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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#161 Pike Wednesday, 29th June 2005

@Paul

pike(a)pikey.me.uk

#162 Paul Saturday, 2nd July 2005

Pike, you have mail.

#163 Paul Wednesday, 13th July 2005

Pike, thanks for all your help, I really like your program, hopefully i'll never need to find out, but is restoring firefox browser settings fairly self-explanitory (sp?)

#164 englishmen Wednesday, 13th July 2005

First of great set of extensions you have, when i first started to use Firefox i got a load of cool extension but its only recently i cam to this site and found out a load of the extensions i use you created, thanks.

About Backup 0.4 it maybe a big ask but you don't get anything unless you ask so here goes. I'm not sure if your bookmarks and passwords are readable by clicking on the actual files(tho i think they are not) but i would assume the are definitely readable if you place them in another persons firefox profile and read them from with in firefox. It would be great if you could have the option or password protecting the backup. Also maybe the ability to right click on the official Firefox bookmark icon and it will show you "Bookmark Backup options" which you click to see the options. Also maybe a configuration button within those option were you could configure the about:conifg bookmark backup options just to make it more easier. Or maybe a button with in "Manage Bookmarks".

#165 Jim Thursday, 14th July 2005

What does the Windows Layout feature of this extension do?

Thanks, great extension btw. :D

#166 Pike Sunday, 17th July 2005

@Paul

See FAQ #1 above, if you have problems restoring a backup please feel free to contact me again.

@englishmen

Your bookmarks are stored as HTML and your passwords are obscured. I don't intend to add a password feature since the originals files are also readable, whatever method you use to protect those can be used to protect the backups. As for a way to configure the about:config options, I've deliberately left those hard to configure since they shouldn't be changed by inexperienced users.

@Jim

The Windows Layout checkbox, makes Bookmark Backup backup your localstore file, this file stores things such as what size your Firefox windows are, how your toolbar is customized, which search engine you have selected, which sidebar you have opened, etc.

#167 Steve Monday, 18th July 2005

Can "Bookmark Backup" be extended to backup Thunderbird preferences?

#168 Frank Tuesday, 19th July 2005

Is there some trick to this extension? When I click on the install link, I get a short "busy" icon and then nothing happens. Checking "extensions" dropdown minue shows nothing. Tried this multiple times. Since Firefox just wiped my bookmarks for the third time, I would like to get this to work. Any help would be appreciated. If I can't get some sort ablity to recover my bookmarks I'm leaving Firefox..

#169 Pike Tuesday, 19th July 2005

@Steve

Possibly, if you know anything about extension dev try adding Thunderbird's GUID to install.rdf and then overlay messenger.xul (?) in the contents.rdf file.

@Frank

Have you added this site to the whitelist using the yellow bar that appears? If you have and it still doesn't work then try downloading the file to your PC and then dragging it into a Firefox window.

#170 Frank Tuesday, 19th July 2005

Pike:

I got it. Sorry I was so rattled. Just spent two hours trying to do the "recovery" stuff listed in Firefox groups, etc. Nothing worked. I do have your extension going now. Thanks for your help.

#171 Matt Nordhoff Wednesday, 27th July 2005

Well, just to say, the test build is working perfectly for me with Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050726 Firefox/1.0+ ID:2005072605. I do have to restart Firefox for changes in bookmarkbackup.interval and bookmarkbackup.loggingEnabled to apply, but other than that, it's perfectly fine. :)

Timed backups is something I had been wanting, since before I started using trunk nightlies and updating them constantly, I would keep Firefox open for days.

One thing, though: If it updates after a file has been corrupted that day, I'll have to roll back that file to the version from the day before. Could it use directories based on date and time or something? But then, it would have to delete old ones or else tons of them would pile up.....

#172 Pike Wednesday, 27th July 2005

@Matt

Thanks for the testing and feedback, it's much appreciated.

I considered having those hidden prefs be "live" but I didn't think it was worth the performance penalty (which although minor could add up if every extension tracked every one of its prefs).

As for supporting time-based backups I don't have any plans for that at the moment (see FAQ 3 above). I'm not completely ruling it out, but personally it seems like a lot of complexity for very little benefit. I realise you might not agree with that. :-)

#173 Matt Nordhoff Thursday, 28th July 2005

Yeah, it would be a performance hit if extensions were always paying attention to their preferences. But I still thought I should mention it, just in case you were trying to do that or something. :)

You mean time-based backup directories? Yeah, I think I agree with that. Limiting it to daily backup directories means that you don't have to do anything to make sure a lot of directories don't add up. But it would be a nice feature if you did have some extra time on your hands and felt like doing it, though.

Also, what about deleting old backup files automatically? If I, say, decided to stop backing up cookies, the backup directories would still have cookies.txt in them. Could it automatically delete backups of files when you unselect them? Then again, someone may not want to lose the backups if they accidentally unselected them, but I doubt that happens much.

#174 Pike Sunday, 31st July 2005

@Matt

I've always chickened out of deleting old backups because a bug in my code could easily lead to the wrong folder being removed and causing data loss (there was a bug in an older version of Firefox that did exactly that, if it can happen to the Fx developers then it can happen to me). I could make it optional with a big warning sign but so far I've just avoided the whole issue.

#175 Matt Sunday, 31st July 2005

Hehe. Well, I would say it would be a nice feature to have just to make the extension more complete, but it certainly wouldn't be worth it if it did something wrong and deleted important stuff.

Also, here's another thing: On Linux, the directories it creates (Backups, and the days of the week under that) are chmod 000, meaning they cannot be entered, read or written to. Kind of hard to copy files to directories like that. I have to manually make them all usable.

#176 Pike Sunday, 31st July 2005

@Matt

Oops! I've updated the test build to version 2, can you let me know if that fixes the permissions issue, thanks.

#177 Matt Sunday, 31st July 2005

Yup, it works. :) Thank you.

#178 Leaies Thursday, 4th August 2005

custom path can't display normaly ,when path not english.

#179 Pike Thursday, 4th August 2005

@Leaies

I've added a possible fix for your problem to BB 0.4 Test Build 3 (see the red box above for a link). If you don't mind using a test version could you please try it and let me know if it helps, don't worry if you don't want to. :-)

#180 Matt Friday, 5th August 2005

Hey, is there going to be an option in the preferences window to change the automatic backup time? You just been putting that off? :)

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