Hello,

I am sorry to hear this, when did this start to happen?

-Thomas

p.s have you done a update since?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Life has been very distressing these months. I suspect that if I had tried this and noted it all messed up before that past week or so I would have just blamed it on me screwing up somehow. Today I just could not take it anymore and VERY carefully reviewed my previously nearly automatic steps.

If forced, I would blame it on the latest update to v47...which I think happened (to me) in the past week or 2?

Sorry to be vague.

As for your PS...what update could I do? It says "Firefox is up to date."

I am sorry to hear this.

About the update I was wondering if it had started after an update has been done, if you want you could try the beta and see if that helps? Let me know if you want to do this.

-tw

I admit, the word 'beta' strikes fear in my heart. I can ill-afford anything else to go wrong in my life and all I've ever heard about beta versions is negative!

Are you suggesting trying the Beta of the NEXT update? (sorry to be dense. I'm not a complete computer moron but these days I feel pretty close.)

kiki95,

There was a change made with Firefox 47 as far as saving a new bookmark, but that change doesn't sound like what you are explaining. From what I have seen happen my self when I tried what another user was explaining in another thread, is that when a single-click is made, the Page Bookmarked "hanger" dialog now times out quickly and close in approx 3 seconds, rather than automatically saving the new bookmark to the Unsorted Bookmarks folder as was done before. And the comp[laint was about that dialog disappearing so fast - that 3 seconds was too fast for it to close.

But I not speaking as an "expert", I don't save many new bookmarks now-a-days and those that I do save I use a different method that isn't even documented, but it has always worked for me I any version of Firefox as far back as I can remember.

I call it drag'n'drop - right into the folder where I want it placed. I do it into the Bookmarks Sidebar usually, but it does work by dragging the tab to either the Bookmarks item on the Menu Bar (if you have that showing all the time) or to the "clipboard" button that is attached to the "Star" - each will open upon "hover" and then allow you to continue to drag-navigate thru the "tree" of folders and open the folder where you want to place to new bookmark.

Mr Meister...

...while this doesn't fix the bug, it is something I would never have discovered and it surely is a very interesting feature ... IF the folders I'm aiming at (literally) aren't TOO far down the list and need to be waited on to appear in the scrolling list AND if I don't actually need to make a new subfolder.

If I don't already have the folder or subfolder it looks like your nifty system will disappoint slightly. I just played with it a bit and it seems you can fairly simply make a new Folder but even your method fails to allow me to make a Subfolder! I can right click on the parent folder and choose "New Folder" but it just makes the folder above the intended one. (But I also found that you can then drag it into the other one.) So, it kinda works and, if no one fixes the original, I may just have to settle for it. At least it doesn't RENAME my existing folders and for that I'm very grateful.

(I don't have the Bookmarks open on the side - occupies too much space. But, to show I'm not completely useless, I had drag'n'dropped in the past - but only into the 'show all Bookmarks' page that opens.)

Only TODAY did I take any notice of that clipboard looking thing beside the star and here you are causing me to use it right away. cool.

Thanks!

You can also drag the tab on either star or "Show your bookmarks" button to open the folder list and drop the tab in a specific bookmarks folder.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
• Do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Are you using Sync to sync the bookmarks? If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync while performing maintenance/repair efforts to files in the Firefox profile folder.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

Thank you cor-el.

As an update, problems persisted despite running in safe mode/add-ons disabled etc.

When I finally figured out how to implement your second suggestion, I ran the Places Maintenance add-on. The reports it generated seemed to say it found no errors/problems and then just did a bit of 'cleanup'. However, testing my issue after that, it seems to be working.

Being the pessimist I am, I am not holding my breath but...maybe it will stay fixed.

Thank you very much for the help.

kiki95 said

... IF the folders I'm aiming at (literally) aren't TOO far down the list and need to be waited on to appear in the scrolling list AND if I don't actually need to make a new subfolder. I

Could be why no one has ever documented that little known feature.

