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unable to delete bookmarks

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by BaronAsh

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I just made switch to FF from Chromium for privacy concern reasons and after importing bookmarks from Chromium I had way to many including duplicates (not the first time I've switched around - often I leave FF because of flash issues).

But in trying to delete bookmarks, many folders just won't delete. So I open them up and delete one folder at a time. And some of those won't delete so I go into them. And every so often I find a bookmark - a single one not a folder - that JUST WON'T DELETE. So I guess that's why the parent folder won't delete either. Which means I have to keep those parent folders even though have managed to manually go through them all and delete everything else that was in them.

TO work around this, have created a folder called Storage and put all that junk in there. But it would be nice to be able to delete those one that refuse to die.

I just made switch to FF from Chromium for privacy concern reasons and after importing bookmarks from Chromium I had way to many including duplicates (not the first time I've switched around - often I leave FF because of flash issues). But in trying to delete bookmarks, many folders just won't delete. So I open them up and delete one folder at a time. And some of those won't delete so I go into them. And every so often I find a bookmark - a single one not a folder - that JUST WON'T DELETE. So I guess that's why the parent folder won't delete either. Which means I have to keep those parent folders even though have managed to manually go through them all and delete everything else that was in them. TO work around this, have created a folder called Storage and put all that junk in there. But it would be nice to be able to delete those one that refuse to die.

All Replies (8)

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Enter about:support in the URL bar and press the Check integrity button in the Places DB section. Sometimes it helps.

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Thanks for suggestion. Tried it. No effect.

Very strange: when I go to this page with the question I cannot see your reply unless I first hit the 'this doesn't help' button in the email. Anyway, thanks again.

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If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • ~/.mozilla/firefox/

Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

  • keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

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THanks. Way above my paygrade. It would just be better if FF could delete those bookmarks when I tell it to.

I'll just keep the 10 miscreants in the Storage file and that will be that.

Meanwhile, I can't for the life of me install Flash plugin on my OS - the main reason I keep leaving FF because it means I can't use it to watch things like Wimbledon which I love, but the solution there is to use Chrome and it always works fine. ...Otherwise, I love FF and have been using it off and on for over 10 years...

Thanks for the suggestions...

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Did you at open the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page and scrolled down to "Verify Integrity" and click this button ?

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Yes. No change.

I think maybe it has something to do with sync though all other machines with FF are off. But turning off sync made no difference.

Seems to me that even with sync one should be able to delete a bookmark - and of course that is the case.

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Were there any errors reported when you clicked "Verify Integrity" ?

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I have given up for now, corel.

I just started in safe mode following another tip. Then I couldn't restart in normal mode without creating a new profile. Now I have nothing: no bookmarks, extensions, nothing. Go to Account Manager to recover but as always it wants me to revoke and create a new key, meaning I can't restore the old one.

This sort of stuff is why I keep leaving Firefox. It is MUCH too complicated. I don't have time to spend several hours every time there's a little problem.


Thanks for your help and input.

But I'm gone now.