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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#141 JWT Monday, 13th June 2005

Yes, you are correct, my error. The bookmarks were backed up correctly, even though the timestamp remained unchanged. Thank you for your response.

#142 stephen Wednesday, 15th June 2005

lets say you play a pc game and you have ten slots but you only want to use one slot so you overwrite that slot so you dont use all 9 slots that what i mean by that to use the bookmark.

#143 JSON Friday, 17th June 2005

I notice that Bookmark Backup changes the backup folder location to the default instead of where I want it.

Is there any way to keep it in the custom location, and why does it keep changing???

#144 Pike Friday, 17th June 2005

@stephen

Like I said, I don't know of any way to do that.

@JSON

Bookmark Backup should only reset the folder to default if it can't create the backups in the position you chose, if there's no reason that could happen then please could you give some more details:

- You say the folder changes to the default, do you mean it changes back to default in the options box or just that it ignores what you've set in the options box?
- Are prefs for Firefox itself and other extensions remembered?
- Does it remember other settings in the Bookmark Backup dialog, e.g. telling it to back up History as well?
- What version of Firefox and what OS are you using?
- What other extensions do you have installed?

#145 JSON Saturday, 18th June 2005

It unchecks "Custom location" and reverts to "Backup in folder...."

It does remember the other backup settings.

The only other extension I use is "resize search box".

I am using firefox 1.0.4, WIN98SE

The only cause I can think of is this: If firefox is open, and I power-off when the system crashes, the setting reverts. Since this is not uncommon maybe its possible to save on opening FF instead of closing.

Since I fixed it again, Thursday and Friday is still good.

#146 Pike Sunday, 19th June 2005

@JSON

> The only cause I can think of is this: If firefox is open,
> and I power-off when the system crashes, the setting
> reverts. Since this is not uncommon maybe its possible to
> save on opening FF instead of closing.

The setting uses the standard Firefox prefs system so I'm not sure how much control I have there (short of bypassing prefs completely).

#147 Lastone Tuesday, 21st June 2005

Is BM BU 0.3.3 'playing well' with the new 1.0.4 Firefox?
It seems to be saving/backing up, but not every day.
Last saved was: Saturday, this is Monday.
With the last version of FF, it was saving daily.

#148 Lastone Tuesday, 21st June 2005

Never mind. : )
I directed Bm Bu to save to a different location, and it cooperated.
Why is that?

#149 Pike Tuesday, 21st June 2005

@Lastone

Does faq5 or faq6 apply to your situation?

http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/?extension=bb#faq5
http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/?extension=bb#faq6

#150 Hadley B. Jones Thursday, 23rd June 2005

Diese Software ist genau das, was ich gebraucht habe. Sie ist einfach zu bedienen, funkioniert im Hintergrund und, das ist das Wichtigste, funktioniert perfekt.

mfg
Hadley B. Jones
www.liedermacher.net
www.hadley.de

#151 Lastone Saturday, 25th June 2005

Here I am. :)

Ummm..no to #5
I'd have to try #6.

Saving BM's to a different location helps.
I read about corruption, perhaps that is what happened to those others? (saved BM files)
This problem didn't start right after the new install. Sometime thereafter.

It might be this new vers. of FF, as I have an occasional problem with it thinking that it is already running, and prompts me to create a new profile.
Did that once and had 2 separate sets of BM's being saved...not a good idea.

#152 Dave305 Sunday, 26th June 2005

I open and close Firefox many times a day. Is there an option to either 1) save once per day or 2) manually only?

#153 Pike Sunday, 26th June 2005

@Lastone

I'm stumped to tell you the truth, I think I'm going to add some sort of logging feature to BB 0.4 so we can track down these issues.

@Dave305

No and no.

#154 Lastone Sunday, 26th June 2005

sounds like a good idea.
Thanks for the consideration and the prompt feedback.
:)

#155 Paul Tuesday, 28th June 2005

Bookmark backup doesn't work, folder wasn't created in doc&set dir.

How does one go about manually saving bookmarks? is this the import/export function??? I've noticed some problems there as well, like if one part of your bookmarks are wiped out then you try to restore it gives you 2 copies of half your bookmarks that you must then go through and manually remove to avoid further confusion, ugh. firefox has some great features but also some headaches as well.

#156 Paul Tuesday, 28th June 2005

Well, maybe it's working now, I directed it to save on the desktop, because it wasn't creating the folder where it was supposed to and now when I powered down and re-booted it has created it on the desktop, next step is for me to figure out how to restore it, or I guess I could just wait until it is needed, nice to know it seems to be working though. I actually am equally concerned about my passwords too, I have at least 20 websites i'm registered at and would like to be able to restore this information quickly in event that information is lost, rather than having to get 20 passwords emailed to me

#157 Pike Tuesday, 28th June 2005

@Paul

You can manually backup your bookmarks by going to "Bookmarks->Manage Bookmarks->File->Export".

If possible could you try the test version of BB (linked below) with the default backup location selected and send me the log file?

@Paul, Lastone, JSON, or anyone with a BB problem

I've uploaded a version of 0.3.3 with logging enabled, this will create a file in your profile called bookmarkbackup.log, I'd be grateful if anyone who has problems can try this version then send the log file to me, thanks:

[Edit: This test build has now been removed - Pike]

#158 Paul Tuesday, 28th June 2005

Log is here:

http://www.geocities.com/dick_butkiss/bookmarklog.txt

#159 Pike Wednesday, 29th June 2005

@Paul

It looks like it's now making backups in the default directory, is there a folder than corresponds to that log entry?

I'm quite curious about the signons.txt warning, is your profile really old or was it migrated from Mozilla or something? If it's possible I'd love to get a list of all files in your profile and all files in your backup folder. You could do this by making screenshots of windows explorer or doing: dir > filename.txt at a command prompt, etc. (Don't worry about it if you don't have time).

#160 Paul Wednesday, 29th June 2005

Pike,

Whats your email?

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