This question is like mine, very interesting! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1277017

Now in the morning all bookmarks in Other dissapeared.

Your Places database might be corrupted in some way because normally the Other Bookmarks folder definitely is included in the backup files.

How did you determine what was missing? I have a tool to decompress a backup file and export it to HTML format in case you need a readable file for comparison:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html

Usually Other Bookmarks is the last section of the page.

Hi jscher2000,

That one of the tools that I used to export my bookmarks to html. I used your tool, and also this tool: places2bookmarks.sh, and I found a very little modification by someone that added this "BR /" (with the symbols<>), because that tool put all bookmarks on paragraphs, and I did the modification, and Good, very well. I don't remember exactly but I was playing with your tool (good), the second tool (good) and DB Browser for SQLite, with different files that I have and I noticed when the Other Bookmarks were included, and when was missing depending what file I was using.

Definitely something is happening with my Firefox that is not including Other Bookmarks, and a little more, I don't remember, I think some less important bookmarks as Most visited, Tags, but no remember exactly, but I calculated the total Items and almost the different is the Other Bookmarks, and I tested for the first one on that list, and the backup is not considering it. I am not sure if the file places.sqlite is the file that is missing the bookmarks.

All began, when I wanted to use the Restore function, from that and on, the problem arrived.

I referred to the other person that had something similar, or maybe the same problem but nobody realized his problem.

I think that the module Restore has a bug, in the sense that touched something related to backups, and the backups are doing an incomplete or incorrect job.

I can be wrong, but maybe It is necesary to consider to check the firefox code for that error.

Or if someone knows the answer and it is my huge amount of bookmarks, or something got corrupted, I would like to know.

Thanks.

I forgot to say, that last night I noticed a list of files named extension-settings.json (I think), with a sequence of numbers to difference it from each other that had size 0, were corrupted (their names said so), and I deleted them, because I saw the same name without numbers of a more recent date.

Okay, if you could clarify: in your older backup-converted-to-HTML, the Other Bookmarks are there, but in Firefox right now, after restoring that file, they are not there?

I tested old json files with your tool, and the other tool for sqlite files, and the current places.sqlite that I tested were missing the Other Bookmarks.

Don't remember exactly because I did many tests with various files, but the current file places.sqlite does not have the Other Bookmarks when doing backups, though the folder Other Bookmarks in Firefox had many items.

Today, after the rare disappearance, I restored the last backup that has everything, not the next two files that are with less items, almost the same quantity of Other Bookmarks.

With your tool working with json files, did good with the old ones, but with one of the two compressed json files from the backups after the restored one, does not produce the Other Bookmarks, they are empty at the end.

I am try to transmit you the best I can, that I did.

In this moment, I know that if I bookmark something, I will lose it, because I will do a restore until the time pass, and the system delete all up to the good one with all bookmarks.

Anyway, I had that file copied on another folder.

jscher2000,

I have two files HTML converted with your tool with Other Bookmarks with many items.

One from 7-21-2019, and the other (the last one backup with Other B) from 10-22-2021

Update: I just tested your tool with the two files that are missing the Other Bookmarks, the ones that have less items than the past ones, and there are none items or category for Other Bookmarks, on the HTML result. I understand the problem are in the files tested, produced by Backup, the compressed json.

Update 2: I just did a manual backup of my bookmarks, and used your tool, and the same, no Other Bookmarks. Firefox is doing backups (automatic or manual) with omissions.

Update 3: Just noticed only a pair difference between output from tool on the compressed json vs manual backup json, in ICON_URI, be missing, or modified link.

I'm trying to start from whether you have Other Bookmarks in Firefox now, separate and apart from backup files. It sounds like you have them right now because you restored an older backup. They are showing up in the user interface in Firefox in the expected places?

If you have bookmarks listed in Other Bookmarks in Firefox, but they do not appear in either a Backup or an Export --

• Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
• Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks

-- then there is a problem with those functions, but it could be related to database corruption rather than to something broken with backup and export. This is hard to say.

