News (January 2010)

All of the extensions on this site have been successfully tested on Firefox 3.6. If you find any compatibility issues please e-mail me with the full details of the problem.

If Firefox lists an extension as incompatible then please reinstall it using the links on this page.

Bookmark Backup

Version 0.4.11

Install

Install Bookmark Backup 0.4.11

Description

Bookmark Backup is a simple extension that helps to keep your bookmarks (and optionally other Firefox settings) safe. Each time Firefox is closed, a copy of your bookmarks file will be made to a backup location. If Firefox's bookmarks become corrupted or lost, find the most recent uncorrupted backup and copy it into your profile folder. By default the backups can be found in the Backups folder inside Firefox's profile folder, though this location can be changed in Bookmark Backup's Options dialog.

Additionally, thanks to code contributed by Nickolay Ponomarev, other files may also be backed up along with the bookmarks file. You can specify which files to backup in the Options dialog. Just check the box for each type of setting you want backed up, any other files can be listed in the following text box separated by a | character. Please refer to the MozillaZine Knowledge Base for details about what data is stored in each file.

Please remember, this extension should be used in addition to a regular profile backup not as a replacement.

Note: Firefox 1.5 (and later) makes its own backup of your bookmarks, therefore this extension is only useful if you want to backup other settings or to control where the backups are stored.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Why is the backed up copy of bookmarks.html an old file?

Firefox 3 and later now store their bookmarks in a file called places.sqlite, the bookmarks.html file is no longer used. You can confirm this by checking the last modified date of the original bookmarks.html file in your profile.

2. I have lost my bookmarks, how do I restore the backup?

  1. Close Firefox.
  2. Find the Backups folder in your profile folder (or in your custom backup location, if configured).
  3. Go into the sub-folder from yesterday (don't use today's backup, it will be corrupted). Copy whichever files you wish to restore into your profile folder.
  4. Restart Firefox.

If you use Windows and don't know how to perform any of these steps please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to walk you through them.

3. Does this extension work on Mac OS?

Maybe, some people say it does, other say it doesn't. I don't own a Mac so I can't confirm one way or the other.

4. Why is there a bookmarkbackups folder in my profile? How do I disable it?

The bookmarkbackups folder is created by Firefox itself (this feature was added in Firefox 1.5). The two sets of backups should not conflict, however if you wish to disable the built-in backup you can do so by setting browser.bookmarks.max_backups to 0 (this requires Firefox 2 or later).

5. Will you add support for, timestamped backups, more than 7 days of backups, less than 7 days of backups, scheduled backups, weekly instead of daily backups, or backing up files outside the profile?

At the moment I have no plans for any of those features.

6. Can I use wildcards in the other files box?

To a limited extent yes, you can backup a whole folder simply by typing it's name (e.g. Cache). You can backup a set of files with the same extension by typing *.extension (e.g. *.rdf), using the * operator in any other position will not work.

7. Can I use paths in the other files box?

Bookmark Backup supports primitive relative paths, use a forward slash (/) as the path separator. There's currently no way to backup files outside the profile folder.

Contributors

Release History

0.4.11

  • Added support for the latest Firefox 4 nightlies (2010-07-02 and above).

0.4.10

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2008-08-18 and above).

0.4.9

  • Added support for Firefox 3 final.

0.4.8

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2008-03-14 and above).

0.4.7

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2007-12-06 and above).

0.4.6

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2007-06-21 and above).

0.4.5

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2007-06-18 and above). Thanks Tony E.

0.4.4

  • Updated the list of backed up files for current trunk builds (2007-05-22 and above).

0.4.3

  • Updated the list of backed up files for Firefox 2.0.0.2 and current trunk builds (thanks Alan Baxter and Tony E).

0.4.2

  • Added support for Firefox 2 final. Due to my lateness in getting the file to the translators not all locales are ready yet, if your locale is missing please check back later, I'll update the extension and this post as locales come in. The following locales are included at the time of writing (2006-12-01): ca, cs-CZ, de-DE, en-US, es-ES, fr-FR, hu-HU, it-IT, ja, ko-KR, sk, th-TH, zh-CN, zh-TW.
  • Added a Korean (ko-KR) locale, contributed by Junyeob Kim of Mozilla Update Korea.

0.4.1

  • Fixed a potential backup failure when the bookmarks file can't be found.
  • Added a Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR) locale, contributed by Pedro Failla.

0.4

  • Partially rewritten to make the extension more reliable, additionally it now performs backups both at shutdown and every 2 hours. The backup interval can be tweaked by setting the bookmarkbackup.interval pref to a value in minutes, you can also enable/disable startup/shutdown backups with the bookmarkbackup.startupBackup and bookmarkbackup.shutdownBackup prefs.
  • Added a logging mode to help track down backup problems. To enable it set the pref bookmarkbackup.loggingEnabled to true, this will create a file named bookmarkbackup.log in your profile folder.
  • Added an icon, contributed by Thomas Bertels.
  • This extension no longer works on older versions of Firefox, you must be using Firefox 1.5 or above.
  • Added a Catalan (ca-AD) locale, contributed by Toni Hermoso Pulido.
  • Added a Hungarian (hu-HU) locale, contributed by KAMI.

