What Is Best Free Programme For Backing Up Bookmarks ?

I use XMarks for bookmarking in Firefox and I recently lost large numbers.
As the site is not the most reliable I am wondering how best to protect my
bookmarks.
Thanks.

 

The best way to backup your bookmarks, and absolutely everything else on your computer, including the operating system and all that goes with it, is to use an imaging system regularly. With that, not only can you recover your bookmarks but your entire setup if it won't boot or if the drive fails.

Recommended software -

Acronis True Image (not free)
Easeus Todo Backup (free)
Macrium Reflect (free)
AOMEI (free)

I'll leave it to others to answer your question directly, but do think about imaging. It's the way to a good night's sleep

 

In addition to what Earthling said, there is Mozbackup. It's a standalone application that will backup all of Firefox and also bookmarks. http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

In addition you can also backup your bookmarks etc. on a Flashdrive, that's what I do as well. In Firefox, Show all Bookmarks>Backup and places.sqlite (bookmarks and history) will be backed up to wherever you want. I always dump it on my desktop and then put it on the Flashdrive.

Just recently I restored Firefox using Mozbackup and it is still working fine.

Then there is Pike's Bookmark Backup. http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/?addon=bookmark-backup

 

Just started imaging about a month ago, and I agree with Earthling. I was using standard backup, but now I can have 10+ backups in half the space I was using before.

I would add Paragon Backup and Restore Free to Earthling's list only because it's what I started off with, so I figure if I can use it, anyone can.

Honestly, booting to a boot disk program that launches and gives you the power to completely restore your system in one click is I have to say the ultimate power rush. Most fun I've had since owning a PC I think. I guess I am off my geeking rocker and exposing the real geek with this statement...:-o

Seriously it's a "good night's sleep" (and then some) as Earthling said...

 

Allow me to third what Earthing and AtlBo have said about the practice of regular disk imaging backups. It's the ultimate defense against virtually every type of computer problem you can think of: Viral infection, missing drivers, corrupted files, registry errors, MBR destruction, skewed partition tables... just about anything, short of hardware failure (and even then it can restore the backed up image to a new system drive) I too enjoy watching my entire malfunctioning computer get annihilated by one understated little program. Kind of like cheering for David to take out Goliath. Sometimes, I even do my disk image victory dance (you don't want to see it, trust me).

I don't know of any good programs for directly backing up bookmarks. I use Linkman Lite (which just happens to be the last file posted on the MG website). It's a bookmark manager that doesn't depend on any browser. You add bookmarks to user defined folders by simply right clicking on a web page and choosing to add the bookmarks. I therefore have no use for the Firefox bookmarks menu. Nevertheless, the program does allow one to export all of their Linkman bookmarks to Firefox. So, it's an indirect method of backing up Firefox bookmarks. I could be wrong but I think it even exports to MSIE.

Additionally, Linkman can index all of your bookmarks, allowing you to search for bookmarks with an extremely fast "list as you type" feature. You can set unlimited keywords, personal notes, categories, etc. It has a bunch of other features but I haven't gotten to those yet (probably never will)

Here's the MG link to Linkman Lite (freeware):

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/linkman_lite.html

 

For just bookmarks?
xmarks add on has been reliable and painless for me. Keeps all 3 of my computer bookmarks in sync and lets me download them from the internet when I reinstall the OS.

 

Many thanks, Earthling.

 

Glad to hear that it has worked well for you.
I like the programme but it has been causing me a
lot of grief lately.

 

Thanks for the much appreciated reply, the link, and for always being
so helpful.

 

Good to get your views, thank you.
Will check that out.
Really like your enthusiasm for the product, and the fact that you make it sound so easy to use.
The easier the better for me!

 

Plenty to work on there, for which many thanks.
Often wondered about Mozbackup.
Sounds good.
Am finding V26 of Firefox quite unstable.
It may be that an add on is not compatible.
V25 worked fine with all the current add ons.
Sometimes I think that they are moving too fast.
Excuse the digression, please.