I use the Bookmarks Sidebar to access my bookmarks, so that isn't an issue for me. And a lot of the time I just leave the Sidebar open (since 2009) with wide flat screen LED monitor, rather than have wide margins showing on the webpages I view. And if I need to create a new folder I do it via the contextual menu in the Sidebar. It's a matter of developing a routine that becomes second-nature after time. I have been using Firefox since 2002 and got used to using the Bookmarks Sidebar because that's the way that I accessed my favorites that weren't on the "Links" bar. Helped me with the transition process.

As far as either of the drop-down bookmark displays go, sometimes the scrolling is slow but as recall with the cursor near the bottom of the browser window it did seem to be faster the times I tried doing it that way. But I usually keep the Menu Bar hidden and almost always hide the double paired bookmarks button (Star & Clipboard) in my two most used Profiles - since like Firefox 31 or 32.). IMO, a silly way of doing things - but hey, that's what's nice about Firefox - don't like it, change it or hide it and do it your own way.

I keep my folder structure "nested" just two deep, partially due my preferred width for the Sidebar but that's easily changed. And if you read the Name of the Bookmark, there is a tooltip that appears on hover to help select the one that you want.

Now one thing that affects the two bookmarks drop-down menus )more so than the Sidebar) is the length of the "Name" of bookmarks. Too wordly and the columns (and folder tree sliding out) can get to be very wide; at least the last time I regularly used those menus - like maybe in the days of Firefox 2.0. Just edit the "Name" of the grossest offenders. But maybe Firefox has gotten a handle on having a maximum width and I just haven't seen it "fixed". I dd try some extensions that spread the bookmarks drop-down across the screen, but those never lasted long and none was ever completed but the extension developer, as I ecall.

And it probably depends upon the number of bookmarks the user has, along with the folder structure or number of levels or how deep folders are "nested". I have between 2000 and 3000 bookmarks in each of two Profiles that I use for separate web activities that I do, and maybe 100 bookmarks are the same in both.

I separated my collection of bookmarks back in the day of Firefox 1.5 due to slowness with like' over 5000 bookmarks. But with the Places system that type of issue would exist with "only" 5000 bookmarks, but Firefox can't handle 60-Plus extensions any more, like used to be possible, so I stuck with 2 sets of bookmarks and have separate groups of extensions in the two Profiles. Many extensions do overlap in the two, but it helps keep Firefox from being too slow due to so many extensions. Got rid of some extensions in lieu of "user" file modifications and User Styles, new features in Firefox over the years made some no longer needed, and some just "died" and were never updated as Firefox was changed.

In conclusion, just throwing out an idea and some tips for a feature that isn't documented and few people use or even know about.

Mr. Meister...

You are clearly a man after my own heart...that you would type all that out in detail (and that you have thousands of bookmarks!)

You lost me a bit with things I don't understand in your second last paragraph (the Places system, extensions, user styles etc.) but I do appreciate all of your time and effort.

You mention 'slow' and I'm extremely sad to say that I'm using Chrome more and more these days because FF just seems to be running slower and slower and slower and constantly "Not Responding". My problem is that I much prefer FF Bookmarks management and a number of other things such that, if you can believe it, if I find something (lately always in Chrome) that I want to bookmark, I'll copy the url and endure the slow page opening in FF to paste it again there so I can add it to my Bookmark collection in FF. I know this is craziness but I keep hoping someday FF won't be so slow/unresponsive or ALWAYS crashing. And on that issue the only reason I haven't given up entirely is that it ALMOST always restores my many tabs. Woe was me the time it lost them all.

Thanks again.

kiki95 said

You lost me a bit with things I don't understand in your second last paragraph (the Places system, extensions, user styles etc.) but I do appreciate all of your time and effort.

"Places" is combined storage of bookmarks, browsing history, and download history. "Places" that you want to remember via a bookmark, "places" that you have visited on the web, and "places" that you have downloaded something from.

"Places" is a lot more efficient type of database than was used before Firefox 3.0 came out in June 2008. Bookmarks.html format was used before that for storing bookmarks alone in a "!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1" bookmarks.html format that was an unofficial interchange format for Favorites / Bookmarks back in the 90's & 00's, very similar to how webpages are displayed. Was written by Netscape for the Netscape Navigator package, used in the Mozilla Suite after Netscape helped create Mozilla, and used by Firefox for the first 6 years. The "history" was previously stored separately in different file types, one for "each type of history" - browsing and downloads.

