Maybe you just have no bookmarks in the toolbar folder ?

Note

• your system information aside is showing as Firefox 3.6.24
• I think firefox 8 menus use the phrase Show all Bookmarks whereas Firefox 3.6 said organize bookmarks

Are you posting this from the computer you updated? Are you sure you upgraded successfully to firefox 8 ?

• use Help -> About Firefox
  what does that say you are using Firefox 8 or firefox 3.6 ?

Thanks for your reply John99. Yes, I am sure that The ver.8 upgrade was successful. I checked. I also made sure that in the upgrade, the bookmarks and my profile made the transition. My favorite bookmarks were still in the bookmarks toolbar folder. When I checked "view, toolbars, bookmarks", the tool bar appeared but was empty ....... blank. I tried to drag a link to the empty toolbar as I had always done,but when over the bar, there appeared a circle with a slash thru it, so I was unable to add a new link that way. I am so used to and dependent on that feature, that after better than an hour of trying and searching for a solution, I decided to revert to the previous version, only this time, I downloaded 3.6.24 which was later than what I had been using. It immediately booted up with all of the features that I was accustomed to, including a functioning bookmark toolbar. So my folder of toolbar bookmarks survived through two reloads: ver.3.6 to ver.8 then back to a new ver.3.6. They were just not visible in ver.8. I guess I'll have to stick with 3.6 unless someone comes up with a solution to the problem in 8.

Thanks again for your reply and suggestions.

The bookmarks toolbar will be empty if it does not contain bookmarks or folders of bookmarks. I see no reason why bookmarks from fx3.6 should not work in fx 8, my bookmarks do.

I do suggest you backup your current bookmarks, because you may have a fault developing in your bookmarks data base.

• see backing up and restoring bookmarks

Check that the Bookmarks Toolbar is visible and that the "Bookmarks Toolbar items" is still placed on the Bookmarks Toolbar.
If the menu bar is hidden then press F10 or hold down the Alt key, that should make the "Menu Bar" appear.

Make sure that toolbars like the "Navigation Toolbar" and the "Bookmarks Toolbar" are visible: "View > Toolbars"

• Open the Customize window via "View > Toolbars > Customize" or via "Firefox > Options > Toolbar Layout" (Linux, Windows)
• Check that the "Bookmarks Toolbar items" is on the Bookmarks Toolbar
• If the "Bookmarks Toolbar items" is not on the Bookmarks Toolbar then drag it back from the toolbar palette in the customize window to the Bookmarks Toolbar
• If you do not see the "Bookmarks Toolbar items" or other items that are missing in the toolbar palette or on a toolbar then click the "Restore Default Set" button

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_customization
• https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Back+and+forward+or+other+toolbar+items+are+missing

Thanks for the suggestions, cor-el.

• When I uncheck: "view/toolbars/bookmarks" the bookmarks toolbar goes away. When I re-check: "view/toolbars/bookmarks", so I am certain that the bookmarks toolbar is visible, just blank.

• When I go to: "view/toolbars/customize" and drag "Bookmarks Toolbar items" back to the bookmarks toolbar, it then appears on the bar, but still no bookmarks.

• As John99 suggested earlier, I confirmed that my "bookmarks toolbar folder" still contains all of the bookmarks that were always designated for the toolbar. And when I reverted back to ver.3.6.24, all of the links appeared in the toolbar without having to do a thing !

 I thought I had checked all of the obvious stuff.  Thanks to both of you for taking an interest in this problem.

First of all try to rule out some theme or extension is not the problem

• restart in safe mode
  1. Firefox Button -> Help -> restart with add-ons disabled
  2. do not make any changes when you see the options list in the first Window
     (But see comments under, you may need make changes later)
• use only the default theme

Another possibility is a corrupt localstore.rdf that may be deleted manually and it will recreate, but it is easiest to use

• safe mode -> reset toolbars and controls option.

You will loose information doing this, your toolbar customisations will be lost.

See

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Corrupt_localstore.rdf
• and also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

I have the same problem with the bookmarks toolbar. Some of the bookmarks still have their icons, others have just a dotted box outline. Going to the bookmarked website and bookmarking it again does not restore the icon to the toolbar. This started with FF8.

RealGomer,

I suggest you start your own question, and give details of the websites that do not give icons/favicons. I do suspect something may have changed in firefox recently, besides the change of the default icon symbol.

John99,

      ......... good suggestions. I'll try them, but first, I'll have to re-install Ver.8.  I'll try to get this done sometime in the next few weeks then post back. 

Thanks again !

To John99 .................... I deleted the 'localstore.rdf' file as you suggested and that seems to have solved the problem. I would never in a million years found that one on my own.

              Thank you for all of your help !

Glad to have helped. Thanks for posting back.