If you haven't already, could you Quit Firefox and do a normal shutdown and/or restart of your system. Restarting the OS can help by freeing up locked files, completing any deferred updates, and resolving temporary file permission issues.

Next, if Firefox still has bookmark problems, could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" diagnosis and repair function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

• "3-bar" menu button > Help > More Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > More Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane
> Task: invalidateCaches
+ The caches have been invalidated
> Task: checkCoherence
+ The database is coherent

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

Order of steps:

1. Shutdown (Linux Mint 20.2) 2. Start 3. Updated some packages 4. Test with backup bookmarks (failed or omissions) 5. Troubleshooting or support results:

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum - Unable to vacuum database > Task: stats - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: _refreshUI - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task.

Now, I just saw the Other Bookmarks folder is empty....

Update: I did a test now. Bookmarked the first website that I remember was in Other Bookmarks. Then Other Bookmarks has 1 site only. I did a manual backup to json file, used your tool, and It appeared below. Some useful details here: Added: 2011-04-29 3:22:36 PM (the folder Other Bookmarks) Added: 2021-10-24 8:20:21 PM (the site that I just bookmarked to Other Bookmarks)

Other detail: I am using much the Suspend mode, but yet I am not sure if something is wrong in my system, or if I can use the backup, or discard it, and use the HTML for reference, or maybe for import.

The name of an automatically created JSON bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once. You also see this count in the Restore menu drop-down list.

• bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.

Do you see bookmarks in the Other Bookmarks folder in either sidebar or Library ? Does a search bring up any bookmarks you know were in the Other Bookmarks folder ?

You can create an HTML backup to save newer bookmarks and edit this file to only have the newer bookmarks to be able to import them if you restore an older JSON backup.

Note that if you notice you lost bookmarks or accidentally deleted bookmark(s) and you haven't closed Firefox yet then you can use "Organize -> Undo" in the bookmarks manager (Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks) to undo this action and restore bookmark(s) you deleted accidentally or otherwise lost/misplaced. You may have to use Undo more than once (Firefox keeps a full undo stack of changes to bookmarks for the current session).

> Task: vacuum - Unable to vacuum database

Hmm, that's not ideal, something in the structure can't be rewritten.

Now, I just saw the Other Bookmarks folder is empty....

Worth quitting and restarting Firefox to see whether that is transient.

If it's not transient, try restoring the last good backup.

Hi cor-el,

Not sure if I understood about sidebar or library. On my version 93.0, I click on Manage Bookmarks, and the folder is at left side, I click on it, and the bookmarks appears to the right. After the last test that I did with only 1 bookmark in Other Bookmarks (that went fine), I decided to restore again (multiples times already) the last good one, and did the backup, and it failed, again with omissions, the main - Other Bookmarks.

The results at the end of the troubleshooting worry me.

jscher2000,

As I said to cor-el, I decided to restore again, and it failed. As you said, I closed firefox, and started again, and just saw the items of Other Bookmarks disappeared again.

As per the result of the troubleshooting, about the Task - Vacuum, maybe here is the problem, I would like to fix it.

You might have to create a new Places database if the current one is broken. This article has the steps: Fix "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message. I suggest saving the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in another folder for possible reference if needed.

jscher2000,

I will try that. But before that, I will delete this unused extension just in case - Private Bookmarks

Thanks jscher2000 and cor-el,

At the moment worked fine. The restore went fast, not like the past ones.

Other Bookmarks is visible again after closing firefox.

Thanks again.

See the notes about the extension:

• Private Bookmarks https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/webext-private-bookmarks/

cor-el,

Yes, I read it. But I yet have not used it. Not sure how that works. I removed it. It says about a folder under Other Bookmarks, but never used it. And never saw something about that, and I forgot that I installed it, but was recently, I think. In this moment I don't know the effects of that extension without using it. But thanks.

The extension makes it possible to create bookmarks that are only visible in Private Browsing mode and possibly protect them with a password, hence its name, but it can make the bookmarks more vulnerable to corruption.