What do you want to do with your backup file? If you want to import it as an addition to your existing bookmarks, I have a tool to convert the .json file to a bookmarks.html file on my site here:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html

Then you would use the Import function: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file

Then you typically would discover a hideous amount of duplication and start pulling your hair out over that.

Thank you. It truly is incomprehensible that the designers of this program would choose this bizarre file format instead of just using what is conventional. All bookmarks should be readable by all browsers. Obviously. Anything else makes no sense. Some sites are better in Firefox based and some are better in Chrome based. Yet organizations continue to try to live all alone on their island. One of life's great mysteries. Or idiocies.

Firefox lets you use the file format of your choice by offering BOTH Export and Import AND Backup and Restore. But this assumes you know the difference. Since that isn't explained on the menus, it's easy to end up in your situation where you chose one thinking it was the other.

The HTML format is only basic and only includes the URL and Title and a possible favicon (clipboard: text/html). The JSON format includes all available meta data and is a text representation of how the bookmark is stored internally. This JSON data is on the clipboard as flavor "text/x-moz-place" if you do a copy and can actually be used to copy bookmarks (not folders) from one profile to another profile when both profile are open at the same time.

For this page this can be:

{"title":"How do I copy over backed up JSON bookmarks? | Firefox Support Forum | Mozilla Support","id":7259,"itemGuid":"glE3dhdRcqG6","instanceId":"Xf3DNoTpKe_o","parent":3,"parentGuid":"toolbar_____","dateAdded":1660358970033000,"lastModified":1660358970033000,"type":"text/x-moz-place","uri":"https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1385865"}

Does anyone know of a bookmark program that has been around for a while so it has a good reputation, that is fully compatible with both Chrome and Firefox?

I've been experimenting with just using a text based one and its surprisingly efficient. Especially because I can lay it out just the way it suits me. But I wonder if a spreadsheet or another type of software may be better. The weakness of the text based format is most people don't know how to expand and collapse sections of the text. Of course they could always learn! I would think that expanding/collapsing of text is the cornerstone of a bookmark program, especially if it has a lot of bookmarks.

Firefox lets you use the file format of your choice by offering BOTH Export and Import AND Backup and Restore. But this assumes you know the difference. Since that isn't explained on the menus, it's easy to end up in your situation where you chose one thinking it was the other.

Maybe I'm missing something but export, import, backup and restore are pretty basic concepts. I think we're all pretty familiar with them.

All I'm saying is Firefox should save their bookmarks in a format that is at least readable in their OWN BROWSER! Does that not make sense? Who saves stuff in a format that their own software can't open? How bizarre is that?

What should be an industry standard is all bookmarks from all browsers should be readable in all browsers. But alas, this is techland where common sense takes a back seat to emotional insecurity and pride.

There shouldn't be a problem to restore a JSON backup, either a not compressed .json file or a compressed jsonlz4 file, provided the file isn't corrupted.

• Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

Of course I can restore them. But you can't do that without wiping out the bookmarks you already have. What an utterly brilliant design move! So you need to use a Portable version of Firefox for this I guess or another version besides Mozilla. I tried with Waterfox and it worked.

Opera 12 had a well really designed bookmark system. Chrome is a nightmare. Its hard to believe they even call it a bookmark system. The only solution is to have a bookmark system completely independent of ANY browser because you can depend on one thing: Some tech designer will screw things up.

So now the question is what kind of software is well suited to organizing bookmarks? Sadly I'm not very familiar with spreadsheet programs; I certainly admire their power and efficiency. But as they're really designed for organizing numbers they're probably not the best.

If you wish to keep current bookmarks then you can create an HTML backup beforehand and restore this backup after you have restores a JSON backup. You can possibly edit the HTML backup if you only want to import a specific set of bookmarks and not all of them to avoid getting dpulicates.

How would I edit the HTML backup? By using an HTML editor or could I do it in Notepad or another text program? Of course I'd be looking at reams of gibberish and have to wade through all of it. I could use the Find command though if the words were specific. It sure would be nice if the text version wasn't all meshed together.

Do you like to take notes with your bookmarks? The bibliographic program Zotero could be interesting in that case. You can import your bookmarks.html file as a starting point. They also have a Firefox add-on to send new bookmarks to the program. Cloud sync is optional.

https://www.zotero.org/

Yeah I like notes. I think most people would like that option. Another way is to use a file manager. Even Windows Explorer. The problem is you can't title the folder using some symbols like \ or / so the actual clickable link has to be in text format within that folder. Still file managers offer an effortless way to move around. But they don't offer tagging. What we need is a folder structure like Windows Explorer except that is collapsible/navigable with the arrow keys. We all hate smashing Enter or Spacebar over and over to see the contents whether you're using in single or dual columns. Why they would opt for that when in dual columns is incomprehensible its so illogical. I'm sure they have an excuse. If you don't mind smashing something to see the contents Windows Explorer can work. But its really a prehistoric way to navigate. In Windows XP, Windows Explorer used the right/left arrow keys for navigation along with up/down. But in Win7 that seems to be have been abolished for some bizarre, incomprehensible reason. Another option is to use a photo file manager which often uses the arrow keys to expand/collapse. XN View seems to work. It offers 2 columns so when you highlight the left column its contents are displayed in the right column. So sensible. Some File Managers do that. Not sure which. MultiCommander doesn't seem to. I'll look for others. With XN View you just double click the text file containing the URL and the default text program opens it. Basically doing it this way means there's one more step to opening a bookmark: Opening that last text file. But up to that point XN VIew works quite well. What would be REALLY good for a Bookmark program would be to somehow encode each link so the right browser opens it. With my way so far only the default browser will work. Otherwise I have to copy and paste the link to the correct browser. Not the end of the world since this is a minority of the cases.

WinDirStat is a File Manager that shows sizes of folders which is nice but it doesn't offer a 2nd column. Faststone image viewer has a bizarre way of highlighting folders. Doesn't work conventionally. XN View offers a variety of layouts which is great for personalization. Perhaps other photo file managers are better. Who would have thought to use a Photo viewer/manager as a Bookmark organizer?