OnyX deleted all my Firefox bookmark locations!

[usagora]

I just sent an email to OnyX about this, but wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue. For a long time, I've seen OnyX recommended on this forum as a good maintenance/clean-up tool to be run occasionally. So I decided to download it last night (OnyX 3.5.2 for macOS Mojave 10.14) and run the default maintenance processes (I made no changes to any options). My iMac rebooted and I went to bed. This morning, I open Firefox and discover that ALL of my bookmarks have been stripped of their location (URL) data, rendering them useless. Thankfully, Firefox keeps backups of the bookmarks, so it was easy enough to restore, but now I'm a little nervous of what else OnyX may have done to my system that I might discover down the road.

Software: OnyX 3.5.2 for macOS Mojave 10.14
OS: MacOS Mojave 10.4.1
Firefox: 63.0.1

 

[MacInWin]

I just looked into the defaults for OnyX and it should not have done that. It does clear out cache, which may be what you are seeing, but it doesn't clear bookmarks unless you change the defaults. You can see that by opening OnyX, then on the Maintenance tab select the "Options" button in the Internet section and it will show the actions it plans to take. OnyX is normally really reliable so it will be interesting to see what the developer says. You might, in the meantime, check the settings as I indicated.

 

[usagora]

I just looked into the defaults for OnyX and it should not have done that. It does clear out cache, which may be what you are seeing, but it doesn't clear bookmarks unless you change the defaults. You can see that by opening OnyX, then on the Maintenance tab select the "Options" button in the Internet section and it will show the actions it plans to take. OnyX is normally really reliable so it will be interesting to see what the developer says. You might, in the meantime, check the settings as I indicated.

I should have clarified that I indeed checked the settings after the fact to be sure there weren't any options selected (or even not selected) that sounded like they might do that - I didn't see any. And these were indeed bookmarks, not "recently visited" or anything like that which would normally be cleared. I have a whole group of bookmarks that I open at once every morning, and after several times trying that with no response, I noticed that all the bookmark icons were changed to a default "WWW Globe" type icon and all the locations (URLs) were missing. So the bookmarks and the page titles were there, but the URLs gone.

I'll definitely post Titanium's response here when I hear back.

 

[MacInWin]

The WWW Globe icon is the proper thing after OnyX is run in maintenance. The favicon for a website is in cache, and cache gets cleaned out. The favicon will re-appear once you visit the site again. The same thing happens if you clear history in your browser. But even so, the URL should have been there still. I wonder if clearing the DNS cache (also part of maintenance), caused delays in finding the websites altogether?

 

[usagora]

The WWW Globe icon is the proper thing after OnyX is run in maintenance. The favicon for a website is in cache, and cache gets cleaned out. The favicon will re-appear once you visit the site again. The same thing happens if you clear history in your browser. But even so, the URL should have been there still. I wonder if clearing the DNS cache (also part of maintenance), caused delays in finding the websites altogether?

Are you sure? I've often cleared out history and cache (and I always check everything for deletion) through the Firefox menu, and never remember the favicons disappearing upon browser restart. I'll test that when I get home (just tried it here at work with the windows version of Firefox and also Chrome and all the favicons were preserved without having to revisit the sites. I wouldn't really care if they did disappear, though, as long as the URL doesn't too.

 

[ferrarr]

Firefox, must have different default settings than Safari, or so it seems?

 

[MacInWin]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure of that, Jonathan. I've had to dump Safari history before and the favicons have always been gone. Firefox may be different, I don't use it.

 

[usagora]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure of that, Jonathan. I've had to dump Safari history before and the favicons have always been gone. Firefox may be different, I don't use it.

Apparently it must be Safari-specific behavior then. It does sort of seem an odd thing for a browser to purge, though.

 

[MacInWin]

I would have thought that if I deleted history, favicons would be one of the first things to go. They are easily reacquired by simply going to the site, carry no useful content and are clearly not essential. I'm really surprised if a dump of history doesn't delete them from Firefox. Maybe they are kept in bookmarks, but otherwise, no reason to hold on to them. But I guess anything is possible.

 

[usagora]

I would have thought that if I deleted history, favicons would be one of the first things to go. They are easily reacquired by simply going to the site, carry no useful content and are clearly not essential. I'm really surprised if a dump of history doesn't delete them from Firefox. Maybe they are kept in bookmarks, but otherwise, no reason to hold on to them. But I guess anything is possible.

