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bookmarks will not import

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  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by DiverDan

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I saw the help about how to import bookmarks, but they will not import. It says to go to the bookmark menu and select show all bookmarks and then you choose to import from html. I do that and I select the bookmarks.html file and select to open it, but then nothing happens. That is, it doesn't show up in the import window. I even went to the properties of the bookmarks.html file and changed it to be a firefox file and that didn't help either. These were bookmarks from palemoon. They should work. And the option to import from another browser only has microsoft and chrome to choose from. I have win7 and ff version 47.0.2 (I like that style).

I saw the help about how to import bookmarks, but they will not import. It says to go to the bookmark menu and select show all bookmarks and then you choose to import from html. I do that and I select the bookmarks.html file and select to open it, but then nothing happens. That is, it doesn't show up in the import window. I even went to the properties of the bookmarks.html file and changed it to be a firefox file and that didn't help either. These were bookmarks from palemoon. They should work. And the option to import from another browser only has microsoft and chrome to choose from. I have win7 and ff version 47.0.2 (I like that style).

All Replies (20)

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Hi, yet you are posing from XP and FF 38.9 Security issue for the above, please update your Flash 25.0 r0 Flash Player Version: 29.0.0.171 Current Version https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Step 1: Select Operating System Step 2: Select A Version (Firefox, . . . .) Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only>

Please Note XP Support ends in June.


47.0.2 is also not a supported browser. If have issues suggest you do a install over top

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Yes, I am posting from my other computer. This is the one I mainly use. I gave you the version of windows and also firefox. I do not need a current version of Flash. I am importing my bookmarks from this XP computer to the other one. It should not need flash player to do that. I explained the problem thoroughly in my original post. I just wonder why I have a bookmark.html file and when I try to import it, it does not work.

Modified by pdsimdars

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Your Flash version on the XP has thousands of security issues. Support has to ask you to update. You can ignore if so wish but it is part of the process.

I said about 47.0.2 it has issues or the bookmark file has issues.

There are only 2 ways to fix it, Refresh or reinstall. Take your pick. I offered the least intrusive option. Do I know why, no .

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Two thoughts:

(1) How many bookmarks do you think there are, or how large is the file? If it's huge, Firefox may take a long time to ingest the bookmarks, and may present a slow script error.

(2) Check alternate locations: look for an Imported Bookmarks folder at the bottom of the Bookmarks Menu - OR - in the Other Bookmarks category.

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Flash has no update for XP. Also, how does flash affect the bookmark file? Makes no sense to me.

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I think it's pretty big file. Hey, and I can open the html file in Firefox, but just can't import it. I could just leave it running but it really doesn't even look like it is running. I wonder if this makes a difference, it might. I exported from PaleMoon. Maybe that is the problem. But it is hard for me to comprehend if it exports it as html . . . is html different from one browser to the other? That wouldn't make sense.

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The HTML format used for bookmarks is ancient and the differences between browsers should be small.

A roundabout way is to import the HTML file into Internet Explorer, which will convert them to Windows Favorites, and then import from IE into Firefox (Firefox reads the Favorites folder directly).

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Pkshadow said

Hi, yet you are posing from XP and FF 38.9

Did you look at his More System Information?

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:38.9) Gecko/20100101 Goanna/2.2 Firefox/38.9 PaleMoon/26.5.0

He started this thread using PaleMoon.


pdsimdars said

... And the option to import from another browser only has microsoft and chrome to choose from. I have win7 and ff version 47.0.2 (I like that style).

Those are the only 2 web browsers that Firefox looks for these days; my guess is that the other browsers out there don't have a large enough user base to spend time writing an import routine to deal with.


You have made no mention of doing an Export Bookmarks to HTML format from within PaleMoon.

Then you can use the Import Bookmarks from HTML in Firefox, after using Export Bookmarks in HTML from PaleMoon.

