Firefox bookmarks - can they be easily sent to new Win7 machine without connecting them?

General Questions
#1

Sorta need help fast, but I can manually move them if I have to. I replaced our old (7 yrs!) xp machine today. It didn’t die, but seemed to be getting more and more bad bugs lately (caught and fixed, but still…) and I don’t want connect the two machines for fear of something ugly migrating over from the old one. It’s pretty old, but still works OK; just getting more and more sluggish. I saved all our firefox bookmarks as directed on the firefox help site and have them saved as links in an e-mail, which is hosted at comcast. Accessed them fine on the new machine, but need to know if they can be fully ‘dropped’ into the new firefox browser on the new machine. No luck finding the specifics to switch them over completely. Anyone here have any suggestions other than dropping each link into the new machine from the e-mail?

Thanks a bunch for any thoughts!

#2

For the more recent versions of firefox, just copy your old places.sqlite file from the old firefox profile into the new location. It’s small enough that you can simply copy it onto any removable media. Older versions of firefox used to keep them in a file called bookmarks.html, which you could actually read directly and edit, too, if so minded.

ETA:

Or you could mail it as an attachment, come to that.

Where your profile directory is (by default):

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles

#3

Personally, I just copy the entire /mozilla/firefox directory onto any media ( such as a cd or usb drive ) and after installing firefox ( to create the directories on the new operating system ) overwrite the new /mozilla/firefox.

If it’s not too big, and one has no media, one could upload either the whole directory or as yabob says, the places.sqlite, to some temporary webspace, and then download it to the new computer.

Just make sure Fx is closed before doing any work on firefox files.

#4

Export as HTML, email to yourself, import on the other side.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Bookmarks#w_importing-and-exporting-bookmarks

#5

Thanks, yabob. That .sqlite file is what I have saved on e-mail, but I can’t seem to get it to drop into the new firefox browser on the new machine. Tried copying it to a disc, but windows won’t read the JSON file extension. I’ll keep trying. If it gets too irritating, I’ll just drag them over manually. I’d rather not though, and would also like to better learn my way around firefox for future reference. I’ve really come to appreciate it as a browser over explorer.

#6

I’ve always created a backup under Organize Bookmarks.
That creates a file like - bookmarks-2011-03-02.json

email it or put on a USB drive the new machine. Then Restore, Choose File

#7

You could look into getting the xmarks add-on, which automatically keeps your bookmarks synchronized. Probably not necessary for this one occasion, but it will be handy the next time you get a new computer.

#8

Just wanted to update before this fell off the page: used xmarks; worked perfectly. Thanks to all who replied. Side note: xmarks was apparently just taken over by another company (the site mentioned it several times). Hopefully this won’t mean it turns into a pay site, but who knows.

Thanks again!

#9

I recommend downloading and using the MozBackup utility. It backs up your bookmarks, cookies, cache, etc.

#10

I win!

#11

There’s a pay version of xmarks that extends your firefox bookmark syncs onto your smartphone (iOS, Android, or Blackberry). That’s the revenue stream. I wouldn’t expect the basic PC sync to go pay.

#12

The next version of Firefox will have Firefox Sync built in. I believe you can also find it now as an extension.