There is a clear distinction between importing bookmarks and restoring bookmarks.

Restore replaces all of your bookmarks and is from a bookmark backup file which has a .json file extension.

Import adds the bookmarks to the bottom of your Bookmarks Menu and is from a bookmarks file (HTML format). the HTML file is what is used to copy bookmarks from another browser and is the format that was originally used by most browsers for their actually bookmarks.

The places.sqlite file is the actual bookmarks and history file in Firefox, to use it you would have to replace your existing file in your profile while Firefox is down, and you would have had to of saved it originally to your backup device when Firefox was down.

So what is the filename of the backup and how did you create it, or copy it from your old system. Manually is not really enough of a description. Was Firefox down when you backed up the file.

Reference: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

if the article is not currently available due to the server being down you can read it from Google's cache. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fkb.mozillazine.org%2FSoftware_Update

Thanks for the response. Fire fox was not down when I backed it up. I followed the following instructions to create the back up, as from the Mozilla help pages:

1. On the menu bar, click 'Bookmarks' and select 'Organize Bookmarks'... to open the Library window.
2. In the Library window, click 'Import and Backup' button and then select 'Backup'.... The Bookmarks backup file name window will appear.
3. Select a location to save the backup file.
4. Close the Library window.

After I created the file, I put it in my documents folder and through my ignorance of file names importance, I changed it to simply - Bookmarks. I realised this may have been a problem after speaking to a friend about it last night, So I went through the process of backing up some new bookmarks to see what the file name would be, without actually saving this new file. I then changed the filename back on the existing back up which I'm having the problem restoring. The file name is:

bookmarks-2011-06-06.json

To restore them, I followed the following instructions, as from the Mozilla help section:

1. On the menu bar, click 'Bookmarks' and select 'Organize Bookmarks'... to open the Library window.
2. In the Library window, click the 'Import and Backup' button and then select 'Restore'.
3. Select the backup from which you want to restore:
4. The dated entries are automatic backups.
5. 'Choose File'... lets you restore from a manual backup

I then tried to restore both the dated entry, and when that didn't work, I tried the 'choose file' option, and went to the file I had saved in my documents folder, and when I clicked on the open button, the 'unsupported file type' message came up.

If I go to 'my documents' folder and open the file, unrelated to trying to restore them, a window does open up, and has a whole load of writing in it. Below, is the first line of hundreds in the window:

{"title":"","id":1,"dateAdded":1280591076983189,"lastModified":1281894903144799,"type":"text/x-moz-place-container","root":"placesRoot","children":[{"title":"Bookmarks

I hope this makes sense. Thanks for any further help.

Kind Regards,

Jim

Make sure that the JSON backup file has a .json file extension