Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lost top sites and unable to create new ones

  • 11 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 34 views
  • Last reply by agdr

more options

Suddenly today when I opened Firefox, the Top Sites section on my new tab page had only blank icons. I previously had several pinned sites. I'm also unable to manually add any top sites. If I try to add a new top site, and enter a name and URL, when I click the "Add" button, nothing happens. No new site is added. I have uninstalled, rebooted, and reinstalled Firefox several times with no success. I also went into about:Config and saw that for the item browser.newtabpage.pinned, the value contains all the URLs for my pinned sites. They're just not appearing on my new tab page and I'm no longer able to manually add any top sites. Also, none of the sites I visit now show up, they're all just blank icons. I'm using Firefox version 62.0.

Suddenly today when I opened Firefox, the Top Sites section on my new tab page had only blank icons. I previously had several pinned sites. I'm also unable to manually add any top sites. If I try to add a new top site, and enter a name and URL, when I click the "Add" button, nothing happens. No new site is added. I have uninstalled, rebooted, and reinstalled Firefox several times with no success. I also went into about:Config and saw that for the item browser.newtabpage.pinned, the value contains all the URLs for my pinned sites. They're just not appearing on my new tab page and I'm no longer able to manually add any top sites. Also, none of the sites I visit now show up, they're all just blank icons. I'm using Firefox version 62.0.

Chosen solution

If Firefox is uninstalled and not working please get a copy of your Profile :

If it is running please get these this way :

Please Copy/Paste about:support and go all the way down to the bottom to Places Database and Click on Verify Integrity. Post the results please.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (11)

more options

Chosen Solution

If Firefox is uninstalled and not working please get a copy of your Profile :

If it is running please get these this way :

Please Copy/Paste about:support and go all the way down to the bottom to Places Database and Click on Verify Integrity. Post the results please.

more options

Thanks Pkshadow.

Here is the result of the Verify Integrity. I'm not sure how to post a copy of my Profile. I can't zip the folder into a single file because it contains some read-only files.

> 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 5120KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 5120KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 5120KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 5120KiB + pragma_user_version is 52 + 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 64941 unique pages + Table moz_places has 2043 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 3592 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 0 records + Table moz_hosts has 0 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 33 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 4 records + Table moz_annos has 149 records + Table moz_items_annos has 2 records + Table moz_meta has 5 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 17 records + Table moz_origins has 325 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_hosts_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_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_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 + Index moz_places_originidindex > Task: _refreshUI

more options

So I don't understand this, but when I was following the instructions to try to create a copy of my Profile, the instructions said to close Firefox, which I did. After making a copy of the Profile, I reopened Firefox and all my top sites were back. Any idea why they disappeared and would not come back after several reinstalls and reboots, and then suddenly they came back?

more options

Hi, Great News, yes when you Clicked Verify Integrity it did some work on your Profile in where the bookmarks and history are in : places.sqlite

So got a copy of your Profile. Keep it current so can restore yourself, As well Export your books and if have a online mail account email them to yourself for storage. Keep current also.

So monitor it for a few days and if it works, great.

more options

Thanks so much for your help!

more options

I have this problem. Clicking Verify Profile didn't help. I still can't add Top Sites or Highlights. This just happened with Version 64.

more options

Hi agdr

Do you see messages related to this issue in the Browser Console?

more options

No, I don't see any thing about either Top Sites or Highlights.

more options

No messages related to Places as well?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
more options

I'm a bit confused as to what I'm looking for here, but I'm not able to add Top Sites in Safe Mode.

Modified by agdr

more options

I did a refresh and I still can't add Top Sites!