[Solved] Bookmarks Toolbar about:config FF 16.02 Mint 9

[Resistor]

The Bookmarks Toolbar started acting up a few weeks ago.

I opened the Customize feature, the Toolbar would properly populate its location.
Then, I found that I could just open then close the Customize feature, and the Toolbar would properly populate its location.

Today, I lost all bookmarks, and am not aware of doing anything to cause corruption or a deletion.

About:config seems to have a problem:
browser.places.importBookmarksHTML, is set to type: string.
I cannot change it to boolean. I can change the value.

I also cannot delete the line.

I tried to repeat the line as a boolean type, but it shows up as type: string.

Is this fixable? A Firefox issue?

[caf4926]

In .mozilla
For example, for me it's: .mozilla/firefox/3vbwf2j7.default/bookmarkbackups/

Look in your /bookmarkbackups/
For the most recent backup Eg: bookmarks-2012-11-16.json

Save it somewhere else

Now rename .mozilla to .mozilla-old

Now open Firefox > Bookmarks > Show all Bookmarks > Restore > Choose file (the .json you saved earlier)

[Resistor]

Hi, caf4926.
I appreciate the reply.

I can not locate the bookmarkbackups, so I may have to recreate the Toolbar.

The bigger issue seems to be the About:config entry.
It is a type: string.
It should be a type: boolean, with a value of either True or False.

I can not even restore earlier backups.
A script stops working and the browser darkens.
Thus may be related to the About:config entry.

Otherwise, the browser seems to be working normally.

[caf4926]

You know how to navigate to the hidden folder .mozilla ?

[Resistor]

You know how to navigate to the hidden folder .mozilla ?

I do not know about the hidden folder, but I did check the option to show hidden files.

[caf4926]

So open the file browser > show hidden files
Find .mozilla > and so on.....

Tell me what version of Mint (ie; mate, cinnamon, kde..)

[Resistor]

Thank you for hanging in there, with me, caf4926.

There are 8 .mozilla folders which are followed by a variety of files.

The mozilla-firefox folder has a sub-folder which contains a vlc plugin.
I think that is an audio or media player.


I just opened the second window pane, in the file manager, for firefox.

The top firefox folder contains sub-folders for .pref and .profile.
The files in the .pref folder are:
firefox.js
firefox.js.dpkg-old

The files in the .profile. folder are:
bookmarks.html.dpkg-bak
mimeTypes.rdf.dpkg-bak
stylish.sqlite

The 5th firefox folder contains these files:
bookmarks.html
browserconfig.properties
distribution.ini
firefox.js
google.xml
mimeTypes.rdf


I'm running LinuxMint 9 (isadora), Gnome 2.30.2, Kernal 2.6.32-21-generic.
.

[caf4926]

There are 8 .mozilla folders

Not possible

The folder .mozilla will contain other folders
we need then the folder firefox
Then one that is something like (but not identical) to 3vbwf2j7.default
Then bookmarkbackups

FYI you are running a unsupported version of Mint

[Resistor]

I'm not very good with Linux, and use it mostly for surfing the web.

I downloaded Mint 9 from Mint's download page, so as far as I know, it is a legitimate download.

I'm not sure about support, but the only updates I do, are those applications that show up in the update manager. I update the applications very infrequently, other than Firefox. The last update has been within a month or 2.

These folders are produced from the search function, in the file manager.

The following is the location for each of the top 5 mozilla folders:
/opt/real/RealPlayer
/usr/lib
/usr/share
/usr/share/ca-certificates
/usr/share/vlc

mozilla-firefox (folder)
/usr/lib

mozilla-plugin-vlc (folder)
/usr/share/bug

mozilla-plugin-vlc (folder)
/usr/share/doc

[caf4926]

Sorry Mint 9 is LTS and is supported until april 2013

I am not sure how best to help you, but I have an idea
Using your mouse copy and paste the following in your terminal

Code: Select all

mv .mozilla Mozilla-Old-Backup

This will rename the hidden folder you can't find easily and place it as a non-hidden folder called Mozilla-Old-Backup
Which should be easy to find and navigate to get the .json file out of it

[Resistor]

I closed the firefox side, in the file manager.

I did not see a .json file, in quick scan of the mozilla search result.
So, it must really be hidden, even with though hidden files are shown.

I'll be shutting down here, in a bit, and will start again, tomorrow.

Thank you.

BTW, my group is High, Wide or Heavy, on LinkedIn. There are quite a few members from the UK. One is Ponsonby. He knows a lot about trains.

I showed a picture of a large train on display in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
He replied with 4 technical paragraphs, about that train.
Boggled my mind, in short order...

[Resistor]

Hi, caf4926.

The about:config issue is resolved.
I reset browser.places.importBookmarksHTML, and it is now gone.

Without a search, I was able to navigate to
File System > Home > my computer name > Mozilla > Firefox > hpde4zx.default > Bookmarkbackups
where the .json files are located.
The earlier search helped and I'm still learning, slowly.

It seems 5 of the last 7 JSON files were corrupted.
None of the entries that showed up in the Restore function were restorable, from the library.

I opened an older JSON file, in gedit.
I found a conversion site that converts json files to html, and works well:
http://shancarter.com/data_converter/

I pasted the contents of the json file from gedit, into the box, and then pasted the conversion result into another tab in gedit. I then saved this file as: bookmarks 11-18-12.html

Then, I imported the html file and all of my bookmarks, from a much earlier date, were restored. So, the date on the json file is not accurate. At least the foundation is back.

I did move the bookmarks from the new toolbar at the bottom, to the top toolbar.
I don't know if that were necessary, but I did not want to delete the top toolbar. I was accustomed to the toolbar being near the top, so that was what I did.

Thanks again.