PSA: MEMORY LEAK ALERT! DO NOT INSTALL THIS EXTENSION.

Date of review - 2020-10-27
Version reviewed - 1.2.1
Size 20.89 KB
Last updated 2 years ago (Oct 17, 2018)
License Mozilla Public License, version 2.0


As the developer notes on the github(https://github.com/wincohi/bookmark-notes), "this extension is not currently being maintained! Apologies for the inconvenience."

And it shows.

Importing a previous html bookmark file using the default Firefox "Import and Backup" tool, will result in a Firefox having a memory leak until your system or Firefox crashes. This happens even if you aren't using the extension and merely have the extension enabled. Also moving large sets of bookmarks between folders results in your browser freezing and also consuming a lot of memory.

I would ordinarily post a detailed review but the above memory leak/firefox freeze drawback pretty much renders this extension(at least in my book), not even worth any further consideration.

Move on people. Don't install this. I implore you.

The "Name:" space for default browser bookmark has a 4096 character limitation.

Yes, I measured.

That's what I'm using as my new bookmark "Description/Notes". And if it exceeds that limit, I create the same bookmark once again(Ctrl+C Ctrl+V) and continue my "notes" in the "Name:" field of the 2nd bookmark.

If only Firefox hadn't killed the perfectly innocuous bookmark descriptions feature. :(

It kind of works - it does perform the basic function of storing a note or description for your bookmarks. But there are a lot of issues:

* It was tricky to import notes in the first place. It seemed not to be doing anything. A progress bar or other sort of indicator would help.
* Seems to only work at certain window sizes. Its sidebar wouldn't open when I had the window snapped to half-width (at 1920x1080).
* Does not recognize new bookmarks as soon as they are made. You must close and reopen the sidebar to be able to add a note.
* Can't add notes at folder level.
* Filter/search should display results in a list manner similar to history, rather than having to click through and dig to find individual hits.
* No way to delete notes. You can blank out the text, but the blue icon indicating the presence of a note remains.
* Takes several seconds of apparently doing nothing to load the bookmarks when opening the sidebar.
* Sometimes will only load notes on first open, or close and reopen - sometimes if you change to History or Bookmarks in its menu and then back to Notes, nothing loads.
* In Other Bookmarks, I got a lot of empty descriptions erroneously imported (they really were empty, not a single space character or anything like that) that can't be deleted.

Added 4/24/2020:
After living with the outdated Firefox Ver. 60.xxESR for many months I finally felt I needed to update to a new version in spite of losing easy access to all my bookmark notes. I backed them up and planned on accessing them as an html file in Kompozer.

I then upgraded to the current standard Firefox version and with crossed fingers took another shot at adding BOOKMARK NOTES. Lo and behold it came up correctly and imported all my bookmarks on the first try.

It's been several days now and it is still working properly. As such, at least for now, I'm upgrading my rating to 4 stars. If not for the nasty experience 5 months ago I would have given it 5. If it continues to work problem free over the coming months I'll likely come back and step up my rating to 5 stars.

I don't know why it wouldn't work right before and it now since there is no recent update listed. Perhaps it's a change in something on my PC or in the newest version of Firefox. I'll keep my fingers crossed it continues to work well.

ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW

Works then doesn't work. Sometimes it will have the Firefox bookmarks showing and then the next time I start Firefox they won't be there.

Sometimes when the bookmarks are showing the notes are there and sometimes the note fields are empty.

There is no rhyme or reason to when it is working correctly and when it isn't.

I've installed and uninstalled various past versions of Firefox in order to try and get it to work consistently and current or past versions, standard or esr, don't seem to make any difference.

When it works its great. I like it better than the embedded notes system in the older Firefox versions. However I've given up on trying to use it. The last straw was after shutting down the PC with the Bookmark Notes working properly last night, and then turning on the PC this morning and finding the notes were all gone again. I had to restart Firefox 60.0.9 esr several times before the bookmarks showed up, and then they didn't have the notes.....again. I did one last upgrade to the current non-esr version and while Bookmark Notes showed the bookmarks there were no notes in the note field......again. That was it. I was done wasting time trying to make this thing work.