0.3.3

  • Changed the passwords checkbox in the Options dialog to also backup pre-Firebird 0.7 style password files (e.g. 1234567.s) since people with old profiles may still be using that style of file.
  • Added an Italian (it-IT) locale, contributed by Giovanni Francesco Solone of eXtenZilla.it.
  • Added a Turkish (tr-TR) locale, contributed by Orçun Apaydýn.
  • Added a French (fr-FR) locale, contributed by Thomas Bertels.
  • Added a Czech (cs-CZ) locale, contributed by Petr Jirsa.
  • Added a Thai (th-TH) locale, contributed by Sampan Sittiwantana.
  • Added a Japanese (ja-JP) locale, contributed by Premier.
  • Added a Slovak (sk-SK) locale, contributed by SlovakSoft.
  • Added a Simplified Chinese (zh-CN) locale, contributed by bigbigbomb.

0.3.2

  • Fixed an issue with backing up whole folders (e.g. Cache) from the profile folder.
  • Added a Traditional Chinese (zh-TW) locale, contributed by Willy Young.

0.3.1

  • The most common settings now have a checkbox in the Options dialog to make it easier to specify the files to be backed up.
  • Each day's backups are now copied into a sub-folder of the Backups folder, this keeps the files for each day together and resolves the problem of files getting the wrong extension.
  • Added a German (de-DE) locale, contributed by Patrick Ruh.
  • Added a Spanish (es-ES) locale, contributed by Carlos of Proyecto Nave.
  • Removed the automatic install.rdf update link due to bandwidth constraints, from now on you'll have to manually check for updates.

0.3

  • Bookmark Backup can now optionally backup other files in your profile. Simply go to the Options dialog and enter a list of extra files to be backed up (separated with the | character). Code contributed by Nickolay Ponomarev (thanks Nick).

0.2.1

  • Fixed some previously unlocalisable strings.

0.2

  • The backup location can now be specified in Bookmark Backup's Options window.
  • Fixed the Linux permissions issue when creating the Backups directory.

0.1.2

  • Now supports the backup of a bookmarks file that has been moved with browser.bookmarks.file.

0.1.1

  • Bookmark backups are now stored in a sub-directory of the profile directory named Backups.

0.1

  • Initial Release.

Comments

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#261 Pike Thursday, 17th November 2005

@Ed

Thanks for the testing.

@walker

Thanks for understanding. :-)

#262 Pin Thursday, 17th November 2005

Bookmark Backup 0.4 rulezzzzzz

Thanks

#263 Raanan Barzel Monday, 21st November 2005

Just installed bb 0.4

I would like to backup my Thunderbird address book.

#264 Peter (SlovakSoft) Monday, 21st November 2005

Many thanks for this great extension!
1 question: I can set two backup paths, example: D:\Backup\Firefox and G:\Backup\Firefox? I need two backups - on second hard drive and CompactFlash Card (inserted in to card reader).
Thank you for answer and best regards from Slovakia.

#265 bookie Tuesday, 22nd November 2005

how many backups are done before it is overwritten?

#266 greenknight Tuesday, 22nd November 2005

I discovered that a theme I had tried very briefly weeks ago was still backed up in the Saturday folder.Another user said on the Firefox Help forum that they'd backed up the chrome folder, and found deleted images were still in the backups, another found old deleted bookmarks. You can read the posts here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1888153#1888153

Is it supposed to work like that? This doesn't seem like the way it ought to work, I thought that when the backups were overwritten, data that had been deleted would be erased. Would it be possible to make BB do that?

Now to download Test Build 6. I assume it works in nightlies, since they're newer than rc1, right?

#267 Pike Tuesday, 22nd November 2005

@Peter

That's not currently possible, I have had several requests for it though so I might think about it.

@bookie

The backups are overwritten every seven days.

@greenknight

Yeah I saw that thread but didn't get a chance to respond. It is by design, BB never deletes anything, last thing I wanted was for a bug in BB to cause data loss. I suppose I could make a hidden-use-at-your-own-risk pref for deleting the existing folder when making a new backup.

#268 Pike Wednesday, 23rd November 2005

@greenknight

Forgot to mention, yes BB 0.4 definitely works on branch nightlies, it should work on trunk nightlies but I haven't tested it recently, so no guarantees.

#269 greenknight Wednesday, 23rd November 2005

I suspected it was something like that, I know you prefer to err on the side of caution (will BB 1.0 be released in this decade?). A pref like you describe would be handy, though it isn't all that hard to periodically dump the old backups, cleaning out the obsolete data. You really ought to have notes on the download pages to inform users of this behavior, though.

