Foxmarks: Disappearing Bookmarks
From Foxmarks Wiki
Contents |
What is this?
If you're reading this page, it's probably because Xmarks has detected that your set of bookmarks has recently gotten much smaller. If you've recently deleted a large number of bookmarks, there is likely nothing to worry about. You can close this window and click "OK" to allow Xmarks to continue synchronizing.
If you haven't recently deleted a large number of bookmarks, something may have gone wrong with your bookmark set. Xmarks displays a warning in order to allow you to determine whether there is a problem before you continue synchronizing, as synchronizing in this case could cause Xmarks to spread your damaged bookmarks to other computers.
Before you continue synchronizing, we strongly recommend that you examine your bookmarks either by opening the bookmarks menu in this browser window, or by opening the Bookmark Manager by clicking "Organize Bookmarks" in the bookmarks menu. If everything looks okay, you can close this window and click OK.
What to do if you see a problem
If you do see a problem with your bookmarks, don't fear: your bookmarks are likely to be recoverable. Here are some things you can do:
Download your bookmarks from the Xmarks Server
Log in at http://my.xmarks.com/ to examine your bookmarks as they exist on the Xmarks server. If they look okay, download them to your computer with the following steps:
- Close this window.
- Click Cancel on the Xmarks warning dialog.
- Open the Xmarks Settings (Tools -> Xmarks -> Settings)
- Click the "Advanced" tab.
- Click "Download".
- When a message appears asking you to confirm the overwrite of your local bookmarks, click "OK".
This will restore your bookmarks to match their state on the Xmarks server. Note that you will lose whatever bookmarks you had on this computer before the download, so you should only do that if the bookmarks on the server are everything that you need.
Recover from a Firefox Backup
If you cannot use the download feature above, an alternative is to recover your bookmarks from Firefox's backup. Firefox automatically maintains a set of bookmark backups for you, typically 5 days' worth. Instructions for recovering from these backups are available on the Mozilla site.
After you recover your bookmarks, you should immediately perform an upload with the following steps:
- Open the Xmarks Settings (Tools -> Xmarks -> Settings)
- Click the "Advanced" tab.
- Click "Upload".
- When a message appears asking you to confirm the overwrite of the server's bookmarks, click "OK".
Restore any previous version
Version 3.3 and above of Xmarks for Firefox allows you to restore to previous versions from your Xmarks settings.
- Open the Xmarks Settings (Tools -> Xmarks -> Settings)
- Click the "Restore" tab.
- Select a bookmark set from the list and click "Preview Bookmarks".
- Once you've confirmed the set you'd like to restore to, click "Restore Bookmarks".
You can also restore your bookmarks to a previous version on the Xmarks server from any browser.
For details on how to restore your bookmarks online, please consult Product Features: Backup and Restore
Why does this happen?
There are a number of things that can cause your bookmarks to disappear, but none of them are due to Xmarks itself. If Firefox doesn't shut down properly, your bookmarks file on disk can become corrupted, for instance. There may be a problem with your profile, the set of files in which Firefox stores all of the information specific to your installation, including your bookmarks. Xmarks can't prevent these problems from happening. But we are trying to limit the damage by detecting when this problem has occurred, and by providing this information to help you recover.
If you need further help, please email us.