The "import / export"of bookmarks in HTML format uses an arcane form of HTML that was originally developed by Netscape back in the mid-1990's for bookmarks interchange between web browsers and became the defacto standard that the first Internet Explorer and Opera (original Presto browser engine) used to get market share away from Netscape. That format is far different from HTML used on webpages, even back in that era of the internet; BUT web browsers will display that file via File > Open File ... .

The header of that type of file is such:

<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
<!-- This is an automatically generated file.
     It will be read and overwritten.
     DO NOT EDIT! -->

If Firefox doesn't see that header the Import function in Firefox won't proceed - Firefox knows what it is looking for which is more than just the HTML file suffix.

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The things you say I have already mentioned in this thread. I guess you didn't read it. But I'll look at the html file which I said I exported from palemoon, and see if the header matches what you included. But I did say it was from palemoon and that firefox would not import it. AND I mentioned this XP OS, and a bunch of the other comments you made. Good idea about the html file header. I went and looked at the html file and it is just like the one you posted.

Modified by pdsimdars

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pdsimdars said

Flash has no update for XP. Also, how does flash affect the bookmark file? Makes no sense to me.

Hi yes Adobe has version 29 for XP available for download. Please follow instructions here or the Website as they are the same. As Well I just verified it. https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Step 1: Select Operating System Step 2: Select A Version (Firefox, . . . .)

It has nothing to do with Bookmarks at all but as said Separate Security Issue your Flash 25.0 r0 has 100's of vulnerabilities that can be used to access your system or more.

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It will not install. There was an initialization error, and it puts you back to the adobe download page and I downloaded the next version. First it was 29_ga_install and next was 29_ha_install but neither would install. I decided not to continue downloading installers at that point. In any case, I am interested in BOOKMARKS.

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Well, where does Firefox keep the file of your bookmarks? Maybe I could to and edit it myself.

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Firefox (and Pale Moon) store bookmarks in a database file together with history (the places.sqlite file). There's no easy way to edit that file.

Was Internet Explorer 11 able to import the HTML file (and convert the bookmarks to Windows Favorites)?

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I don't have IE installed on my computer so I didn't try it. I guess if that is the only option I'll have to try it but there should be some way to import a bookmark.html file that was exported from Palemoon.

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Hi pdsimdars, Windows 7 definitely comes with Internet Explorer. Even if you do not have the blue "e" icon, you could try using the Windows Run dialog (Windows key + r) and pasting

iexplore

and submitting that.

Then in IE, tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar, File > Import and Export...

As for why Firefox can't import the file from Pale Moon, I still have no idea.

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I don't have Iexplorer. I am pretty sure I uninstalled it. But it is nowhere to be found. Maybe I should re-install it for 5 minutes and then uninstall it again.

I can't seem to get IE to install. I get an error.

Modified by pdsimdars

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Do you want to try importing the bookmarks into a clean profile to see whether it works there? If it does, then we could suspect a problem in your regular profile. If not, I would be inclined to think the file is not compatible.

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to run the import.

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

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like June2018, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new. Skip over any invitations to enable add-ons, then try the import.

Import Bookmarks from an HTML file

Can Firefox import the bookmark file in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.

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I have a similar problem, but it may not be worthy of a new thread[?].

I just got a new Win 10 Pro laptop. I exported my Firefox bookmarks from another recent laptop [Aug 2017] as .html. Both are running the latest Firefox version, yet when I try to import the file to the new one, nothing happens, and I can't find my old bookmarks anywhere in the new one. All I see is "Most visited" and "Getting started".

I opened the file in the newly installed Firefox and I could read everything with no hitches, so no corrupt file. I opened it in Notepad, and it has the Header as mentioned by Pkshadow above [5/30/18, 7:22PM].

The file is large at about 2.9Mb, but not that much larger than when I was able to import it to the Aug 2017 one from another PC

It should be easy, right? Two custom-built HP laptops [Omen and Envy models], both running Win 10 Pro, both with the same version of Firefox, FF to FF bookmarks, not another browser.

Any ideas?

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Me again after the last post. I was just able to import the same bookmarks.html file into Chrome, and it went without a hitch.

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