I think bookmark file is corrupt and I want to fix it due to lack of backup. Firefox keeps freezing when I use current bookmarks
For some reason, my Firefox browser keeps crashing every time I try to go to another site besides my homepage. I have tried creating new profiles, checking my extensions, refreshing my copy of Firefox, reinstalling, etc. The only common thread is that I copy over the "places" files from my old profile so I don;'t lose all my bookmarks. Finally, I reinstalled Firefox and built a new profile from scratch without moving the "places" files. I have a bookmark file .html backup from when the trouble began; my last backup was 1 year old. Importing this file seems to reintroduce the problem, so I am assuming the file is corrupt. Is there any way to troubleshoot, diagnose and repair corrupted .html bookmark files or the "places" files in my profile?
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There are usually no problems to be expected when you import an HTML backup. It is usually better not to use the places.sqlite file as that is a much more likely cause of issues. If you have JSON backups (.json or compressed .jsonlz4) then you can try to use these to restore the bookmarks. There might be incompatibilities with a JSON backup of older Firefox versions.
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
- Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/
To recover from a corrupted places.sqlite you can remove all places.sqlite file(s) in the Firefox profile folder to make Firefox rebuild the places.sqlite database from the most recent JSON backup (bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.json) in the bookmarkbackups folder.
Note that the file name of an automatic JSON backup includes a total item count (folders and separators are included).