I've installed Test Build 4 on both Branch and Trunk, and verified that backups are being made for both.

@Peter

You might want to check out the program Karen's Replicator
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

It's free, and it can automatically copy any file you choose to any location, at whatever interval you set. It can even be set to copy only those files that have changed, which might be ideal for your pupose.

#270 greenknight Friday, 25th November 2005

I meant, I installed Test Build 6 of BB 0.4. Plus, I misspelled "purpose". I must have been tired.

#271 Omm Friday, 25th November 2005

There are some orphant extensions - one of them is the wonderfull "Bookmark Links Checker".Outdatet with updating to FF 1.5 versions.Developer Torisugari got lost can't find him anywhere.
Only old versions could found,like this on :
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?s=0072209c82727599943ed11ffa96e07c&showtopic=14&hl=Bookmark+Link+Checker

So an new developer is despaired searched....if not Pike could add this function into...:)

#272 Pike Monday, 28th November 2005

I've released BB 0.4 Test Build 7. As requested by Matt and greenknight I've added a hidden pref to delete the current daily backup folder before starting, you'll find it in about:config. I haven't gone through a great deal of testing so use with caution. The usual disclaimers apply, if it deletes your entire hard drive please don't sue me. :)

This will probably be the final beta, I'm still waiting on a couple of locale updates, once those are in (and assuming Fx 1.5 is released this week) then I'll call 0.4 final.

@greenknight

It's taken me two and a quarter years to hit BB0.4 so by my calculations BB1.0 should be out in about spring 2009. :D

@Omm

Torisugari has made several posts to MozillaZine forums this month, so he's still around, perhaps you could try PMing him there:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=65

#273 Matt Monday, 28th November 2005

Oh, neat. I'll let somebody who has a complete backup test it first, though. :P

But I doubt anything will go wrong with it.

#274 tgrantt Tuesday, 29th November 2005

I love this extensions, and the option of adding "Extensions" just makes it better. One idea. Could we have a button in the options menu for "Backup now" as we could then make a fresh backup, turn off the extension, and then install whatever we wanted freely. Thanks for all your great work!

#275 lee dailey Tuesday, 29th November 2005

howdy pike,

i am running ff15rc3 and bb04b7. everything is working VERY well, thank you! [*grin*]

i do have a request, as you might have guessed. in the backup folder the list of daily backups is like this ...

2005-11-25 07:18p <DIR> Friday
2005-11-28 11:00p <DIR> Monday
2005-11-26 10:33p <DIR> Saturday
2005-11-27 10:59p <DIR> Sunday
2005-11-24 08:28p <DIR> Thursday
2005-11-29 09:45a <DIR> Tuesday
2005-11-23 10:40p <DIR> Wednesday

note that the oder is the filesystem sort and NOT the day-of-week order. this is NOT a problem, just a tad disconcerting when looking for the backup from yesterday, yes? [*grin*]

could you add a pref to use something like this ...

1-Monday
2-Tuesday
3-Wednesday
4-Thursday
5-Friday
6-Saturday
7-Sunday

that would amke certain the day-of-week was in the right order.

as i said, it aint no prob, so the "fix" is certainly unnecessary. it just would look better to _me_.

take care,
lee

#276 Matt Tuesday, 29th November 2005

tgrantt: That sounds like a good idea. It could be in the bottom-left corner of the Bookmark Backup preferences window, to the left of the Cancel and OK buttons.

lee dailey: I think I suggested that once. :P

#277 Pike Wednesday, 30th November 2005

@Matt

Wimp! ;)

@tgrantt

I'm going to work on restore for BB 0.5, I've considered having a Backup button to match the Restore one, but I'll have to see how it feels when I get that far (probably won't start working on 0.5 for a few months).

@lee dailey

Lots of people have requested that but personally I know my alphabet so it seems sort of unnecessary. I'm not ruling it out though, I might give in to the request at some point.

#278 Werner Wednesday, 30th November 2005

BB 0.4 Testbuild 7 fails to backup anything with Firefox 1.5 (German) on Windows 98.

Logfile:
Mittwoch, 30. November 2005 18:06:40: Backup begun
Mittwoch, 30. November 2005 18:06:40: Error: Backup aborted due to:
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: file:///C:/<secret>/Profiles/pegttvc4.default/extensions/%7B3474c305-9dad-11d8-9207-00055d74c2e4%7D/components/BackupService.js :: anonymous :: line 31" data: no]

I hope you can fix this because Bookmark Backup is my most important extension. ;-))

#279 Pike Wednesday, 30th November 2005

@Werner

I'll look into it ASAP, did this work in earlier 0.4 builds or has it always been broken?

#280 Pike Wednesday, 30th November 2005

@Werner

It appears that a UTF-8 BOM snuck into the German .properties file which caused Firefox to choke on it. I've re-uploaded build 7 with the corrected de-DE locale file. Please can you re-download and confirm the problem has gone (you may need to clear your cache to get the updated version).

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