474526 - 3.0.5 will not save any new bookmarks; also will not generate an .html file of bookmarks when prompted. PLUS .json files are blank, and the restore feature doesn't fix any of this. :(

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 448584

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Aidan]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5

WELL. I updated to the new version, 3.0.5, and suddenly all the bookmarks I saved thereafter appeared in my bookmarks section but as blank bookmarks - I couldn't delete them, I had to restore to the week prior's bookmarks in order for them to disappear, and one of them is still there. They have just the basic txt document icon - the folded piece of paper, and even when i edit them to add the web address in, it doesn't save. 

also, it saves over the last new bookmark I make, if that makes sense. So if I bookmarked the Firefox homepage right now for example, and then go to bookmark the yahoo homepage, pressing add to bookmarks makes the "edit bookmark" appear, and shows the Firefox bookmark that I just created, saying that i already have a bookmark of this site (yahoo.). I'm not sure I'm explaining it clearly. 

Then, sometimes, instead of a blank file, it saves like, a PIECE of the site I requested it save - like an image or an add. weird, right?

Sooooo I did a lot of searching on the boards and here, and I decided to download an older version of firefox, but THEN i realised i couldn't export my saved bookmarks into an html file! It says it's exported one, but when i look for it it's not on the desktop where i specified it saved to, nor is it anywhere on the computer, cuz i searched. so i can't get the older version of firefox to work right since the new one is still on my computer - and i need the bookmarks i have. 

this means that i have like 40 tabs open right now, haha. IT'S TERRIBLE but I don't know what else to do! Help :( Thank goodness I can quit and save tabs or I'd be in big trouble. haha.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Hm. I just downloaded the new version. It took a couple days for me to realise my new bookmarks were oversaves of like, weird stuff like the add on the yahoo page i was on, or something like that, so i don't know if I can give you directions on what I did..... I swear, I think I just upgraded, that's all it took. Boo.
Actual Results:  
My bookmarks went haywire :( The old ones still work though, but I can't make new ones or put anything new on the bookmarks bar thing.

Expected Results:  
Ummmm, still let me bookmark things please? 

I just have the default theme, I don't have any add-ons to Firefox at all. It didn't crash Firefox, and I tried restarting both Firefox as well as my computer multiple times.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

did you upgrade from 2.0.0.x to 3.0.5?
Before doing any experiment b sure to have a backup of your profile: http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Profile

Have you tried doing a clean install: completely uninstall firefox and install a clean copy of firefox 3.0.0
Have you tried creating a new profile and importing your bookmarks into it?

Comment 2

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

for 3.0.0 i mean 3.0.5, it was a typo

Comment 3

[Aidan]

I upgraded from 3.0.4 to 3.0.5; it's on auto-update so it goes at it pretty regularly.

I haven't been able to do a clean re-install because I cannot export the bookmarks I currently have, since it won't let me save them as either an html or json. Well, it lets me export/back-up a json but the file is empty, it just has the four or so bookmarks firefox starts with (Help, get started, useful links, etc). I am afraid to do a profile back-up and do the fresh install, because the bookmarks_backup.html file inside my profile shows the Get Started ones, despite the fact that I can visibly see and use all my pre-update bookmarks within firefox itself.

Sooo a few days ago I downloaded Camino because a friend switched to that from Firefox and it automatically imported all his bookmarks from Firefox; but when I selected to have it import mine, it just imported the Get Started ones. 

I try to backup stuff pretty regularly, but I backed up the file over the old file before I realised there was a problem, so my bookmarks backup is now the stupid json that has nothing on it. I'm pretty smart, what can I say! Sigh. So manually plugging in each individual bookmark and c/ping it to a text file would just take so long because I have a great deal.. I thought I would at least see if someone here could fix the bug for the next Firefox update or whatever. It seems like a loooot of people are having bookmark issues with this new update, unfortunately, but maybe that's just because only now that I have a problem do i realise other people do, since I've never had a problem with Firefox before.

Comment 4

[bugzilla]

Same problems here with 3.06. The bookmarks change to every homepage i browse. Its like on change of the browse window the new bookmarks apply too. I didn't happen until today. Maybe there is a corrupted file somewhere - but I have no idea how to give you more details.

Comment 5

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

the worst issue here is broken json, others are not reproduceable unluckily, duping there