Bookmarks completely out of order after syncing?

[bookmarkimport]

I recently updated Firefox from 66 to 67 on a secondary laptop. Sync is turned on for Bookmarks, Addons, Logins, and Options.

Now, all the bookmarks out of order on both computers, including my primary desktop. All the freestanding bookmarks in the Bookmarks Menu were merged into the Bookmark Toolbar. (The only things remaining in the Bookmarks Menu are folders.) Library --> Import and Backup --> Restore does nothing. Even backups from a week ago have no bookmarks in the Bookmarks Menu when restored. Bookmarks and bookmark folders deleted months ago have also come back. Backups that I manually made hours ago load haphazardly back in whatever order as well.

Anyone else with similar problems? Is there any hope of restoring my bookmarks?

(It's such a shame that seemingly with every release, there's some annoying issue. Earlier this month, addons were completely broken.)

[bookmarkimport]

I'm also seeing an addon on the secondary laptop (but NOT the primary) which was deleted a while back still there so syncing for addons doesn't work either? Laptop has been on for half a day as well.

[jscher2000]

Firefox 67 changes how Firefox works with profiles. Could you check where there is a less messed up one that you were using before:

Profile Manager Page

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list at least one profile and could list many. Each will show links to a pair of folders; please ignore those for now.

The profile that Firefox is currently using will have this:

This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.

Caution: please do not delete anything here, don't use any Remove buttons.

Do you have another profile named default or default-longnumber listed on this page? If so, you can check whether it is the one you were using recently by clicking its Launch profile in new browser button.

If it isn't what you want, simply close that new window.

If it IS what you want, back on the about:profiles page, click the Set as default profile button for that profile so Firefox uses it automatically at the next startup.

Anything useful?

[bookmarkimport]

Thanks for your reply.

I only see one profile. It's Profile: Default User. I custom set it up for an encrypted folder. I've been using this for years. I don't see a Launch profile in new browser button.

[bookmarkimport]

Bump... anyone else experience this after upgrading a synced (secondary) computer from 66 to 67?

[bookmarkimport]

A third computer (netbook which has not been on since January 2019) upgraded from 64 to 67 while another computer with Firefox was on. The bookmarks are screwed up as before (synced on both), though not as much. Both sync icons are no longer spinning so it's screwed up for good.

It's totally ridiculous that sync is then unusable for upgrading backup laptops that have not been on in a while. Firefox gets worse with every new version.

Edit: my start tab is also screwed up. The old January netbook's default start page is synced. Beyond ridiculous. Completely unreliable software. How can it not tell that I don't want settings saved from six months ago... or give me an option somewhere to switch it back?

[bookmarkimport]

Update: bookmark backup worked and after closing the netbook's Firefox, I was able to get sync to recognize the backup as the official version to sync back into the netbook.

Can someone link me to how sync decides which bookmarks to add/delete/etc? There seems to be not much reason or rhyme to the process. It's not just syncing an old version to the new computer, it's jumbling everything together. What's the point of sync then? It'd be easier if I was told to manually sync bookmarks via USB or something.

[FrankSMS]

This is an excellent example of why we should never ever use a browser for our bookmarks. Because we don't use one browser exclusively. Some sites work better in certain browsers. I wish it wasn't so but that's life. So find a way of managing your bookmarks in a program or way completely separate from any browser. Firefox may be the best today but who knows what will come out in the future? Plus the way Firefox deals with bookmarks is ridiculous in many ways. The old Opera browser had a great bookmark system but that's long gone. The ebb and flow of the internet. You can make a dandy bookmark system with MS Word or any program that allows expanding and collapsing of paragraphs or groups of words. And it should be able to launch a URL with your default browser of course. When you lay it out it will make way more sense than if somebody else does. We all think a little differently and there are few things more important in this digital age than a well organized bookmark system we can count on.

[jscher2000]

You can make a dandy bookmark system with MS Word or any program that allows expanding and collapsing of paragraphs or groups of words. And it should be able to launch a URL with your default browser of course. When you lay it out it will make way more sense than if somebody else does.

If you want an alternate way to store "bookmarks" you could look at Zotero, a bibliography program that can import a bookmarks.html file as a starting point, and offers extensions for major browsers. Using their cloud for storage is optional; you can just store the data locally. https://www.zotero.org/

[FrankSMS]

That looks very interesting. Thank you very much.
So first you download the Zotero program for your operating system then the connectors for whatever browsers you are using? And does the Chrome one work for all Chromium based browsers?

[bookmarkimport]

Update... I have not used the main computer for a week. I turned it back on and synced it with the laptop (not too be confused with comp #3, the netbook) I've been using for the week. No issues. Sync worked with the bookmarks as expected.