393872 - launching FF3, then FF2 again leads to loss of one version of bookmarks

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 381216

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Ray Kiddy]

I know how much you guys love the 'I upgraded FF and all my bookmarks are gone!' bugs. So, when I saw something problematic, I took a deep breath and looked around.

Something seems clear. This is reproducible.

In my default profile, I have:

bookmarks.html
bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-2007-08-20.html
bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-2007-08-24.html
bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-2007-08-26.html
bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-2007-08-27.html

I am usually running 2.0.0.6 with my default profile. I use FF3 a lot but, almost always, I use a new or auto-generated profile with it.

I launched a trunk build I have (checked out starting at 20070826_004356_PDT) with my default profile.

I quit. I launched my 2.0.0.6 again. The bookmarks were bad.

What happened is that my bookmarks are now exactly as in
bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-2007-08-26.html, which is not the latest.

Now, at this moment, I can copy back the bookmarks from the 27th and everything is good. Well, and also, I made a complete backup of the profile. But the point is the 27th backup is current to that point. I have observed that if I keep Firefox running, the backup from the 27th will be over-written with the "new", older bookmarks.

So, not only does this use my second-to-last bookmarks version, it clears the info in my latest backup so that I cannot recover my data.

Let me just calmly say this is very not good! :-)

Comment 1

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

ray, see bug #381216 and http://blog.mozilla.com/thunder/2007/08/02/bookmarks-and-upgradedowngrade-fun/

Comment 2

[Ray Kiddy]

I will fully read the blog post. I had seen it before.

Looking at bug 381216, it looks as though this is about competing edits and the inability to merge. I think I have a different issue.

I am running in FF2. I quit. I launch FF3. I do absolutely nothing. I quit. I launch FF2. My bookmarks are damaged.

This seems to be more of a problem than the other.

Comment 3

[Dan Mills [:thunder]]

What you describe is exactly what bug 381216 is about.

What happens is that the first time you run trunk, bookmarks.html gets imported to places.sqlite.  From that point on, the trunk build overwrites bookmarks.html at regular intervals.  So whenever you run trunk, your bookmarks.html gets overwritten with whatever the trunk state is (i.e., your Fx2 changes get thrown away).

Comment 4

[Ray Kiddy]

Dan -

At time A, I launch FF2. At time A, there are 10 bookmarks.

At time B, I add two bookmarks.

At time C, I quit FF2.

At time D, I launch FF3, add two more bookmarks, and then quit.

At time E, I launch FF2.

How many bookmarks should I have?

When I read what you say, I see you saying: We know you only have 12 bookmarks.

I am saying: I only have 10. That is worse.

Or am I completely misunderstanding what you say?

Comment 5

[Dan Mills [:thunder]]

At time E, you should have the same bookmarks you had at the end of time D.  The actual number depends on whether you had ever run FF3 before time A or not.  Is that not what you see?

Comment 6

[Ray Kiddy]

I may have used FF3 with the default profile and not remembered that I had done it. If so, I apologize. I will test what I think I am seeing with a fresh profile and a controlled test.

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

moving from FX2 to FX3 will move bookmarks to places.sqlite, bookmarks.html won't be touched unless autoExportHTML is set.
moving back won't import back bookmarks from places.sqlite.
and this won't change imo.
this bug is still a dupe, or if you prefer a wontfix.