With the impending closure of
Xmarks this January I decided to look for a way to keep using the service. Since I still used Firefox as my primary browser and I remembered that you could host your own bookmarks with the Xmarks BYOS Edition I decided to head down that path. Xmarks BYOS is only available as a Firefox add-on. I don’t expect development to extend to Chrome, IE or Safari.
You will need to have access to a FTP server to host your own Xmarks files. You can host your own FTP server with Filezilla Server or use space on a web server if you have FTP access to it. (Setup of Filezilla is beyond the scope of this post. I may add a tutorial on this in the future.)
Here are the steps we will follow to use Xmarks BYOS:
- uninstall Xmarks
- create a folder on your FTP server
- install Xmarks BYOS
- configure Xmarks to use your FTP site
Step 1: Uninstall Xmarks
- Open Firefox
- Click on Tools
- Click on Ad-Ons
- Highlight Xmarks
- Click Uninstall
- Reboot Firefox
Step 2: Setup your FTP server
- Create a folder on your FTP server called “Xmarks”
Wow that was easy wasn’t it?
Step 3: Install Xmarks BYOS
- Head here for the installer
- Click on the Continue to Download button
- Click the Download button
- Accept all prompts and reboot Firefox to complete the install
Step 4: Configure Xmarks BYOS
- Enter your FTP site username and password in the appropriate fields.
- Enter the URL to your FTP site
- i.e. ftp://ftp-server-address/xmarks/bookmarks.json
- i.e. ftp://ftp-server-address/xmarks/passwords.json
- Click Synchronize now
- If you want to sync your passwords click on the Sync tab and check the passwords check box
- Enter the password you want for your passwords file. This cannot be the same as your Xmarks BYOC password.
- Click OK to finish
You can repeat steps 3 & 4 on as many computers are you require. Just make sure the settings are exactly the same or sync will not work.
If you’re using your own FTP server make sure to make backup copies of your .json files.
UPDATE 29/09/10:
Thanks to Jonathan & Alicia we see that BYOS will not work with Firefox 4.0, whenever it is released. However, Alicia reports that these instructions do work with the latest Xmarks release, which you can find info on here.
your post is so good.thanks for this post….
I’ve updated the post with the info from Jonathan and Alicia.
The addon’s notes say it isn’t compatible with FF4. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13255/
According to Xmarks, the most recent release allows users to sync with own server, and is compatible with FF4. http://blog.xmarks.com/?page_id=1883#byos
I followed your directions above except instead of using the BYOS plugin, I used the most recent update of xmarks. So far it’s working!!
Alicia,
Thanks for the links and the news on the latest version of Xmarks.
It’s my understanding that this will not work with Firefox 4…
Do you have a source for this info? I know FF4 has a built in bookmark sync but I assume Mozilla wouldn’t force out alternatives.
Dave, thank you for this tutorial. A noob question for you: how would we get the BYOS plugin if the xmarks site goes down?
The BYOS plugin is hosted at Mozilla, so it should be available long after Xmarks closes up shop.
There is also some home that they will release the source code and open source it.
i am sorry to say but …
addons.mozilla.org just told me:
“We’re sorry, but we can’t find what you’re looking for.”
It looks like the file has been removed since XMarks was purchased and will live on.
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