Get your own customer support community

About me

Recent activity

Subscribe to this feed
  • star

    KenAlcock marked one of Colin's replies in Xmarks as useful. Colin replied to the problem "Some IE Favorites renamed after synchronizing my.XMarks.com to Firefox".

  • problem

    KenAlcock replied on May 20, 2009 22:46 to the problem "Some IE Favorites renamed after synchronizing my.XMarks.com to Firefox" in Xmarks:

    KenAlcock
    Thanks for the quick reply Colin.

    I figured (correctly it seems) this might be a by-design behavior (repeatable and nothing random about it). I understand it may not be fixed for some time (priorities and all). At least the issue is reported, confirmed, and other users can read this and hopefully understand the issue.

    The first time I encountered this issue, was alongside the known issue about creating duplicates when synchronizing between IE and Firefox. So I saw both the duplicate bookmarks results, mixed in with the results documented above.

    Seriously, if you folks are hiring, I'd love to do QA work for you. Sounds like a great project. If you can build it, I can break it. But I can also help you build it better. I have experience in: systems analysis, testing, issue management, training, Level 2 tech support, and documentation (help desk procedures, Sys Admin guides, end-user guides, and tutorials). Tell me where to send my resume.

    Ken
    Do you think this solves the problem? Mark it as solved
  • problem

    KenAlcock reported a problem in Xmarks on May 20, 2009 17:39:

    KenAlcock
    Some IE Favorites renamed after synchronizing my.XMarks.com to Firefox
    SITUATION:

    A. The user synchronizes between IE, my.XMarks.com, and Firefox.
    B. Some IE Favorites have very long names (a fairly common occurrence).
    C. One IE Favorite has a leading dot operator in its name.
    ".NET Framework..."

    D. The user has done the following:
    1. Manually backed up all IE Favorites to a USB drive (primary bookmark store).
    2. Started with an empty my.XMarks.com account (new or manually emptied).
    3. Synchronized IE to my.XMarks.com (IE overwrites server account).
    4. Synchronized Firefox to my.XMarks.com (server overwrites Firefox).
    5. Synchronized IE to my.XMarks.com again (regular synchronize).
    6. Synchronized FireFox to my.XMarks.com again (regular synchronize).

    NOTE: At no time in the process has the user added, removed, or renamed any
    bookmarks to IE, FireFox, or my.XMarks.com.

    EXPECTED:

    No bookmarks should not have changed during synchronization (except for the entries listed under the [XMarks] section inside of the Windows .url files).

    RESULTS:

    ISSUE 1:

    After step 5 above, IE bookmarks with the leading dot operator in the name, for example ".NET Framework...", will have the leading dot operator removed.

    ISSUE 2:

    After step 5 above, IE bookmarks longer than a certain number of characters will have their .url filenames truncated, now ending with an ellipses "(...)".

    OBSERVATIONS:

    All three synchronize destinations can actually store and display bookmarks with either long names or names with a leading dot operator. I have even taken screen grabs throughout the process that prove this.

    Currently, the bookmarks listed in Firefox and on my.XMarks.com are the same as they started out originally in Internet Explorer. The bookmark with the leading dot operator, still has the leading dot operator, and the bookmarks with very long names, still have their very long names. It is only in IE that the names have been changed. Subsequent synchronizations seem to have no effect on this issue, and duplicates are not created.

    See screen grabs of IE Favorite names, after Step 1 (original state).
    (I used WinDiff to compare the current IE favorites to those backed up to my USB drive.)





    See screen grabs of Firefox bookmark names, after Steps 4 or 6 below (current state).
    (The bookmark names are never changed in Firefox).





    See screen grabs of my.XMarks.com bookmark names, after Steps: 3, 4, 5, or 6 (current state).
    (The bookmark names are never changed on my.XMarks.com).





    See screen grabs of IE Favorite names, after Step 5 (current state). Note records: 1, 23, 24, and 25 in the WinDiff screen grab.
    (I used WinDiff to compare the current IE favorites to those backed up to my USB drive.)

  • question

    KenAlcock replied on May 20, 2009 15:24 to the question "what does delete from server do" in Xmarks:

    KenAlcock
    No.

    One thing you will want to do is change your XMarks account password, and PIN. Your password is mostly likely cached on your old work computer for automatic synchronization. But this will only prevent someone using your old work computer from accessing any new passwords and bookmarks that you save to your XMarks account going forward.

    The "Delete from server" option only deletes the bookmarks off your account on the XMarks server. But this will not affect bookmarks already stored on another PC (like your old work computer), until that PC has been synchronized with the XMarks server, and an option to update from the server is selected (Force overwrite of local data from the advanced tab).

    This means that If someone logs into your old work computer, under your windows user account, and runs IE, they will see your IE favorites. Likewise, if they run Firefox, they will see your Firefox bookmarks. This is because the local copy of your favorites and bookmarks still reside on that PC (or corporate network share, if applicable) and they are still accessible (unless you explicitly deleted them before you left your old job).

    Never store your personal: bookmarks, contacts, or data files on someone else's computer, especially a work computer. You are just giving your information away. Many companies keep logs of your web browsing history (URLs you went to). And some even install spyware and keyloggers to track everything you do. These can cache your account information and passwords.
    Do you think this answers the question? Mark it as answered
  • question

    KenAlcock replied on May 20, 2009 14:29 to the question "Firefox "Bad request"" in Xmarks:

    KenAlcock
    I also received this error, here's what happened

    1. Backed up my IE Favorites folder.
    2. Exported my Firefox bookmarks.
    3. Downloaded XMarks for IE (.msi installer)
    4. Closed all browsers
    5. Installed XMarks for IE.
    6. XMarks IE Setup Wizard ran, created new account.
    7. Successfully synchronized all IE Favorites (bookmarks) to XMarks server (overwrite server option).
    8. Logged into XMarks server and verified all IE bookmarks were present—they were.
    9. Installed Firefox XMarks Add-on.
    10. XMarks Firefox Setup Wizard ran, logged into account.
    11. Attempted to synchronize Firefox bookmarks (no passwords) to XMarks server. Choose Merge, start with server. Received the following error dialog:



    12. Read this error report and the Wiki post about error 400.
    13. Deleted all FireFox bookmarks (previously backed up).
    14. Imported all FireFox bookmarks.
    15. Attempted to run XMarks Setup wizard again—same error.
    16. Closed XMarks dialog.
    17. Click XMarks icon in lower-right corner of browser.
    18. Clicked the Synchronize Now button.

    NOTE: The user is not offered any setup options here (i.e. how the synchronize operation will work.

    RESULTS: the synchronize worked successfuly, and all my IE bookmarks made it to Firefox, and the Firefox bookmarks remained in the list—success!
    Do you think this answers the question? Mark it as answered

  • KenAlcock started following the question "Firefox "Bad request"" in Xmarks.