Bookmarks have become slow and awkward
For the last month, it may have been after an upgrade but I can't remember, my bookmarks have been behaving extremely slowly.
* When saving a bookmark the first time in a session it's usually ok, but more and scrolling down the folders becomes very slow. Also, if I want to add a new folder, it will make the folder but I can't see it. So I save anywhere and then go to manage bookmarks, find the New Folder and rename it then move the bookmark to it.
* When trying to organise/rearrange my bookmarks I can move, say, two or three easily but then the manager starts to hang for about 10 seconds. Now that might not seem long but when you are trying to organise a fair number it is ages.
* At times clicking the close X on the bookmark sidebar doesn't work so I have to "ctrl b" to close.
The whole thing with bookmarks is now extremely frustrating.
I had synced my bookmarks and wondered if it was that, so I deleted the sync; no change.
I have now upgraded to FF 16.01; no change.
It is perhaps similar to this bug, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=595530, but this was reported TWO YEARS ago!
TIA
Chosen solution
Thanks for your reply John. I am happy to confirm that the reset did actually work and my bookmarks are now working fine :)
Yes, I did back up everything to another drive first. I don't keep my history anyway so that's not a problem. I only have 7 add-ons so it didn't take me long to reinstall those after the reset.
Thanks again
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Unfortunately, this sort of thing can happen sometimes, after upgrades or just when you've acquired lots of bookmarks or history. Something in the 'profile' where Firefox stores your bookmarks and other data becomes corrupted or just choked with old data.
Usually, it's easy to fix because Firefox comes with a 'reset' function: see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems .
You may also want to take a look at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles , in case you want to back up your current profile first.
Modified by MatthewBabbs
Thank you so much - that did the trick!
Firefox Reset
IF you try that please FIRST of all ensure that you have backed up your Firefox profile. Also make a note of what you loose. It is probably unlikely to fix a bookmarks problem.
Bug 595530, I hope it is NOT like that bug
That was a Firefox problem, and was not easy to track down and needed a fix by developers.
Bookmarks, Fixing the places.sqlite
That will backup as part of the profile so make sure it is backed up. (The profile also contains other bookmark backups) Once you get it working again also back it up again (use a new folder so you may use the original file names if it is a profile backup)
There is an add-on that may work in fixing the places.sqlite it is worth giving that a try use
If places-maintenance does not help then it is a case of recreating the places-sqlite file. To force recreation you need to find your profile and delete certain files. You will loose some information trying this
- Bookmarks loss may be limited to only be the last day or so
- History entries will be lost entirely, there are no internal History backups.
Your profile backup should be usable even if exceedingly slow, and that does provide a possible method of accessing some of the data if there is anything really important that you need to access.
The files that need deleting are the ones in the profile starting with places.sqlite (But NOT the ones in your manual backup profiles)
- see instructions in these articles
Chosen Solution
Thanks for your reply John. I am happy to confirm that the reset did actually work and my bookmarks are now working fine :)
Yes, I did back up everything to another drive first. I don't keep my history anyway so that's not a problem. I only have 7 add-ons so it didn't take me long to reinstall those after the reset.
Thanks again
Glad you solved the problem.
I wonder what it was that made the improvement ?
If you click on more system details at the side of these posts on the forum you will see some of the info you submitted originally can you see any obvious changed now ? and have you tested any of them to see if it recreates the problem. Not really important as it now works, I am just curious as to why it now works.