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

bookmarks menu now needs two actions

  • 10 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 33 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I've been resisting upgrading Firefox to avoid the tabs being at the top. such a wrong location. The tabs should be just above each window, with the menus above them. But the old theme restorer is now defunct. Firefox was supposed to be a better alternative to IE or Edge, so why is it copying them?

Now, with the latest version, they've messed with the bookmarks bar. I used to have a bookmarks icon on the toolbar, and one click gave me the sidebar with my bookmarks list. Now that requires two actions, Click the icon, then move the mouse down to choose to show the bookmarks list.

Where has the direct link icon gone? How do I get it back.

I've been resisting upgrading Firefox to avoid the tabs being at the top. such a wrong location. The tabs should be just above each window, with the menus above them. But the old theme restorer is now defunct. Firefox was supposed to be a better alternative to IE or Edge, so why is it copying them? Now, with the latest version, they've messed with the bookmarks bar. I used to have a bookmarks icon on the toolbar, and one click gave me the sidebar with my bookmarks list. Now that requires two actions, Click the icon, then move the mouse down to choose to show the bookmarks list. Where has the direct link icon gone? How do I get it back.

Chosen solution

I've found it, thank you. Now moved to the far left of my toolbar, above where the sidebar will appear - logical to me.

Another test, as it now is completely different to the previous star icon.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (10)

more options

Hi, if the bookmarks button is missing, open the 3-bar menu > Library > Bookmarks > Bookmarking tools, and click Add Bookmarks Menu to Toolbar - see Bookmarks in Firefox. If you don't see it on the toolbar, go to the 3-bar menu > Customize, and look for it in the palette, from where you can drag it to a toolbar. If the button is still missing, try clicking on Restore Defaults.

Similarly, the sidebar button should be in the Customize palette from where you can drag it to a toolbar. Once opened, you might need to select Bookmarks (instead of History) at the top, but once done so, it should open to Bookmarks every time.

More Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

You can move the tab bar using userChrome.css It's a bit of a learning curve if you've never used it, but you don't need to understand code. There is an excellent website by a fellow contributor here https://www.userchrome.org/what-is-userchrome-css.html

More tweaks are here https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/

If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please help other users by marking the best reply as Solved. Thank you!

Modified by Scribe

more options

Changing the traditional Bookmarks toolbar button happened quite awhile ago; like 7 versions in the past

See this for for changing the Bookmarks toolbar button for one that was used in Firefox 56 and earlier. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/bookmarks-firefox#w_how-do-i-add-the-bookmarks-menu-button-to-the-toolbar

more options

Thank you for your replies, but neither answers the issue. Until recently I was still using v56. I resisted upgrading as the 'new' versions are trying to be more like Microsoft, which is silly, as being different is one of the reasons for choosing this over Microsoft products. With the new versions, and there may well have been 7 or more of them, who cares, they're all broken in the same way, the tabs are at the top, with toolbars below. This to me is wrong, as tabs need to be above their respective windows, not remote.

I had to upgrade yesterday as v56 no longer worked with my online banking.

I understand what you are both saying about the bookmarks button. But this new button, with the star sitting in a tray, gives me the bookmarks menu. I still then need to choose my favourites from the resulting menu. Why two actions? With v56, the bookmarks icon was just the star, one click and there in the sidebar was my list of favourites. That is what I want back.

Any ideas?

more options
more options

No. I'm not looking for a way to create new bookmarks. I want to be able to access my existing bookmarks with one click of an icon, like we used to be able to do in v56 and before.

No wonder we have the problem, if all the answers so far have missed the problem. Is it only me that ever used the quick access to bookmarks sidebar?

The little star icon (see first pic below) now has a 'tray' under it. Previously it was just a star. When this icon is clicked, we get the menu in the second pic below. Then we have to select 'view bookmarks sidebar' to get the favourites list as the third pic. This therefore takes two operations to achieve the list of favourites. The point of bookmarks/favourites is to reduce the work to view any particular web site or page. In older versions, we had a simple star icon, that with one click, produced the favourites list.

My question is, "How do we achieve that 'one click' operation now?"

more options

Ah, you need the Sidebars icon.

Go to ≡ -> Customize… and move the Sidebars icon on a toolbar.

more options

If only. Please can you identify the 'sidebars' icon in the picture below. That is the whole set of options available when I choose 'customise'.

more options
more options

Chosen Solution

I've found it, thank you. Now moved to the far left of my toolbar, above where the sidebar will appear - logical to me.

Another test, as it now is completely different to the previous star icon.

more options

The Show Sidebars button opens the last used sidebar with a single click in Firefox 64 and 65 (just been released), so this should be a single click. You can find this button in the Customize palette if you currently are using another way to open the sidebar.