a solid replacement for Mozbackup, AND ALLOW PEOPLE TO REVERT TO AN OLDER VERSION IN AN EMERGENCY.

Comment 5

[John Estes]

forgot to specifically answer your questions above in my comment. Yes I did try to copy FirefoxProfile from one computer to another, and they were all running the same version. I kept them all synchronized by having FirefoxProfile on the F: drive on each and all computers and using Mozbackup to restore the same profile as the one on my main computer to all other computers, but since Mozbackup was incompatible with Firefox v. 84.0.2.2 there was absolutely no way for me to get out of the hole without the information in the above link that you gave me. I knew nothing about "about:config"; I had never heard there was such a command, so of course I didn't use it.

Comment 6

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

The next time you are in trouble, you can easily ask on https://support.mozilla.org/, where people will be more than happy to help.
You can also chat real-time with other users in the Mozilla Matrix channels, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix.
Or, if you look for third party help, there's a Reddit Firefox group where people are also happy to help.

Usually Firefox doesn't have to notify about upgrades and bookmarks loss, because bookmarks loss is never an expected outcome, it can happen only if the profile gets messed up, or there is some kind of disk/memory corruption. For those cases we provide a minimum of 15 days of bookmark backups in the profile folder, as I pointed out.
I don't know what's the status of MozBackup, being it a third party tool we have no control over it.

Unfortunately, after the fact, we can't do much, any useful info to figure out what happened have likely been overwritten already.
I hope you can use the bookmark backups to restore your bookmarks into a clean profile.

I'll take your feedback about the backup and restore process being hard to find and understand, we already have plans to make the bookmarking experience better, and that will be part of it. Unfortunately I can't give a date for that work yet.