jeck's dashboard

To backup your Firefox add-on extensions and themes install the "FEBE" add-on extension. Firefox Add-on site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire... or FEBE Home Page: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/exte...

I agree with Nate but he has a way of over simplifying things; sometimes, but then I have a way of over stating too. But, What the ???; you don't mention which browser or OS your using. From Nate's comment I'm gonna assume Firefox, but if you have an entry in your add/delete on Windows (I'm assuming again) then I also have to assume that you have Foxmarks (Xmarks) installed for IE.

You can do whatever you wish, but if you're using Roboform for pasword storage it's beyond me why your letting your browser manage passwords, at all; a very dangerous practice in my opinion. I mean Roboform automatically updates all your login info doesn't it? And I'm sure there's a way to backup your Roboform data which makes letting your browser manage passwords, not only dangerous, but kind of useless.

There is certainly no reason to uninstall Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks). The easiest solution I see to your problem is to access Firefox options and go to the Security tab and under the Password heading uncheck both check boxes. Then access your Add-ons and then Xmarks (Foxmarks) Options and then click the Sync tab and under the Synchronization Options uncheck the Passwords check box.

If Roboform is handling all your login/logon info why let Firefox or IE handle any passwords or save them for that matter? I'm not guaranteeing anything - I'm not a huge Roboform fan, but I'm thinking that should take care of your problem.

I don't think so; the only browsers that I know of for sure that Xmarks supports right now are Firefox for Windows, MAC, and Linux, Internet Explorer 7 & 8 for Windows and Safari for MAC Leopard. Oh and something called BYOS which I know nothing about.

This is just a guess, mind you, but my guess is that your old bookmarks are being restored, but that the bookmarks on your system for the browser in question are not being deleted before the bookmarks that you have chosen to restore are exported to your system. If the bookmarks you want to get rid of - on your system - are not being erased/deleted then it will appear that nothing has changed because in fact all that has happened is that the bookmarks you chose to restore were merely appended to your current bookmarks. That's my guess.

If you are reverting to an older version of your bookmarks then your current bookmarks must be erased/deleted/cleared before the bookmarks that you have chosen to restore can be restored/exported.

When you choose to restore an older version of bookmarks it should be getting rid of your current bookmarks by default, but that may not be the case. If you are being offered the option on how to handle the restore it will probably offer you three (3) options; the option you want should be the middle option which will leave your bookmarks on the server intact and erase the bookmarks on your computer.

I hope this helps.

You mean you don't back up your bookmarks anywhere else? You should always have at least two different methods for backing up your data. One of those methods is always bound to fail sooner or later.

Have you checked to see if the bookmarks that are missing are missing in all your browsers? I mean are they missing on all your browsers and on my.xmarks.com too? If so and you haven't backed up your bookmarks elsewhere you may be out of luck, but I would turn off sychronization on all your browser and check all your browsers to make sure and check my.xmarks.com to see what's in there.

If you tell me what system and what browsers you're using I can give you some hints about backing up bookmarks for different browsers. And usually backing up bookmarks for one browser will save your bacon for the rest.

If you have any questions get back with me.

Well, you don't mention what browser or system your using, but it should be the same regardless. In the "Synchronization Settings" there are three check boxes; uncheck "Enable Automatic Sychronization" and check the other two boxes; "Sync on Shutdown" and "Ask First". If you have your "Username:" and "Password:" entered and the "Remember this password between sessions." check box checked then uncheck it and remove your "Username:" and "Password:".

What this does is when you shut down Firefox, or IE and you have unsynchronized bookmarks it will ask you if you want to "Synchronize" your bookmarks; it gives you the option to say no, because you told it to ask first. If you say yes it will ask for your Username: and Password: and then do the sync when you tell it to. And you won't get those pesky dialog boxes popping up all the time.

If your using Safari I'm assuming it should be the same; I use Safari, but don't use a MAC, so I can't sync Safari; yet.

No; Firefox 3.0.11 and Xmarks 3.1.0 Installed and your problem is not duplicated on my system.

