2.30 - Cant move places.sqlite, or import bookmarks.html

[jeffw_00]

Hi - I have 2 Seamonkey installations on different computers. a "Master" and a "Slave". Once a week, I copy the places.sqlite and abook.mab from the master to the slave. However, it doesn't work when copying to a 2.30 installation. I also tried importing the bookmarks.html exported by the master into the slave and nothing happened.

Clearly some things for you guys to fix - thought you'd like to know. For now, I've rolled my "slave" back to 2.29.1.

Best
/j

[barbaz]

Broken "import" of bookmarks is a known issue since 2.29.

I have a similar setup and IIRC this hasn't been a problem for me with 2.30, will check it later. Can you please clarify what you mean "not working"?

Are you completely shutting down both SeaMonkeys before copying files from one profile to the other?
If so, can you try copying also (if they exist) places.sqlite-shm and places.sqlite-wal?

Is it possible (and *not* undesirable..) for you to copy the *entire* profile from master to slave (that's what I do) (** since it seems it may not work for you, backup your entire existing profile first **)? If so, does it work then?

[therube]

> Broken "import" of bookmarks is a known issue since 2.29.

Import of bookmarks.json is broken, in some cases.
Don't know that anyone's actually tested or mentioned bookmarks.html?


Anyhow copied places.sqlite from existing Profile (I did not include the [existing] shm/wal) into a different Profile (not opened in SeaMonkey 2.30 before) & places.sqlite (bookmarks & history) all showed as expected.

Then Imported some old bookmarks.html that was laying around & that too worked as expected.

[jeffw_00]

So it works for some people in some situations.

[therube]

Yes you may be right.

But maybe if you describe just what & how you're doing, others may be able to break it also.

[jeffw_00]

I have two WIN7 SM installations on separate machines (master and slave) that I sync every week by copying places.sqlite and abook.mab from the master to the slave. After moving to 2.30, I observed that -sometimes- after the copy all the bookmarks were missing from the slave. -Sometimes- repeating the copy fixes it. Reverting the slave to 2.29.1 is a solid fix.

HTH
/j
[sorry for the reply delay]

[therube]

That's 29 to 30.
Keep an eye out for 30 to 31, Bug 1093623 - Bookmarks are lost when upgrade 2.31b1 from 2.30 .

[jeffw_00]

I'm sorry - I don't understand any of your response. what does "that's 29 to 30" mean? and why do I care if there's an additional bug in 2.31 beta?

[KentonS]

I have the exact same situation: Seamonkey 2.30 installed on two PCs, trying to manually "synchronize" Bookmarks from the installation on my laptop with the one on my desktop. I tried all the suggestions below, and nothing worked.

Here's what finally worked for me.

• I exited all instances of Seamonkey on both the laptop and the desktop.
• On the desktop, I copied places.sqlite, places.sqlite-shm, and places.sqlite-wal from the profile directory to a subdirectory I created.
• Also on the desktop, I moved all the bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>.json files (presumably left over from a previous version of Seamonkey) from the bookmarkbackups directory to a subdirectory I created; I left the bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>_<nonsense>.jsonlz4 files where they were.
• I copied places.sqlite, places.sqlite-shm, and places.sqlite-wal from the profile directory on the laptop to the to the corresponding directory on desktop.
• I then copied the latest bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>_<nonsense>.jsonlz4 file from the bookmarkbackups directory on the laptop to the corresponding directory on the desktop.

I ran Seamonkey on the desktop. Everything worked fine.

Just for grins, I repeated the above process, this time removing the bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>_<nonsense>.jsonlz files from the bookmarkbackups directory on the desktop as well. I brought Seamonkey up on the desktop. Again, everything worked fine.

Then, because I was having so much fun, I deleted places.* in the desktop profile directory and *.jsonlz4 in the desktop bookmarkbackups directory and copied places.sqlite (only) from the laptop profile directory to the desktop profile directory. I brought Seamonkey up on the desktop. Again, everything worked fine.

Bottom line and FWIW: I suspect the problem lies with the <whatever>.json files presumably left over from a previous version of Seamonkey. Get rid of them and from now on just copy places.sqlite*, and everything should work. Or not.

[jeffw_00]

interesting - can any SM guru confirm the bottom line?

[therube]

> the bottom line?

Well your post was the bottom line.
But now that I'm posting this, it is the bottom line .

My "take", not that I know for certain...

seems to be a bug with json imports - sometimes
json & jsonlz4 are both still used
old versions of SeaMonkey will not recognize jsonlz4 (so if you reverted...)
copying places.sqlite (with the browsers closed) should always be a workable solution
-wal & -shm, not sure how they affect things?
appears (but again not sure) that SeaMonkey will (automatically) use existing .json/.jsonlz4 to recover (& successfully, seemingly) should it ... find an issue with existing places.sqlite (& if, assuming it does this, it happens transparently, with no notification one way or the other to the end user)

[jeffw_00]

not sure that's really a clear answer

"copying places.sqlite (with the browsers closed) should always be a workable solution"

I agree, but doesn't seem to be the case when copying TO 2.30. I can try deleting the .json* files (is that safe to do) when I do the copy - is that what you're suggesting?

Otherwise, still broken with no well-stated work-around.
/j

PS - even more disturbing, I had the problem this weekend copying to 2.29. I guess I'll delete the json files both places, revert the source to 2.29, and wait for a better fix...

[KentonS]

Have you tried the steps I suggested?
If so, what were your results?
If not, why not give it a try? You don't have to delete the files; just move them to somewhere else. You can always restore them if you need to.
I'm running 2.30, and ever since I got rid of the *.json files everything's worked fine.

not sure that's really a clear answer

"copying places.sqlite (with the browsers closed) should always be a workable solution"

I agree, but doesn't seem to be the case when copying TO 2.30. I can try deleting the .json* files (is that safe to do) when I do the copy - is that what you're suggesting?

Otherwise, still broken with no well-stated work-around.
/j

PS - even more disturbing, I had the problem this weekend copying to 2.29. I guess I'll delete the json files both places, revert the source to 2.29, and wait for a better fix...

[jeffw_00]

I will try it -when you say "took down" I assume you mean uninstalled? I also don't seem to have a bookmarkbackups directory, but I will take some time to muck with it over the long weekend.

/j

[KentonS]

No. By "took down" I mean exited the program, which means ending every instance of Seamonkey - Browser, Mail, whatever - on both sides, master and slave.

Since I posted my reply I've discovered some *.json files in my profile directory. Those ARE NOT the *.json files I was talking about. Don't delete/move/whatever those files. I was talking about a bunch of bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>.json files in a bookmarkbackups directory under my profile directory. (They're all empty. Go figure!)

I've edited my original post to try to clarify those points.

If you don't have a bookmarkbackups directory on the PC you're trying to copy your bookmarks TO, you won't (shouldn't!) have any bookmarks-<year>-<month>-<day>.json files. That's where they live. Maybe just creating the directory will help. I don't know. Try it and let us know what happens.

I will try it -when you say "took down" I assume you mean uninstalled? I also don't seem to have a bookmarkbackups directory, but I will take some time to muck with it over the long weekend.

/j