I cannot restore my bookmarks from a backup, why?
Only some of my bookmarks were showing in the Bookmarks drop down list, but when I opened Show All Bookmarks all the book marks appeared in the list. I then backed up my bookmarks, then tried to re-import them as the help file suggested. I got an error saying "Unable to process the back up file." I tried restoring from all the bookmark back up files going back 2 weeks, and got the exact same message. I tried reinstalling Firefox, with the same results. I have not installed any new add-ons, and I have not had updates for any add-ons in the last several days.
All Replies (4)
This link should help - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox
Make sure that the backup file with the bookmarks has the correct file extension: .html for a HTML backup and .json for a JSON backup.
You can check that via the right-click context menu of that file and open the Properties.
If you are not sure about the file type then you can open the file in Firefox via "File > Open File"
A JSON backup will show as one long text line without line breaks and a HTML backup as a web page with clickable links.
A JSON backup starts with: {"title":"","id":1,"dateAdded":
An HTML backup starts with: <!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
Add quotes ("") around the name to rename the file to the correct file extension if the current file extension is hidden or if it is otherwise not working.
I was finally able to restore my bookmarks by importing from the the bookmarks.html file. The JSON files do not work at all, even now that I have restored my bookmarks. If I back up or export my bookmarks as a JSON file, and then try to restore or import them, I still get the "Unable to process back up file" error message. It's a moot point now, but it is strange.
You may have a corrupted file places.sqlite if you get that error.