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Importing a hierarchy of firefox bookmarks in konqueror can be tricky, as konqueror's bookmarks editor doesn't read firefox's sqlite databases where the bookmarks are stored.

Konqueror bookmarks are normally stored in a file ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/bookmarks.xml , which is actually a dialect of xml named xbel.

I found very little documentation about this transition, and my first attempt was to export firefox' bookmarks in html format, then import the html bookmarks from konqueror. Unfortunately, it failed to import the subfolders in the tree of bookmarks. It seems to me that this forum is a good place to post a working solution.

The solution is to install the Opera web browser, which can import bookmarks from firefox' places.sqlite file. Once the bookmarks are in Opera, they can be exported in an opera bookmarks format file (extension .adr). Then Konqueror's bookmarks editor is able to import those opera files. HaHa!

All my subfolders were correctly imported into Konqueror.

Edited by Gribouillis
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cereal commented: thanks for sharing! +11

Dani AI

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A short, practical follow-up to 's posts: the Opera bridge is a pragmatic, low-friction way to keep a Firefox folder tree intact when moving bookmarks into Konqueror. The underlying cause is format mismatch — Konqueror expects an XML-style bookmark file while the simple HTML export that many browsers produce can lose nested folders on import.

If installing another browser is not desirable, a reliable alternative is to convert the Netscape-style HTML export into Konqueror's XML form with an XSLT transform and then import that XML. Example workflow:

  • Export Firefox bookmarks to the standard HTML (Netscape) format.
  • Apply an HTML→Konqueror-XML XSLT with xsltproc.
  • Validate the resulting XML and import it into Konqueror.

Example commands (replace filenames as needed):

xsltproc html-to-konq-xsl.xsl firefox-export.html > konqueror-bookmarks.xbel
xmllint --noout konqueror-bookmarks.xbel

Quick tips and cautions:

  • Back up both browsers' bookmark stores before any operation.
  • Test the pipeline on a small subset first to confirm folder nesting is preserved.
  • Expect that tags, favicons and some metadata may not transfer; plan to deduplicate and tidy up after import.
  • If Konqueror still flattens folders, inspect the HTML nesting (DL/DT/DD structure) or try a different XSLT that preserves deeper levels.

Also note 's reverse method (export from Konqueror in Netscape format to import into Firefox or other browsers) remains a useful complement when moving bookmarks the other way.

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How to import Konqueror/Rekonq bookmarks in Firefox or QupZilla

This thread would be incomplete without the reversed operation:

  1. Create an empty file ~/.netscape/bookmarks.html
  2. Open the Konqueror bookmarks manager and select file->export->export Netscape bookmarks. This will fill the file bookmarks.html with the bookmarks hierarchy in the NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 format.
  3. Open the firefox bookmarks manager and choose import bookmarks from html file. Browse to the file ~/.netscape/bookmarks.html and validate.

Edit: I was also able to import bookmarks in qupzilla with this technique, but qupzilla currently 'flattens' the hierarchy, allowing only one level of folders.

Specs: Rekonq 2.4.2 in Kde 4.13.3, Firefox 34.0, QupZilla 1.6.0

Edited by Gribouillis
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