Bookmarks are changing on tool bar constantly. How do I stop it?
Bookmarks on toolbar are rearranging themselves every few seconds. I tried removing old unused bookmarks, creating and (re)arranging into folders and replacing the bookmarks I use often in their old familiar places. It took a couple hours to do that. It appeared to have worked as they were staying put. I closed the browser to do some other tasks and when I reopened the browser again everything was back to its chaotic state as if I hadn't touched it. This started on its own a few days ago and I need it to stop immediately as its driving me nuts not being able to quickly find the ones i need and use regularly. Please help!
All Replies (12)
If you have sync, and there is a problem anywhere, Shut Down Sync Immediately On All Devices to prevent the problem from spreading. Once the problem is fixed, perform the same repair on all computers/profiles before using sync again.
[v57+] Places Maintenance is built into Firefox.
Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.
You will find Places Database near the bottom. Press the Verify Integrity button.
When done, copy and post the results here.
Thank you for your help. I think this is what you're looking for. You mentioned to shut down syncing. I haven't been able to figure out how to do that. Under options it says syncing is on but I don't see a clear way of shutting it off?
> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 10240KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 10240KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 10240KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 4544KiB + pragma_user_version is 53 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 112994 unique pages + Table moz_origins has 1150 records + Table moz_places has 11078 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 15723 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 3 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 972 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 1 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 3 records + Table moz_annos has 177 records + Table moz_items_annos has 0 records + Table moz_meta has 8 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 17 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_originidindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex > Task: _refreshUI
Your System Details list shows the iCloud Bookmarks extension. This extension can be a possible cause for issues with the bookmarks.
I was able to stop syncing by "disconnecting" which changed "ON" to "OFF". I was attacking this like most other options looking for drop downs or clicking directly on the item itself. Sorry, I'm such a nube.
DO NOT use the built-in Sync feature for bookmarks along with any other "synchronization" feature such as iCloud Bookmarks. We have had reports of incompatibility issues when multiple different "sync services" are used coincidentally.
To disable iCloud Bookmarks 'sync', type about:addons in the Location Bar and hit Enter. Then locate that iCloud Bookmarks Extension in the listing under Manage Your Extensions and on the right side of iCloud Bookmarks use the blue slider ("slide" that button to the left) to disable that extension.
edited after seeing your response to cor-el
Modified by the-edmeister
cor-el said
Your System Details list shows the iCloud Bookmarks extension. This extension can be a possible cause for issues with the bookmarks.
It looks like I got a lot of helpers! I turned off the icloud extension. I also shut off sync by using disconnect as recommended by FredMcD. Edmeister has just chimed in with also recommending icloud. The one thing that has occurred is that I did the verify integrity first and then disabled icloud, then "disconnected" sync within options. I really don't care about the bookmarks syncing with icloud, or least i don't think i do. I use the phone in a different way from my laptop and desktop machines. I would like the laptop and desktops to stay synced if possible. I'm assuming I'll need to "reconnect" turn sync on again within options to allow that to happen. If I do that will I need to do anything with the verify integrity again?
You normally only need to do "Verify Integrity" if you notice issues with the bookmarks or if you have removed a large amount of history and want to vacuum or re-index places.sqlite. There weren't issues reported in the log you posted above, so it is possible that only the extension was causing a problem.
With icloud turned off things seem to have returned to normal. I will have to manually rearrange the book marks as they "found their chairs when the music stopped". Many thanks to all that have helped me in resolving this issue! One last thing, do you think icloud is responsible for having multiple bookmarks that are the same? Some have 2 others as many as 6. Only using 3 devices so I'm thinking each time I tried to correct the problem while syncing was on, it was just adding another copy. I'm thinking along the lines of one (or more) for each browser that it was syncing with? Anything to that?
Note that Firefox keeps backups in the bookmarkbackups folder.
- Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them
The name of an automatically created JSON bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once. You also see this count in the Restore menu drop-down list.
- bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.
So does that mean there really isn't more than 1 bookmark for each bookmark? If I'm looking at "show all bookmarks" would that explain why there's more than 1? IE it's showing me the actual bookmarks AND the backup copy of the bookmark. I've also noted that when I try to delete multiples it will only sometimes let me delete any particular bookmark.
sales78 said
do you think icloud is responsible for having multiple bookmarks that are the same?
Sync shares all selected data. It will not check if a bookmark is already on the other system. Especially if it is in a different folder.
There are add-ons that can check for duplicate bookmarks. Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page {web Link} (There’s a lot of good stuff here) and search for what you want.
Thanks again to all you guys for helping me out. I really do appreciate it. I'll try to expand my knowledge base so I can communicate with you more effectively in the future.