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In a post by Paco Abato

Bulk edit Firefox bookmarks

a concept is presented for using SQLite to bulk edit Firefox bookmarks. This may prove to be a wonderful find for me, as I'd like to bulk edit the bookmark names (and possibly the URLs). Unfortunately, and although I've done work in various databases in the past (dBase, Foxpro, MS Access, and MS SQL), I've been retired for 5 years and am totally unfamiliar with SQLite.

I've obtained SQLite (and verified the checksum), installed it, and am trying to open a copy of Places.SQLite, but get the error "Could not open database: unable to open database file." The error seems like it might be connected to the name of the table ("Firefox") that is automatically populated by SQLite.

Other than that, I'm at a loss. If this is a case where I just need to RTFM and tutorial(s) for SQLite I'm happy to do so. I was just hoping to sidestep that if that's a long way to journey just figure out how to achieve this somewhat narrow use of SQLite.

MANY thanks for any help you can give!

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Addendum

It might be worthwhile to expand on this to say that I've currently got somewhere between 13,000 - 14,000 bookmarks ; I know, insanely too many, that's why I'm trying to find tools to aid in reducing and managing them. I truly am hoping to move in the direction of less-to-manage simpler-and easier-to-manage, and more security (in all of my PC activities). I'm actually thinking about the value of the old IE paradigm of internet/URL shortcut files rather than HTML, JSON, or SQLite databases for bookmark storage. This would allow segregating branches or ad-hoc groupings of bookmarks much more easily than exporting HTML files of all bookmarks and then deleting the archived bookmarks from the active file, and vice-versa.

Contrarian
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  • I had an issue with Firefox and bookmarks so I wrote an app in VB.Net that lets me store URL's Name of the site and I can assign a type of website to each link. Click on the link and it will open the site. Also included date last time I visited the site. SQLite is the DB Your welcome to the code I will put it in GitHub – Vector Mar 15 '23 at 22:50

2 Answers2

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Please, first close Firefox, then access the places.sqlite .

The sqlite db is living paralyzed in a file, waiting for the tool to awaken it. So there is no intermediate daemon/service that handles concurrent access to the data as done by conventional databases.

Firefox is probably never unlocking the places.sqlite during its runtime.

dodrg
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  • Many thanks for your response! Actually, I'm trying to open a *copy* of places.SQLite ; is that a problem? – Contrarian Mar 15 '23 at 15:55
  • Did you copy it while Firefox has been running? – dodrg Mar 15 '23 at 15:59
  • If the problem persists, try to open the DB with an other tool. i.e. this free one: https://sqlitebrowser.org – dodrg Mar 15 '23 at 16:06
  • I *thought* I'd closed FF but I'll try again. If that doesn't work I'll try sqlitebrowser.org. MANY thanks for *that* suggestion, too! – Contrarian Mar 15 '23 at 21:17
  • You should really look in the taskmanager. Sometimes one doesn't see a window but Firefox is still active. – dodrg Mar 16 '23 at 00:01
  • Yup, I've seen this happen before so I'll bet that you're right. Thanks for the reminder and I'll check it out! – Contrarian Mar 16 '23 at 16:26
  • dodrg : SQLite Browser opens the db (copy) fine but I'll still check TM to see if FF is still active. Again, many thanks for the help & suggestions. This may be just the start of a journey with exploring bookmark manipulation! – Contrarian Mar 16 '23 at 16:30
  • your tip about checking TM to see if modules of a program are still running actually helped me to *fully* and *permanently* remove M$ Edge from my machine! Double thanks! – Contrarian Mar 16 '23 at 23:55
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I think this question has come to its end for now. My question has been answered, even if my final objective hasn't been met. I'll be posting a new question to approach conversion of an exported HTML file into a corresponding directory/folder structure with internet links (URLs).

Thanks, again!

Contrarian
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    If the question is answered, then put the "Answered flag" to the right answer. That shows the respect to the community aiding you. — Solving all your problems in one question is not the objective of this forum. – dodrg Mar 20 '23 at 15:08
  • Thanks for the reminder, dodrg. I apologize for being such a newb... – Contrarian Mar 21 '23 at 17:12
  • Also, I'm truly sorry if my comment regarding *question* vs. *objective* was offensive ; I was beginning to sense that I might want to go in another direction than using SQLite for a solution and wanted to *avoid* doing the very thing that it appears I've done. Please accept my apology, and many thanks for everyone's help and forbearance. – Contrarian Mar 21 '23 at 21:27
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