Firefox Bookmarks, Where are You?

I'm a Mac user running Firefox 3. Can someone tell me where exactly where my Firefox 2 bookmarks are stored, and now where my Firefox 3 bookmarks reside?

When I started using Firefox 3, the previous Firefox 2 bookmarks did show, but I deleted most of them.

The reason I ask is that I've been using URL Manager Pro, which currently just sees the old Firefox 2 bookmarks.

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Stephanie Daugherty, Official Rep, replied on July 17, 2008 11:57

Firefox 2 and earlier stored bookmarks in a "bookmarks.html" file in the profile directory.

Firefox 3 introduced a unified database for bookmarks and history called "Places". This database is a SQLite database, stored on disk as places.sqlite, and should only be modified by Firefox itself. Places made things possible like the new URL bar, and tags, as well as improved performance with very large collections of bookmarks. Firefox 3 no longer uses the bookmarks.html file except for the very first time it's ran, where it imports bookmarks from older versions into the new places database.

Because of the new format, software that may have been able to directly access the bookmark file before won't be able to do so. (I actually wasn't aware that any software did this routinely - it's really not encouraged, because doing so while Firefox is running can lead to lost bookmarks)

For now, the best thing I can suggest is to make use of the import/export functions. Under the Bookmarks menu, go to "Organize Bookmarks", and there will be an Import and Backup menu. Chose Import HTML or Export HTML to import and export bookmark files in the old format.

URL Manager Pro does sound like an interesting program though - hopefully they'll be able to provide the same functionality in the future through a Firefox addon.

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webzilla commented on July 17, 2008 12:26

Thanks, mystery solved, and I believe exporting Firefox 3 bookmarks as you describe will be a workaround. It looks like getting URL Manager Pro up to speed with Firefox 3 will be a bit of work (for them).
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Stephanie Daugherty, (Official Rep), commented on July 17, 2008 12:51

It may not be all that bad. There's already quite a few addons that work with bookmarks to provide new functionality, such as integrating with social bookmarking services. Given that the trail's already been blazed, it's far from impossible. And who knows... this may let them offer more features, like tying into history or into the new location bar.
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Stephanie Daugherty, Official Rep, replied on July 17, 2008 12:11

For the benefit of anyone affiliated with the URL Manager Pro product:

Bookmarks and history are now in an actual database, using the SQLite embedded database engine. While the data is still saved to disk, this file's format makes it unsuitable to be used outside Firefox. The best solution possible here is going to be to develop an extension to interface your product with Firefox. Fortunately, there's documentation to get started at http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/... and a huge community of users and developers that can answer questions.

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Stephanie Daugherty, (Official Rep), commented on July 17, 2008 12:16

I emailed URL Manager Pro support to alert them to this thread.