What is your new tab page? Is this still the Firefox homepage with the tiles (about:newtab)?

You can check these:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-items-on-firefox-new-tab-page
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-your-new-tab-page

No, when I open a new previously there was a selection of the most visited sites and recent sites ... now there are just blank boxes. Even when I try to edit the box and add the website directly, it does not help - I input title and website address and click add and nothing happens, still only blank boxes ...

Sorry, I meant when I open new tab ... and yes by blank boxes I mean the tiles which previously where referring to mostly visited sites and now are just white/blank referring nowhere and with no apparent way to fix it

Try clearing the startup cache.

Did that. Still the same problem.

Does it still happen in a new profile? An easy way to test a new profile is to install Developer Edition and see if it happens there or refresh your existing profile.

I did the refresh of the profile but the problem still persist, i.e. when I open a new tab (e.g. by clicking on +) I get a standard firefox page with a search row and below that just blank tiles instead of tiles with the most visited sites as if no history would have been recorded (which however is recorded OK) ... I cannot even edit the tiles and enter the sites manually (whenever I try that and click add, nothing happens) ... frustrating ...

Hi, it seems the problem has been solved. I signed out from firefox, restarted firefor and signed in. And now I am getting some suggestions in tiles when opening new tab. I hope that going forward it would be fed in from the history ...