288645 - Bookmarks crash on search - I have found a manual work around by editing the bookmarks.html file

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 207636

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Don McCants]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1

Here is a discussion thread on MozillaZine Forums:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1316689#1316689

Here is a manual fix to the bookmarks.html file, that also documents how the
problem is caused:

There is a failure to write the proper ID string to the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder
within bookmarks.html

The Bookmarks Toolbar Folder is a special folder in your bookmarks, and should
be given a special ID string that reads:
ID="NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot"

Where the failure is occuring is somewhere in the import and bookmark management
process. Instead of treating the Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar Folder as a special
bookmarks folder, Firefox is insisting on treating it as *both* a plain old
folder *and* as something special. U may *tell* Firefox which Bookmark Folder u
want to be your Toolbar folder, and Firefox *may* treat it as such when u see it
in your browser and your toolbar, HOWEVER, Firefox fails to write a critical
piece of code into the HTML file to support your folder's status as the Toolbar
folder.

When u view a bad bookmarks.html file in a text editor (like BBEdit), you will
quickly see that your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder is coded as follows:

<H3 LAST_MODIFIED="1110965408" PERSONAL_TOOLBAR_FOLDER="true"
ID="rdf:#$FvPhC3">Bookmarks Toolbar Folder</H3>

The problem is with the code: ID="rdf:#$FvPhC3"

Firefox does not want to have a customized ID string for the Bookmarks Toolbar
Folder, rather, it should be assigning a special default ID string to indicate
its special status. The code should instead read:

<H3 LAST_MODIFIED="1110965408" PERSONAL_TOOLBAR_FOLDER="true"
ID="NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot">Bookmarks Toolbar Folder</H3>

The string < ID="NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot" > helps Firefox to understand
that "hey, this is special" and it is not a regular Bookmarks Folder. The
breakdown is that Firefox is assigning special Bookmark Toolbar Folder status as
the user requests, and the app and the browser give that folder all of the
special priviledges of being a Bookmarks Toolbar Folder, but Firefox is not
updating the ID to support this special status.

So, when the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder does not get assigned its special ID, the
bookmark search process crashes the application.

I have been able to consistantly reproduce this using my own bookmark files, and
other users have done the same.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox and import MSIE bookmarks.

2. Move MSIE bookmarks to a "newly created" Bookmark Toolbar Folder. The folder
will not rename its ID to "NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot" as it should when u are
importing bookmarks from IE.

3. Do any bookmark search, whether in a sidebar or a separate bookmark window --
it will always crash.

Actual Results:  
The browser crashes 100% of the time.

Expected Results:  
It should have given you the search results of the bookmarks.

Comment 1

[Joachim Noreiko]

I've had this crash on Mac OS X, Firefox 1.0.3

Comment 2

[Joachim Noreiko]

And I confirm the fix too.
Mine read 'rdf:#$9zxY9'. Changed as described above and Firefox no longer crashes.

Comment 3

[Sten Carlsen]

I can confirm this exact problem, I have done as described. Now it does not crash.

My problems started after I reinstalled Firefox and imported the old firefox
bookmarks file via the file->import mechanism.

This seems to be where the problem is located.

Either fix this or remove the import function.

Comment 4

[Don McCants]

I would not remove the import function. The import function is a critical part
of customer conversion to Firefox.

The fix should be simple (in theory), it is just a matter of prioritization with
all of the other items on the list.

Comment 5

[Sten Carlsen]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I would not remove the import function. The import function is a critical part
> of customer conversion to Firefox.
I agree very much, my point is that this error renders the bookmark search
function useless (or even worse) as it will crash the whole browser and close it
without further warning.

This behaviour is bound to make new users go back to their old browser before
they  even discover why they should stay on board. It is also a kind of bug,
that will make normal people say that this is bad SW that does not work at all.

I don't think this message is one we should send to converting users.

Comment 6

[Andrew Zimolzak]

I had the same problem with crashing when searching bookmarks. As I just
described in Bug #207636, my Toolbar folder ID read "NC:PersonalToolbarFolder",
which I didn't expect, but the workaround described here still fixed the crashes
for me.

Comment 7

[yohann potier]

In order to work, you also have to modify the bookmark.bak the same way.
The fix worked for me with this manual work around.

Comment 8

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

The personal toolbar folder doesn't belong to the imported list of favorites
from IE. This are two different folders! The Toolbar uses
"NC:PersonalToolbarFolder". Instead the folder with the imported IE favorites
has the id "NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot". Don't mix them up. 

Comment 9

[u97006]

is this similar to bug 209542?

Comment 10

[Don McCants]

Yes, 209542 is casued by the same thing bug -- my work around will work in that
case as well.

However, I have never needed to modify the "bookmark.bak" folder to ensure
functionality as noted by another poster to this thread. It is possible that
simply throwing out bookmark.bak and allowing the application to write a new
file from your modified bookmarks will be the simplest work around.

Comment 11

[rreynolds]

If I click on bookmarks, it crashes the program

Comment 12

[Don McCants]

Is it a direct result of editing the file as I have indicated above, or are you referring to a different bug? 

This thread specifically addresses a bug that occurs as a result of Firefox not writing < ID="NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot" > into the Bookmark file.

Comment 13

[jwq]

I believe that this bug is a duplicate of Bug 207636. The "Imported IE Favourites" entry in the bookmarks file is

         <DT><H3 ID="NC:SystemBookmarksStaticRoot">Imported IE Favorites</H3>

and if this is missing, search bookmarks will crash the browser on the Mac.

Reporter (Don): please check Bug 207636 and mark this bug as a duplicate of Bug 207636 if you agree that they are the same.

Comment 14

[Adam Guthrie]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 207636 ***

Comment 15

[Don McCants]

Yes, this is a duplicate, and the work-around I documented is valid.

Comment 16

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs, filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change