Cannot restore bookmarks from either JSON or HTML files on external drive in Windows 8
I recently decided to roll back Windows 8.1 which wasn't working for my computer and reinstall Windows 8. I backed up my Firefox bookmarks to an external hard drive as both JSON and HTML files before doing so. I have previously successfully restored bookmarks this way before when I had Windows 7.
After successfully reinstalling Windows 8, I have begun reinstalling apps, including Firefox. However, when I try to restore my bookmarks from either the HTML or the JSON backup, Firefox hangs and fails to reinstall. These are large files, so I gave Firefox plenty of time to do its thing (over 15 minutes) before giving up.
I decided to see if the problem was with the way either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 preserved and restored my app data when I upgraded to those, so I went to an older HTML file that I'd saved when I had Windows 7 (which is also a large file that includes IE and Chrome imported bookmarks). Success was instantaneous: my bookmarks toolbar was immediately re-populated and all bookmarks restored with in a matter of a few minutes at most.
However, I have done a lot of surfing and research in the last 2 years, and would prefer not to lose two years of work. What can I do to restore the most recent backup that I created in Windows 8.1?
Gewysig op
All Replies (2)
You would have to check the file if there are problems with importing the bookmarks. Easiest is to do that with the HTML file because such a file can be opened in a Firefox tab via "File > Open File".
Thanks for your help.
I opened the html but its contents are only available as a web page, so at least they're not lost (thank you!) and I can theoretically access the bookmarks.
However, accessing bookmarks this way is really impractical since I won't know if the bookmarks toolbar has the info I seek or not. This means opting to use the webpage excusively as the more complete of the two, meaning loss of the bookmarks toolbar functionality .
I want to be able to use the toolbar exclusively, which means finding a way to restore the 2yrs worth of bookmarks now missing from it due to corruption of the most recent backup json file.
Is there a way to display the html bookmarks backup as toolbar objects?
Gewysig op