Frage: Wie exportiere ich wiederum meine neu erstellten Notes aus den "Bookmark Notes"? Es gibt zwar eine Import-Funktion von den alten Firefox-Bookmarks, aber wie exportiere ich nun die neuen "Bookmark-Notes" für ein anderes Gerät?
Wenn ich jetzt nur die Firefox-Bookmarks exportiere (.html or .json), sind dort keine Notes mehr gespeichert. Also wo werden die Notes jetzt mit "Bookmark Notes" gespeichert???
Außerdem werden die Notes manchmal angezeigt und manchmal nicht. Manchmal sind neu gespeicherte Notes beim nächsten Start von Firefox einfach wieder verschwunden. Manchmal werden auch überhaupt keine Bookmarks angezeigt, dann ist die Liste komplett leer. Was nun leider mein aktueller Stand ist. Ich bekomme die Notes nun überhaupt nicht mehr angezeigt. Schlimmstenfalls sind sie nun sogar komplett verloren. Ich weiß wirklich nicht mehr was hier los ist. Jetzt funktioniert überhaupt nichts mehr und eine Sicherung gibt es ja auch nicht (weil man einfach keine anlegen kann).
Sind die Probleme bekannt? Kommen meine Notes nochmal irgendwie zum Vorschein?
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Noch eine Frage (Nachtrag): Kann es sein, daß alle Notizen in "Bookmark Notes" gelöscht werden, wenn man die komplette Chronik bereinigt (also auch mit Website-Daten)?
Ich glaube schon, denn aus irgendeinem Grund sind nun alle Daten weg. Und das ist kein Spaß, das ist Horror!
Sowas muß unbedingt kommuniziert werden, denn ich habe hier in ein paar Kommentaren weiter unter mir dasselbe Problem gelesen. Und es ist leider auch eine Zumutung, wenn den Autor die Probleme anscheinend nicht ansatzweise interessieren.
Dann bitte dieses Add-On löschen und nicht mehr bereitstellen!
Ich nutze nun für die Notes zusätzlich noch Palemoon, da der Browser die Grundstruktur von Firefox verwendet und dort auch immer noch die Notes existieren. Was sich natürlich auch in Zukunft ändern kann. Trotzdem ist es vorerst viel sicherer als mit Bookmark Notes, da man mit Palemoon auch weiterhin die Favoriten mit der Beschreibung sichern kann (im Firefox-Format).
Eine andere Lösung sehe ich zurzeit nicht, es sei denn, Mr. Jase klärt endlich mal auf, wo die Beschreibung nun gespeichert wird und wie man sie sichern kann. Sonst hat dieses ganze Add-on überhaupt keinen Sinn.
Auch mit Sync kann man sich nicht darauf verlassen, daß wirklich auch die Beschreibungen mit synchronisiert werden, denn auch das hat bei mir nicht geklappt.
Also eine Backup-Funktion würde schon vieles retten. Aber so geht das hier überhaupt nicht. Vor allem, wenn hier nichts mehr getan wird, denn dann geht irgendwann viel Arbeit verloren und das braucht nunmal kein Mensch.

I exported my bookmarks to HTML, but now I can't find any way to import them to this extension. I'm rating this poorly for lack of clear functions. I use the descriptions to save location data and contact information for companies, people, etc., very useful and would be inconvenient to store away from the web URL.

Cannot read or write notes in folder. Its created and appear at the side of the browser page which obstruct and lessen my browser view. If you want to read your old notes in bookmark folders, then this extension cannot help you.

Good try, but doesn't work. Syncs a few bookmark notes on a virgin install, but after I import my original file with a hundred notes, sync doesn't work. Developer seems to have lost interest.

Thank you very much for the effort, but I have to rate poorly because of the following:

1. on FF 61.0.2 (64 bit) on GNU/Linux Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) it simply does not import bookmarks: the notes just aren't there after importing from the bookmarks.html file.
2. it makes the RAM usage spike up to 12Gb when syncing between FF 61.0b9 (64 bit) on Windows 10 and 61.0.2 (64 bit) on GNU/Linux Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic). This happens regularly, both ways.