Why are you so convinced that it's an extension causing the problem? And your process of troubleshooting by elimination is less than scientific. If it is an extension causing the problem, and I seriously doubt it, what if it is one of your other extensions causing the problem. Then you would have to reinstall them all (Get FEBE Add-on) and do the process again, except this time eliminate Xmarks first and I'm betting you would end up with the same result; proving nothing except that Xmarks is not the problem.

My experience and gut tell me that this is a Firefox problem, but I can offer you no explanation as to why. Firefox is my main browser, early on because of it's better security, but now because of there is no other browser out there with it's flexibility, but with that said I have to tell you that I've had more problems with Firefox burping and belching than any other browser I use (IE, Maxthon, Avant, Opera, and Safari (If Google wasn't so nosy I would install Chrome too.)

A better option than uninstalling all your extensions is to make a new profile and the first extension you should install is "Xmarks" and the second is "FEBE" then install the rest of the extensions you had installed before. Before you use FEBE to backup make a folder somewhere to store your FEBE backups and look over the options to make sure you understand them and then set them according to your preferences. One note about preferences; there is a back up for preferences in FEBE but I tend to go through and set all my preference by hand because I've had problems when restoring preferences back into Firefox from FEBE. Now if you have further problems you can have FEBE reinstall all your extensions instead of doing it one by one.

Now, if you're still having problems the only other option you have is to uninstall Firefox; make sure all occurences of Firefox are deleted from "Documents and Settings\User (User Name)\Application Data" and "Documents and Settings\User (User Name)\Local Settings\Application Data" and "Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" This way you insure none of your old profiles or other data creep into your new installation. And then reinstall Firefox.

Now the first thing I do after installing Firefox is to make a new profile and make the name of the profile the date of creation and use this new profile to set up Firefox; leave the default alone - you will have far less problems with Firefox this way. And if you have problems in the future you can just delete the old profile and create a new one. And if you took my suggestion about installing FEBE just install FEBE so that you can quickly reinstall the remainder of your extension add-ons. You don't have to go to the Firefox extension add-on site to install FEBE either. From Firefox open the "File" drop-down menu and select "Open File" or just simply press "Ctrl+O" with Firefox open and then navigate to the folder where your FEBE backups are stored and click on the FEBE file and click "open" or press <enter>.

If you need any further help with anything get back with me.</enter>

Is this an Operating System? Never heard of it.

Nate is right about the Xmarks icon being in the status bar, but I'm thinking that didn't answer your question.

There are three ways to do what I'm thinking you are trying to accomplish and each one will eventually bring up the Toolbar menu and then the Customize dialog. Click the "View" drop down menu then Toolbars and at the bottom of the menu click Customize (View/Toolbars/Customize); -or- Alt+V -then- Alt+T -then Alt+C; -or- my favorite way of doing it is to right click in any free space on the Toolbar itself and that will bring up the Toolbar menu and at the bottom of the toolbar menu is customize; click Customize.

Whichever of these three methods you use you will end up with Customize dialog. Once the Customize dialog comes up scroll down to the bottom and there are four Xmark icons there. You can drag any of these icons to the Toolbar that you wish.

But the only icon I can see that you might need to place on the Toolbar is "My Xmarks" as clicking on the status icon will bring up the "Synchronize Now" dialog and the "Get Site Info" icon should already reside in your address bar.

Hope that answers your question.

I've only a couple things to add; you can install Xmarks for the Xmark site or the Firefox extension Add-on site. Either way will work.

Second; during the setup wizard be careful which option you select or you will end up saving the bookmarks that you currently have on Firefox which I'm guessing isn't a whole lot and wiping the bookmarks you currently have saved. You want to keep the bookmarks you have on the server and remove the bookmarks currently of Firefox.

If you have bookmarks on your newly installed Firefox that you don't want to lose and don't want to leave the bookmarks on the server intact there is a way to handle that too, but that's another topic.

Umm, I was wondering the same thing myself. Is this happening as a result of syncing or before a sync is done? Sounds like a Firefox problem to me although I've never seen or heard of this problem.