Back in Firefox 2.0 and with prior versions, many users suffered a real slowdown when accessing or saving bookmarks when they hit a certain number of saved bookmarks (ranging from 1500 to like 3000); that number varied by hardware capabilities / specs and a few other factors. I hit me hard, because I use computers for many years - 6 to 8 years per PC as my main one; and 10 -12 years overall when the "old one" becomes my "backup" in my home workshop since I retired. And mine was purchased in late 1998 and even with all the new, upgraded parts I threw at it over the years, it was just too damn slow for the internet by 2005, but I limped it along for a few more years before I built a new PC for myself from parts that I accumulated from "clearance tables" and "close-out" sales over the course of a few years.

"Extensions" are a type of add-on that "extend" the features that are built into Firefox. I have 10 to 15 that I consider necessary in all Profiles. While other extensions I have are suited to the internet activities that I use each Profile for. Back in the day of Firefox 2.0 I was using close to 100 extensions and by about 2006 I realized how foolish that was - so I started using multiple Profiles to solve both the "bookmarks slow issue" and the problem with too may extensions slowing Firefox down.

"User Styles" are available here: https://userstyles.org/ To be used with this extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/ "Restyle the web with Stylish, a user styles manager. Stylish lets you easily install themes and skins for Google, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and many, many other sites. You can even customize Firefox and other programs themselves."

Simpler than installing another extension and is easily modified by the user, if they are "into" computers and Firefox, as much as I am. Or if it part of their vocation or avocation.

continuing ...

As far a Chrome goes, it lasted just a couple of weeks for me before I got rid of it. Once I discovered that it has an "updater.exe" running in the background whenever Windows was running, that was it for Chrome! Bad enough that Google knows everything that I search for, but to be able to "know" that my computer was even turned on when I was connected to the internet - that was too much for me. And with the short amount of time that I used Chrome, "it wasn't that good" to waste my time with researching the security implications of their "updater.exe" process. And I am not a "tinfoil" hat kinda guy, although I do "have a few screws loose".

... but I keep hoping someday FF won't be so slow/unresponsive or ALWAYS crashing.

Not that way for me or for most Firefox users. There's something that just ain't right with your Firefox installation, with Windows , or your with your computer, IMO. Or you have some malware on that PC that you aren't aware of that is contributing to your problems with Firefox. Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware

I rarely have Firefox crash on me, and when it does it is usually due to Flash. As far a being slow or unresponsive, when I feel Firefox slowing down I look at the Windows Task Manager and see how much RAM is being used by Firefox. Too much, and I use "End Process" for firefox.exe - if it way too high; and then start Firefox again and restore the previous session thru the History menu. Or I use the "Restart Firefox" button that is available in many extensions when Firefox is getting sluggish; two different extensions that I use in all my Profiles add that button for me. That automatically reloads all my tabs, except when I let Firefox get so slow that it became unresponsive and the most recent tabs I had opened might be lost; but those can usually be re-opened thru History. But I never let get so bad that Firefox just locks up and I can't do anything in Windows, which would require an operating system restart, which can result in actual data loss in Firefox.

Nearing a conclusion here - Profiles don't last forever if you are using extensions, so every 10 new versions or so it's not a bad idea to "treat Firefox to a new Profile". And if you're not using any extensions (the main reason I got "hooked" on Firefox), it is very easy to Refresh Firefox periodically to "clean out the cobwebs" even more frequently. "Refresh" can be used even if you are using extensions, the "refresh" does give you a 'clean start' but without your extensions, which will need to be reinstalled.

I used "refresh" once just to see what it did and had an unexpected problem in Windows 7. Due to the manner that I configure Firefox for my usage that I didn't expect, so I'm not a big fan of that feature. I had to do a reformat and install Windows and everything else all over again on a PC that was barely a year old; something that I haven't needed to do since the days of Windows 98.

I hope these 2 long threads are of some help to you.

Ed