Automatically Backing Up Firefox Bookmarks

2009 Aug 26 - Brian Kloppenborg

Firefox can automatically export your bookmarks whenever the browser is closed by setting the following field: Open up the about:config page (i.e. type `about:config`` in the address bar) and set:

browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML = true

This will export your bookmarks to a file called “bookmarks.html” in your profile directory (e.g. /home/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/\_uniqueID\_/bookmarks.html for Linux or inside of the C:\\Documents and Settings\\username\\Application Data\ folder on Windows). That is useful, but if you want the bookmarks in a convenient location for some other automated backup process (i.e. rsync or Offline Files) you should also tell Firefox where to place the file using the

browser.bookmarks.file 

setting in about:config. You will need to add the (string) key because it does not exist by default:

With the (string) value being the location to which you want the file saved. For Linux users you simply specify the full path and name of the file (i.e. /home/$USER/bookmarks.html). For Windows users, you need to do the same but you must include two slashes between the drive letter and path (i.e. `C:\Documents and Settings\username\bookmarks.html``).

For more information, see Mozilla’s documentation: browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML and browser.bookmarks.file