So why are they still getting deleted; that is the big question? And I must admit I'm perplexed. I'm sure you realize that when you sync your bookmarks with the Xmarks site that those bookmarks are stored on a server and the only way to delete those stored bookmarks is by accessing the server again. So how are your bookmarks being deleted without you accessing the server again. Umm, don't know, and so I have to believe that the bookmarks that are disappearing must be being deleted somehow while you are accomplishing the sync, but that's a guess, however I think I may have a solution for you in the mean time until you can nip this in the bud.

I use a Firefox extension add-on named "FEBE" Firefox Environment Backup Extension. The name not withstanding it does a very good job of backing up your extensions, themes, bookmarks and some other things if you wish. You can either do the backups manually or schedule them to be done at a certain time every day, but if you schedule them Firefox must be up and running at the scheduled time. You will need to create a folder to send the backup to; hopefully to a second hard drive. The address for FEBE in the Firefox Add-on site is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire... and the address for the FEBE Home Page is http://customsoftwareconsult.com/exte...

I also use one other Firefox extension add-on but you won't find it on the Firefox add-on site. It is named (Pike's) "Bookmark Backup". The only draw back to this add-on is that you can't do a manual backup. It performs a backup of your bookmarks every time you close Firefox and with the problem your having that might not be the best solution.

However, before you do a sync you can do a manual backup with FEBE and that just might help you isolate the problem.

I have no answers for this problem except for this. I'd love to know if you find the cause of this problem and the solution as well.

That's definitely a Firefox problem. What version of Firefox are you using. What's your OS?

Your right; everything comes with a price. It never dawned on me that tagging would effect CPU utilization that much, but then I don't find the need to tag that much. One tag can open multiple web sites too and that can cause problems too in ole' Firefox on occasion. But I've never had the problem with the problem you describe and the only major differences between our systems is OS. I use XP Pro so I'm assuming that your OS put much less strain on the CPU.

However, I wonder if Eric isn't right, but perhaps for a different reason. I'm wondering how many processes you allow to run when you start of restart your system and do you use dual booting? You stated that you have no freezing or slow downs in the past, but if you have enough things running in the background just a little more may make a big difference. I'm just wondering.

I don't know; never had this problem and I've drilled down that deep in some folders. You don't mention anything about the computer you're using or the OS or the version of Firefox your using. All of these may have something to do with your problem.

But what I'm really wondering is how many process you permit to run when Windows starts up or are you using Windows?

I personally don't think storing passwords inside one's browser is a very good idea; neither is it a good idea to store them off your computer in a public domain no matter how secure it may be. Using an encrypted password manager like KeyWallet is a much better idea. You can find a whole list of free Passwords Managers here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-.... Backing up the encrypted file that stores your password is a good idea, but the only place off your computer that should be stored is whatever media you use to store your backups; floppy, tape, cd/dvd r-rw, or whatever. But then that's my opinion based on years of security experience.

But with that said; you don't mention which browser your using. I only have XMarks installed on Firefox as and extension add-on.

In Firefox you need to access Add-ons (in the Tools menu) then access Extensions, the click on XMarks, and then click on Options. No matter which browser you're using find XMarks options and open it up.

When the options dialog opens up click on the "Sync" tab. The top option is "Synchronization Types"; below that you will see the input check box for "Passwords" Check that box and you should be in business. Let us know how that works for you.

I don't think it's a very secure thing to do with your passwords, but that's how to do it.

Good Deal! I hope you see that security has nothing to do with the name of a program, service, or site. Your systems administrator or IT professional could have easily given Xmarks the permissions it needed to access every computer in your company, but now because of your question every company that uses iCritical will be able to use XMarks, unless the systems administrator blocks it. When you have a problem accessing a program, service or site you always need to talk to your system administrator first; he controls what comes in and what goes out of every computer in the company and who has permission to access what.

Your question has a very good outcome not only for you and anyone else in your company that uses Xmarks, but for any other company that has employees that use Xmarks too, but it never does any good to bad mouth the name of a program.

Good Deal!

Yeah, one thing computers teach you to do is think outside the box. Solutions often tend to be simple, but don't just get up and slap you in the face.