Xmarks User Manual An easy to understand guide on how to use Xmarks.

Internet Explorer Troubleshooting

If you've made it to this error page, you probably encountered an error while trying to synchronize with Xmarks for IE. The error most likely looked something like:

We've put together this page to help you fix the error and get you back to happy synchronization!

 

Error source

The first thing to look at is the error's source, listed in brackets just after XmarksException. The source tells us what kind of error happened and can be one of the following.

windows

This is the most common type of error and happens when Xmarks for IE runs into problems while interacting with with your IE Favorites. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but usually happens if other applications are interacting with your Favorites at the same time as Xmarks. The error's id(listed just after the source) will tell you exactly what caused the error. That id matches up to a Windows error number, which you can find here. Additionally, the error's message should include a path to the file that is causing problems. Some common errors are:

• Error 2 (file not found): Something happened to a file while we were trying to manipulate it. Usually attempting to sync again will fix this problem
• Error 5 (access denied): Xmarks doesn't have permission to write to the specified file. This usually means that the file has read only access. You can work around this problem by (a) deleting the Favorite in IE if you don't care about it or (b) going to the file in Windows Explorer, view the Properties, and uncheck "Read Only" attributes.
• Error 32 (sharing violation): Another program is attempting to access your Favorites as well. Do you have any other Favorite synchronization programs running? They may conflict with Xmarks. If you do, try disabling the other application and synchronizing again. (And let us know if that fixes the problem, we'd love to hear of any conflicting applications!) Another common issue is that Windows' indexing service causes conflicts. You can disable indexing on your Favorites folder by right-clicking on the folder in Windows Explorer, selecting Properties, then clicking the Advanced button. Disable the checkbox that says "Index this folder for faster searching" and try synchronizing again.

There are also a few generic things you can try. First, restarting your machine might help. Occasionally files get stuck in a complicated state and Xmarks doesn't know what to do about it. Restarting your machine will reset everything for you. If that doesn't fix things, you may have to delete the problem file manually. You can do this by navigating to the path specified in the error message. After removing the file, you can do a manual download (from the advanced Xmarks dialog) to get your local Favorites back in sync with what we have stored on the server.

windows_shell and windows_auth

Windows shell and authentication errors are Windows error that don't use the standard error id format. These are both uncommon error states. The best way to get started is to note the the error ID and error message, then visit our support forums.

network

Network errors are usually caused when Xmarks for IE can't connect to the internet. This means either (a) you've lost your network connection or you have some firewall installed that's prevent Xmarks from sending requests to our servers. The first steps you can take to solve this problem are to first verify that your internet connection works. Additionally, if you have a firewall, make sure it allows Xmarks to send information.

If you're having network issues while attempting to sign in, you can try turning off encryption (from the advanced Xmarks dialog).

internal

Internal errors occur when Xmarks runs into an unexpected problem. If this is happening during a synchronization it may mean that Xmarks has gotten a bit confused. The easiest way to attempt to set things straight is to go to the Advanced settings and do a Download. (Note: this will replace your current Favorites with what you have saved on our servers!) If that doesn't clear things up the best place to get started is in the support forums.

 

Authentication Issues

If you're using Home or Starter versions of Windows*, Xmarks may not be able to save your user name and password data. This means that every time you restart Windows you'll need to reenter your Xmarks user information. We are working on a permanent solution, but in the mean time there is a very technical work around available:

• Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• You should see a key named Xmarks in that location
• Edit the Xmarks key's value, adding -u [your user name] -p [your password] after the -q flag
• Restart Windows and you should now be automatically authenticated with Xmarks.

* Versions affected: Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Starter, and Windows XP Home Edition

 

 

Support forums

Sadly, this page won't solve every problem. Fortunately, you can get additional support on our official support forums! Take a look to see if anyone else has asked the same question. If not, start a new thread and someone from Xmarks should get back to you shortly. Make sure to include the error's source, id, and message to ensure we can help as best as possible.