Hi gretafoulds, Sorry you are having problems.

That does not sound like any Firefox feature. The closest Firefox has to adverts are the snippets on its homepage that promote Firefox or Firefox features or sometimes offer general safety etc advice.

There are several option for displaying and finding bookmark and those should be quick and easy to use.

• This is a long page and will scroll up and down:
  Bookmarks in Firefox_where-can-i-find-my-bookmarks
• See also listing of help articles at /products/firefox/basic-browsing-fire.../bookmarks

It sounds as if you have malware or adware on your computer. Please follow the advice lower down and scan with all the tools listed, then post back to say how you got on or if you need further help.

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
• AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one. Windows 8 has antivirus built-in already.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Make sure toolbars like the "Bookmarks Toolbar" are visible.

• "3-bar" menu button -> Customize -> Show/Hide Toolbars
• View -> Toolbars
  You can tap the Alt key or press F10 to show the Menu Bar
• Right-click empty toolbar area

Open the Customize window and set which toolbar items to display.

• "3-bar" menu button -> Customize

• check that "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" is on the Bookmarks Toolbar
• if "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" is not on the Bookmarks Toolbar then drag it back from the Customize palette to the Customize window to the Bookmarks Toolbar

• if missing items are in the Customize palette then drag them back from the Customize window to the toolbar
• if you do not see an item on a toolbar and in the Customize palette then click the Restore Defaults button in the Customize palette window to restore the default toolbar set.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/navigation-buttons-missing

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file