2071625 - Firefox cannot import bookmarks from Chrome when users are signed in (bookmarks stored in AccountBookmarks instead of Bookmarks)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Migration, defect, P2)

Description

[Asif Ahmad]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/153.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Environment
OS: Ubuntu 26.04
Firefox: 155.0.1
Firefox installation: Mozilla Linux tarball installed under /opt
Google Chrome: official Google .deb package
Chrome profile: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default
Steps to reproduce
Install Google Chrome using the official .deb package.
Have bookmarks in the Chrome Default profile.

Verify that the Chrome profile is located at:

~/.config/google-chrome/Default

In the Chrome profile, the bookmark data is stored in:

~/.config/google-chrome/Default/AccountBookmarks

There is no traditional Bookmarks file in the profile.
Start Firefox 155.0.1.
Open Firefox Settings → General → Import Data.
Select Google Chrome.
Attempt to import bookmarks from the Chrome Default profile.

Actual results:

Actual result

Firefox does not import the bookmarks from the Chrome Default profile.

The Chrome profile contains an AccountBookmarks JSON file containing the bookmark data, but Firefox's native Chrome migration does not successfully import those bookmarks.

Expected results:

Expected result

Firefox should detect the Chrome Default profile and import its bookmarks using the native Chrome migration functionality, without requiring the user to export bookmarks to HTML first.

Additional information

The Chrome bookmark file is:

~/.config/google-chrome/Default/AccountBookmarks

The file is valid JSON and begins with a structure containing:

"checksum" and "roots"

The file size is approximately 827 KB.

The Chrome installation is the official Google .deb package. Firefox is the official Mozilla Linux tarball installed under /opt.

This issue has persisted across multiple recent Firefox versions.

HTML export/import is not considered a workaround for the native Chrome migration failure because the expected Firefox functionality is direct Chrome profile migration.

Platform

Linux / Ubuntu 26.04

Firefox version

155.0.1

Chrome profile

Default

Chrome profile path

~/.config/google-chrome/Default

Relevant Chrome bookmark storage

~/.config/google-chrome/Default/AccountBookmarks

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Bookmarks & History' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Asif Ahmad from comment #0)

Google Chrome: official Google .deb package
Chrome profile: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default
Steps to reproduce
Install Google Chrome using the official .deb package.
Have bookmarks in the Chrome Default profile.

Are you maybe also signing in to Chrome with a Google account?

Comment 3

[:Gijs (he/him)]

I think this is a consequence of the changes described in https://developer.chrome.com/blog/bookmarks-sync-changes and https://blog.google/chromium/seamlessly-use-your-passwords-and/ . They have probably been rolling out since mid to late 2025.

At least on my Windows machine, on my regular testing Chrome profile, I still have a "Bookmarks" file. If I create a separate profile and sign into Chrome, I get an "AccountBookmarks" file. The file format appears to be broadly the same.

Comment 4

[Hackbot]

Attachment: Bug 2071625 - Import Chrome bookmarks from the AccountBookmarks file (signed-in profiles). r=Gijs

When a user is signed in to a Google account, recent Chrome versions store the
account's bookmarks in an "AccountBookmarks" file instead of / in addition to
the legacy "Bookmarks" file, and may not write a "Bookmarks" file at all. The
JSON format is the same. Firefox's Chrome migrator only ever read "Bookmarks",
so bookmarks from signed-in Chrome profiles were not imported, and such
profiles could fail to be detected as having importable data.

GetBookmarksResource now reads from whichever of "Bookmarks" and
"AccountBookmarks" exist and imports the union of their bookmark_bar, other and
synced roots. getLastUsedDate also considers "AccountBookmarks" when estimating
profile recency. Root access is guarded with optional chaining to be resilient
to minor format differences.

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/a0045653be01
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/1952de4db534
Import Chrome bookmarks from the AccountBookmarks file (signed-in profiles). r=migration-reviewers,mconley

Comment 6

[rperta]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/1952de4db534

Comment 7

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Did you want to nominate this for the Fx159 relnotes? If so, set the relnote-firefox flag to "?"
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Release_Notes_Nomination

Possible wording:

Fixed importing bookmarks from Google Chrome when signed in to a Google account in Chrome.

Comment 8

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: broken bookmarks import for a while now
[Affects Firefox for Android]: no
[Suggested wording]: Fixed: importing from Google Chrome with a signed in Google account now detects and imports bookmarks.
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]: n/a (or this bug)

Comment 9

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Added to the Fx159 relnotes.