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can't access bookmarks or history in firefox

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  • Last reply by cor-el

drichardd
drichardd
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last sunday when i restarted my pc due to sluggishness with mozilla firefox and thunderbird, a problem occurred to disable the functionality of bookmarks (favorites) and history; an error message pops up saying one of firefox's files is being used by another application, caused by a security program.  as a result, pressing control shift o for bookmarks library shows an empty tree view; typing a search entry in the editfield yields no results-bookmarks have all disappeared or are inaccessible. also i can't save a new bookmark with alt control d. later on i noticed my firefox browser had automatically updated, so this may be responsible for disabling functionalities of earlier firefox versions; i currently have firefox 107.0.1 on windows 7 machine.  does anyone know what i can do to re-enable the bookmarks functionality like it was before, and how to turn off automatic updates?  thanks.

last sunday when i restarted my pc due to sluggishness with mozilla firefox and thunderbird, a problem occurred to disable the functionality of bookmarks (favorites) and history; an error message pops up saying one of firefox's files is being used by another application, caused by a security program.  as a result, pressing control shift o for bookmarks library shows an empty tree view; typing a search entry in the editfield yields no results-bookmarks have all disappeared or are inaccessible. also i can't save a new bookmark with alt control d. later on i noticed my firefox browser had automatically updated, so this may be responsible for disabling functionalities of earlier firefox versions; i currently have firefox 107.0.1 on windows 7 machine.  does anyone know what i can do to re-enable the bookmarks functionality like it was before, and how to turn off automatic updates?  thanks.

All Replies (1)

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

This could be a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use the "Places Database" -> "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from the most 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
  • you lose the history when a new places.sqlite is created

You may have to restore an older bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder via the Bookmarks Manager (Library).

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).