As a longtime user of Firefox, the Foxmarks add-on has been one of my longtime favorites. Foxmarks is the bookmark synchronization add-on that is just a must-have. If you run Firefox on multiple machines, this add-in will keep all of your bookmarks in sync among your boxes.
Well, this morning, I decided to go ahead and move my Mac over to Firefox. I was using Netscape since I got the Mac in October, but with recent news that Netscape is going buh-bye, I decided to go ahead and make the transition. Well, Foxmarks was the first add-on I wanted to install. I head on over to the Firefox add-ons site and download the most recent version (2.034 as of this post). It installs normally, but did something very strange.
It didn’t ask me to sync all of my bookmarks which were already in place. I reluctantly tell it to proceed. Well, all I got was the bookmarks that come default with Firefox. Where the hell are all of my bookmarks?!
My first concern at this point is that Foxmarks just overwrote all my bookmarks on the server. I am concerned that if Netscape tries to sync, I might lose all of my bookmarks. What is more concerning is that when I log into my Foxmarks account on their server, I see only my default Firefox bookmarks.
What’s Happening With Foxmarks?
After looking a little more into the situation, I see that version 2.034 of Foxmarks is not compatible with version 1.01 (which is what I have been running). This means that I cannot sync my bookmarks with the new version. Others have had the same problem. Here is one comment from a user on the Firefox add-ons site:
It had overwritten the remote bookmarks with the local set from the fresh install. All my personal bookmarks had been killed by Foxmarks. Because I trusted Foxmarks, now I have lost all my bookmarks from many months or even years. I don’t have any explanation for this. Because before my re-install I uploaded the local set manually to get sure to save this state. But what made me most angry is that Foxmarks synchronizes at first start without asking. Right after you give your login details it start the synchronization.
And another:
I consider myself blessed that I got out of v. 2.0.34 without losing anything but some time.
Does anyone know what the advantage of upgrading from v. 1.0.1 would be, even if it worked? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Judging from my own experience, I think the Foxmarks team has really dropped the ball on this one. So many people depend on Foxmarks now that it is a real kick in the twins for them to not only make the newer version incompatible, but also provide NO confirmations, notes – nothing – about the loss of data. My immediate concern was that I just lost all of my bookmarks. The Foxmarks blog doesn’t seem to address this at all. They simply say the two versions are incompatible. I think a little more walk-through by them would certainly be in order.
The issue will only come up if you are trying to use Foxmarks to bring your bookmarks over to a NEW installation of Firefox. If you are simply upgrading the plug-in in the same browser, you’ll be fine. Since I was trying to set up a new instance of Firefox, I ran into this problem.
Upgrading Foxmarks Without Losing Your Bookmarks
As you can see in the comments above, many are choosing simply to stick with version 1.01. This may be a wise move. If you choose to do this, you can still download version 1.01 from the Firefox add-ons site.
If you do want to upgrade to version 2.x, then you’ll need to transition your own bookmarks. Foxmarks doesn’t help. Follow this procedure:
- On the browser running Foxmarks 1.01, go to Bookmarks > "Organize Bookmarks" and bring up the Bookmarks Manager.
- From the File menu, select "Export Bookmarks".
- You can leave the HTML output selected and proceed. Save the bookmarks.html file to your Desktop to make it easier to find.
- Now, install Foxmarks 2.x to your browser. Note that it will automatically sync with the Foxmarks server and you will have only the default Firefox bookmarks.
- Open the Bookmarks Manager again (see above) and this time choose to Import Bookmarks. Choose to import "From File", then select the file on your Desktop and proceed.
- Now you should have all of your bookmarks in your browser. Now, go ahead and manually synch with the Foxmarks server.
- Because the two versions are incompatible, you will want to go upgrade all of your other computers with the new Foxmarks add-on. Any computers still running 1.01 will not be able to sync with the computer you just upgraded to 2.x.
Hope this helps anyone who gets temporarily worried that they just lost everything.
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