1. It doesn't import the HTML file
2. When I close the extension tab, it won't open again until I restart Firefox
3. Even after adding a note manually, then after I restart Firefox it is gone!
Update: Today 99% of my notes are gone for some reason.

Its acceptable to fill the mess Fire Fox made removing the descriptions option However it does not seem to play with windows 7. Can't get existing notes to come up. Can make new notes. Works great in win 10.

I really would like Mozilla to include something like this within the Firefox bookmark manager. This addon is the next best thing I guess.

I've had to disable the extension 'cos is freezing firefox :/, I'll try with future versions to check if it is fixed.

Would be nice if this was included inside bookmark manager, instead of a sidebar to firefox, IMHO. Thanks, though!

Jase, your bookmarks add-on saved my butt. I thought I'd lost all my important websites notes when Mozilla obliterated the description box. Besides start over with each website and build a massive notes file, what was I going do? Go to Chrome (so minimal, it's useless, nevermind the data collection)? Go to Edge (it's never gonna amount to anything - barely has extensions after all this time as part of Win10)? Go to Opera (an also-ran for rebels)? Maybe IE, but hard as it tries, it's not Firefox and never will be. So, thank you for solving my problem and not driving me to a different browser. Much as some of Mozilla's decisions frustrate me, they still have the best browser, especially because people like you can work around their so-called "improvements".

I almost dumped Firefox when they removed the ability to make notes on websites (version 62.x) without using yet another outside app. Big mistake in usability for a power users with 2000+ bookmarks with critical information tied to most bookmarks. I tried all the of the other addons I could find for notes for a Firefox bookmark or URL and they were not like the great/former Firefox and opera bookmark note functions. This addon brings back most of that capability. I started using it early on and stuck it out as some big issues were worked out over 1 to 2 weeks. I have watched Jase respond to users needs and make this addon better. Since using it, search, click, imports of bookmark data, and user interface improvements have been added and improved quickly. Jase's addon has brought Firefox back to the workhorse app/browser level that I needed. If you need additional notes on a bookmark, this is by far the best and doesn't require you to sign up for some cloud account in chumbawumba (nor might not want for security purposes). I only see it getting better with community support. Highly recommend it.

First of all, thank you for your work!
Import large files now works.
Great would be a hover effects now.

1st off, everything is still gone. I would have to start all over but I need the old remarks to remember what's in them. I'm old. I forget stuff. 2nd this is like having to do double duty more than just clicking on properties. It's a good try but probably won't use it.

Nice and useful for new users.
But how to restore my way too many bookmark notes I collected over more than 10 years?
Sorry but Firefox is going to be replaced soon in my computers. Too many features are being removed suddenly without any prior information.

I just installed today and have had very little time to experience this add-on, yet. While I'm still *really* steamed about losing the Notes section to Firefox (can you say PISSED?), this add-on seems to provide the tools to re-enter my notes for each website I needed notes for. However, having to re-enter ALL my notes will be very laborious and I undoubtedly will have lost many important ones in the process. Kudos to the developer; he has filled a very important function for those of us that utilize notes extensively. Thanks much.

BTW, I'd have to say to Mozilla, that the now-gone Notes section of the bookmarks was one of the VERY most important feature of Firefox to me. Now that it's officially gone, I may have to re-think what browser I use. Chrome and Internet Explorer (or the current substandard offering from MS) do NOT offer a notes section, so Firefox has happily been my browser of choice. FIX THIS MESS, MOZILLA, AND SOON.

Totally screws up the bookmark sidebar's layout.
Don't do that.

Update: I found a Page Memo extension that seems to work for now. It can store notes per URL and displays it on the page. Includes an import/export feature as well.
Original Review
This add-on needs the ability to import and export notes. I use some of them for home and some for work so having them backed up to a file is a necessity. It would also be nice if it could indicate which bookmarks had a note. Also, the layout should be the same as the bookmarks sidebar.