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How can I disable Smart Bookmarks (Recently Bookmarked,etc) in Firefox 53.02?

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  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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How in the heck can I disable Smart Bookmarks or at least stop Firefox from populating smart bookmarks every time I add a bookmark. It really is redundant to the historical purpose of browser Bookmarks/Favorites in general and unnecessarily bloats Firefox even more than it's already become over 15 years.

How in the heck can I disable Smart Bookmarks or at least stop Firefox from populating smart bookmarks every time I add a bookmark. It really is redundant to the historical purpose of browser Bookmarks/Favorites in general and unnecessarily bloats Firefox even more than it's already become over 15 years.

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Such smart folders show the result of a database query and aren't real folder. This means that you can't prevent Firefox from adding sites that match the query to such a list. If you do not want to see a list then if possible remove this bookmark via the right-click context menu or hide it in case of the newly added "Recently Bookmarked" section via the right-click context menu.


Some information about so called smart bookmarks folders.

  • https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Smart+Bookmarks+folders
  • "Most Visited" and "Recently Bookmarked" and "Recent Tags" are examples of so called Smart Bookmarks folders and are not real existing folders
  • smart folders show a list created by a query of the places.sqlite database that stores bookmarks and history in Firefox
  • most smart folder lists show a maximum of 10 entries by default
  • bookmark and history items that show up in a smart folder list are stored elsewhere in another folder and any changes made are applied to the real bookmark or history item
  • bookmarks created by clicking the star on the Navigation toolbar are created in the "Other Bookmarks" folder (formerly named "Unsorted")
  • bookmarks created by clicking "Bookmark This Page" (Ctrl+D) are created in the Bookmarks Menu folder
  • if you remove an entry then the list is shifted up and a new entry that wasn't shown previously is added to show 10 entries
  • if you add a new bookmark or visit a website then a new item is added at the top and the entry at the bottom disappears from that list
  • items that disappear from the list are not gone, but merely do not show up anymore in that list.
  • actions like copy & paste or delete that you perform on bookmarks in such a list are done on the original bookmark
  • if you do not want a specific list then remove that query (right-click: Delete), but do not delete the content that is displayed in such a list
  • you can hide the newly added "Recently Bookmarked" section via the right-click context menu (Hide Recently Bookmarked)