Mozilla VPN is currently experiencing an outage. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue. Please check the status page for real-time updates. Thank you for your patience.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Backup/Exported Bookmarks files (.json/.html) aren't the same (checksum) between Synced devices

  • 3 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by rv

rv
rv
more options

Hi, thanks a lot in advance and sorry to bother. :)

I have a couple of desktop/laptop devices synced with the same account. When I make a backup/export of my bookmarks in each device (.json/.html files) the checksums of those files don't coincide between devices. Nevertheless, if I open the exported HTMLs in Firefox and save them as Text Files, the resultant files have all the same checksum (sha256sum), i.e., are all the same.

Is this how it is supposed to be? Or should my bookmarks JSON/HTML files be exactly the same in all devices and something is wrong?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Hi, thanks a lot in advance and sorry to bother. :) I have a couple of desktop/laptop devices synced with the same account. When I make a backup/export of my bookmarks in each device (.json/.html files) the checksums of those files don't coincide between devices. Nevertheless, if I open the exported HTMLs in Firefox and save them as Text Files, the resultant files have all the same checksum (sha256sum), i.e., are all the same. Is this how it is supposed to be? Or should my bookmarks JSON/HTML files be exactly the same in all devices and something is wrong? Thanks a lot in advance.

Modified by rv

Chosen solution

rv.sin.mail said
Nevertheless, if I open the exported HTMLs in Firefox and save them as Text Files, the resultant files have all the same checksum (sha256sum), i.e., are all the same.

Do the text files just contain the bookmark names/titles? The HTML may contain icon data, and this can vary between profiles, as you may have noticed (some have the real site icon after you visited the site, some have the globe because you didn't visit on that profile).

By the way, you could use a diff program to compare the HTML files. (I think it would struggle with the JSON files.)

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

You can do a compare to see where the files differ. JSON and HTML backups contain metadata like date/time for last accessed and thus can be different.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

rv.sin.mail said
Nevertheless, if I open the exported HTMLs in Firefox and save them as Text Files, the resultant files have all the same checksum (sha256sum), i.e., are all the same.

Do the text files just contain the bookmark names/titles? The HTML may contain icon data, and this can vary between profiles, as you may have noticed (some have the real site icon after you visited the site, some have the globe because you didn't visit on that profile).

By the way, you could use a diff program to compare the HTML files. (I think it would struggle with the JSON files.)

rv
rv Question owner
more options

Thanks a lot, @cor-el and @jscher2000 !

The info you mentioned is really helpful. Can't remember why I didn't made a `diff` between the JSON/HTML files, but I'm gonna do it to better understand the case. Hope that clarifies it fully.

Have a beautiful day. ^_^