 

I made a boo boo here. The bolded should be: bookmarks (date).json. This one won't include history. There is a places.sqlite in the Mozilla Firefox and there is where the bookmarks and history resides. I just mixed it up, my apologies!

It is possible to have Mozbackup to backup automatically but I don't know how to do it. Therefore I do all backups manually. Mozbackup in its default can be backed up only daily. If you want to know how to do it more than once daily, let me know and I will give you the instructions.

BTW: did you try to do a restore of the bookmarks in Firefox?

 

Thanks oma.
Appreciate you clarifying the position.
I did try to do a restore of the bookmarks in Firefox but nothing happened, and I am left with lots of empty files and folders in the sidebar and on the server.
There appears to be no trace of the missing bookmarks.
I regret to say that the XMarks support site does not seem to be very good or very responsive.
Am afraid to do anything else regarding a restore as I fear that I will lose new
bookmark files created since the disaster happened.
At least they appear to be still on the site, surrounded by lots of empty folders.

 

Apparently, Firefox keeps daily backups of your Bookmarks, going back at least 10 days.
See pic below

 

Just to add some info: importing bookmarks from HTML adds to existing bookmarks already in Firefox, unlike *restore* which uses the json bookmarks and overrides the existing bookmarks already there in Firefox.

 

I just rely FF's Sync. As there are a number of comps here that have FF there is always at least one I can sync to if necessary, and it's good to have exactly the same bookmark set regardless of which machine you are using.

 

Very many thanks for that, and every good wish for the
New Year.

 

Many thanks and Happy New Year!

 

Sincere thanks.
Which option, therefore, is best to use?
Most of the bookmarks have gone.
All of the bookmarks which have been created since this
happened in Mid December are still there, plus a tiny portion
of the old ones.
Happy New Year!

 

Many thanks.
What worries me is that both the Firefox sidebar
and the XMarks server show mostly empty files.
Maybe they are stored in XMarks backup as has been suggested.
Best wishes for New Year.

 

Happy New Year to you too!

Try the below and see if some of the lost bookmarks are in bookmarks.html.

Bookmarks>Show all Bookmarks>Export Bookmarks to HTML, save to desktop. Rightclick and open the bookmarks.html file. You should be able to read bookmarks in there. Check if in there are the missing bookmarks.

Beware that if you decide to Import Bookmarks from HTML you may well end up with duplicate bookmarks in Firefox. See a previous post of mine about that.

 

Thanks oma.
Sorry for delay in getting back.
Will check out.

 

Seems to be the same story oma.
A lot of files are empty and a lot are
missing.
Seems to be a reflection of the sidebar and server.
A small number have survived, and more recent ones
are all there.
It is frustrating not being able to make contact on XMarks
support.
The site seems to be overtaken with spam now.

 

It appears that there was a crash when syncing bookmarks on
Dec 10th.
However, it seems that most of the bookmarks up to that point are in restore section for 9th Dec.
At present bookmarks made since 10th of Dec and mostly empty files and folders are in the sidebar and on the server.
If I overwrite with the back up from 9th Dec, which contains almost everything up to then, what will happen to current bookmarks - bookmarks made since that date?
Would appreciate advice on how to best approach this.
I would love to get the old bookmarks back, but I don't want to lose recently created bookmarks by overwriting.
Mant thanks.

 

If you are talking about overwriting your current *.json file with an earlier one then yes, you will lose all of the bookmarks that you've created since Dec. 10th. If, on the other hand, you're talking about merging bookmarks using a previously exported HTML file, then no, you will not lose your most recent bookmarks (but you will almost certainly end up with duplicate bookmarks).

 

Many thanks.
I understand.
I don't mind the duplicates, but I don't recall seeing an option to merge.
Will check again.

 

My bad. Sorry for muddying up the waters. I should have used the word import rather than the word merge. There is no "merge" bookmarks function in FF, only "import" bookmarks.

 

Thanks plodr.

 

No problem.
Thanks.