Well I can't agree with that. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words" - I often find a bookmark quickly by seeing that little icon rather than reading the title. Essential? No. Useful? I'd say so (otherwise, why would they even be a thing?). Yes, they can be reacquired, but it seems silly to have to open all your bookmarks to do so. Just my 2 cents, of course. I'll check my Mac version of Firefox tonight to see if it deletes those. Now I'm all curious, LOL!

 

[MacInWin]

Jonathan, I guess it's a "style" thing. If I delete cache, I want it gone. A favicon is not something I want to keep, ever. Yes, they can be sort of useful, maybe, but again, when I want to clean something, I want it cleaned. Favicons don't take up much space, but it's the principle of the thing. Items in history *might* be revisited, but, then again, maybe not. So saving a favicon because I *might* want it in cache, when I've purged cache, is not how I want it to operate.

Different strokes for different folks...

 

[chscag]

As stated by Jake, if you clear Safari history or cache, it will remove the favicons. And if you have a 100 or so bookmarks like most of us it can be a real pain trying to recover them. I don't use Firefox (I dislike it) so I can't relate to what's happening there. The only browser that I have used which does not clear the favicons upon deletion of history is Chrome. But of course, Chrome has other problems.

 

[usagora]

Confirmed: even with all options checked for deletion, FireFox for Mac does not remove the favicons from bookmarks (as I said before, that makes more sense to me than deleting them, since to me they are part of the bookmark).

 

[Rod]

Okay, I ran OnyX for Mojave more or less as soon as it was available on the Maintainence schedule and once more since and have not observed the behavior usagora describes. So what was different for usagora?
Below is what Safari looks like for me today.

 

[chscag]

It appears that all your favicons are gone Rod. The only ones that I see there are those sites you visited since then.

I have run OnyX several times since installing Mojave and it has not impacted any of my favicons. I run OnyX in auto maintenance mode.

 

[Rod]

I've always been a strong proponent of keeping all ones favorite bookmarks in another browser in case they need to be restored and as I use Firefox Quantum as my default browser I've always reserved Safari for that purpose. So to hear that they may be erased by running a trusted app like OnyX is a little disturbing although like usagora I am a Mozilla subscriber so I can always restore that way.
I think I would just check that everything is up to date macOS and OnyX then try again and see if it was just an isolated incident. Obviously if it can be repeated ther is a problem to address and if not, well just a glitch?

 

[usagora]

I've always been a strong proponent of keeping all ones favorite bookmarks in another browser in case they need to be restored and as I use Firefox Quantum as my default browser I've always reserved Safari for that purpose. So to hear that they may be erased by running a trusted app like OnyX is a little disturbing although like usagora I am a Mozilla subscriber so I can always restore that way.
I think I would just check that everything is up to date macOS and OnyX then try again and see if it was just an isolated incident. Obviously if it can be repeated ther is a problem to address and if not, well just a glitch?

Just to be clear, the issue appears to only happen in FireFox, which like you happens to be my main browser. Yep, all programs and OS are up to date. At your advice, I tested it again. Just reinstalled OnyX 3.5.2 for macOS Mojave 10.14 from Titanium's website, ran the default maintenance tasks, and sure enough all my bookmarks were stripped again of their location URLs. See screenshots below. Note there IS an option to clear "Bookmark icons," but it's not checked by default:





After running the default tasks:

 

[Rod]

Yes, for sure the favicons are gone but the lists and sites remain. Clicking on any of the sites restores them. They have not "been stripped of their location (URL) data, rendering them useless," as in your case.

 

[usagora]

Yes, for sure the favicons are gone but the lists and sites remain. Clicking on any of the sites restores them. They have not "been stripped of their location (URL) data, rendering them useless," as in your case.

I'm a little confused because the screenshot you posted earlier was Safari, not FireFox. I'm assuming your bookmarks are also fine in Firefox after running OnyX maintenance tasks? Your "Mac Specs" say you're running High Sierra (10.13), but you said you're running Mojave now, right ("I ran OnyX for Mojave more or less as soon as it was available...")?

 

[Rod]

Hmm, It looks exactly like mine. Ill run it again and see what happens.