Firefox bookmarks false threat warning

[mdavidfrost]

When I scanned using Spybot Search & Destroy yesterday, more than 1,800 Firefox bookmarks were shown as potential threats. Without thinking through the possible consequences, I deleted them using Spybot Search & Destroy. (Or rather I assumed that Spybot Search & Destroy would allow me to restore them, but they didn't show up on the list of items which could be restored.)

Afterwards the bookmarks were obviously no longer in Firefox. Fortunately I back up my bookmarks virtually every day, but when I imported them, I was unable to delete the previous bookmarks which were still in Firefox, presumably because Firefox had been corrupted. Selecting files or folders and clicking on delete just didn't work.

I tried restarting my computer and also restoring the system to a Windows system restoration point, and when neither solved the problem, reinstalled Firefox. However, this didn't work either, so I uninstalled Firefox and removed all my personal Firefox data.

This and doing a clean Firefox installation from scratch did solve the problem, but as well as importing my bookmarks I also had to reinstall the Firefox addons that I use, and configure both Firefox and the addons. The whole process took a couple of hours.

Today the same 1,800+ Firefox bookmarks were again shown as potential threats, but needless to say I didn't allow Spybot Search & Destroy to delete them.

I've been downloading beta updates.

How did this happen, and how will I know when the bug is fixed?

David

[sandybeach]

BUT I assumed FP's and did nothing because ALL Bookmarks indicated were known & trusted. Here's link to my post for curiosity's sake! Only after May 6th Update.
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?p=310960#post310960
:sick::confused:

[Buster]

Hello mdavidfrost,

which Spybot-S&D version do you use? I guess this is caused by an old version using the latest detection updates.

best,
buster!

[mdavidfrost]

Hi Buster,

The install file is spybotsd160, version 1.6.0.0. Is this the most recent version? I don't think it's all that old. I'll check anyway, and if there's a more recent version, I'll download and install it.

If I am using the latest version, what could the problem be?

Thanks,

David

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

You are using an old Spybot version.
Please download our current version Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2.

Please uninstall your old Spybot - Search & Destroy according to the following link:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/howto/uninstall.html
Then make a fresh install of Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2.
You will find links to several download locations on our website:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Or choose the direct installation file (http://www.spybotupdates.com/files/spybotsd162.exe).

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[mdavidfrost]

Hi Sandra,

I did what you said - deleted the old version of Spybot Search & Destroy and downloaded and installed the latest version. I didn't bother to manually remove remaining files and I skipped some read-only files during the installation process.

However, sure enough, when I scanned using the new version my Firefox bookmarks didn't appear as potential threats.

Thanks for your help.

David

[delshad]

no.
v1.6.2.0 is doing this.
with
v 1.6.6.32 systems settings protector

1.6.2.0 is deleting firefox 2.0.0.20 bookmarks

please fix this as it is driving us crazy.
:sad:

[Yodama]

@delshad

please make sure to have all Spybot S&D updates and post a screen shot of the scan result detecting your Firefox screen shots so we can see which bookmarks get detected.
You can also send this screen shot to detections@spybot.info with a reference to this thread.

[shilvhwaiixp]

I unfortunately wasn't as smart and didn't backup any of my bookmarks/favorites. There isn't anyway to get them back is there? That's 300+ bookmarks over the course of 8 years that I lost as well. :sad:

[Yodama]

check your Firefox profile folder in c:\documents and settings\<your username>\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\<profile id>
you may find backups of your bookmarks there.
Look for a bookmarks.bak, bookmarks.html.sbsd.bak or a boomarkbackps subfolder. Depending on your version of Firefox these files or folder exist and contain backups of your bookmarks.
This article (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_bookmarks) may help you importing them.

[shilvhwaiixp]

check your Firefox profile folder in c:\documents and settings\<your username>\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\<profile id>
you may find backups of your bookmarks there.
Look for a bookmarks.bak, bookmarks.html.sbsd.bak or a boomarkbackps subfolder. Depending on your version of Firefox these files or folder exist and contain backups of your bookmarks.
This article (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_bookmarks) may help you importing them.

THANK YOU so much! I honestly couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about all that I lost. But your method worked and I found them. Thank you, thank you!!

[badandy80]

I ran into the same issue with deleting my bookmarks in firefox but now when I try to re-bookmark something in my toolbar it isn't saving. I'm assuming this is Spybot blocking it somehow. Any help?