It might be there is a problem with the file that stores the bookmarks.

[v57+] Places Maintenance is built into Firefox.

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

You will find Places Database near the bottom. Press the Verify Integrity button.

Well, I know how to fix it. Just restart Firefox. I want to know why it happens in the first place and keep it from happening. I'd rather not have to keep restarting Firefox.

Run the maintenance and see if the problem returns.

Are you using any bookmark add-ons/programs?

Not sure what you mean by "run the maintenance". How do I do that?

I have "Default Bookmark Folder" and "Eversync" extensions installed. I will disable them and see if it makes any difference.

FredMcD said

Run the maintenance and see if the problem returns.

danll said

Not sure what you mean by "run the maintenance". How do I do that?

I told you what to do here; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1222834#answer-1125439

danll said

Not sure what you mean by "run the maintenance". How do I do that? I have "Default Bookmark Folder" and "Eversync" extensions installed. I will disable them and see if it makes any difference.

How about disabling Eversync? Does that make a difference?

As far as "maintenance" - Verify Integrity of the Places Database is a maintenance feature that is built onto Firefox. Extensions such as Eversync, Xmarks, iCloud sync, and other have been known to sometimes corrupt the Places Database, especially if ever used with Firefox Sync.

Whatever, when problems like you described happen the minimum action to take is "Verify Integrity" of Places.

Thank you. Now, I have restarted Firefox, and everything is working so, no surprise, Verify Integrity comes up with "The database is sane". I have disabled those extensions, and will see if that makes a difference. Then I'll restart them, one at a time and see if the problem appears. If it does, I will Verify Integrity, and see what it comes up with.

But again, restarting Firefox is faster than Verify Integrity, so if it's just a matter of repairing damage, that's what I'll do. To the extent that Verify Integrity can point to a cause, it might be of use.

Well, I ran Firefox for a few days with Eversync and Default Bookmarks Folder disabled. Now the problem has happened again, where it won't let me delete bookmarks in "Show All Bookmarks" AND, when I try to Verify Integrity, it simply won't do it. You press the "Verify Integrity" button, and NOTHING at all happens. When I restart Firefox, everything is back to normal. WHY!? This is kinda perverse.

It may not be permanent "corruption" but rather something about Eversync that stops Firefox from temporarily working properly; restart Firefox and it's OK solves it until the next time. File a Bug report with Eversync about that issue. They are adding on to Firefox, so it's their problem to solve. You have proved that Firefox is alright without Eversync.

Not sure I understand. I said I had the problem with Eversync DISABLED. So it isn't Eversync.

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page cannot repair places.sqlite then remove all places.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I guess we're not communicating here. Something is screwing up Firefox, and that something is repaired when Firefox is relaunched. The question is WHAT IS MAKING THE PROBLEM, REPEATEDLY and not so much how to fix it.

Fixing it is easy. Just relaunch Firefox. That's loads easier than removing selected files which don't obviously cure what is making the problem happen.

When this happens, will Firefox save a new bookmark or a new history entry, or do both of those fail as well?

Do you notice any pattern to when it happens? If, for example, Firefox were to lose write/update access to the places.sqlite database file (the file which stores bookmarks and history) at a particular time of day, perhaps it could be associated with a scheduled task for some other software.

When this problem happens, where you can't delete a Firefox bookmark, I believe you can easily save new ones. You just can't delete them once you do.

No obvious pattern to the problem. It just seems to happen after a while.

Hi, we're sorry you're having this issue.

Next time this happens, please could you go to Tools -> Web Developer -> Browser Console and see if any error messages have appeared, or subsequently appear when you try to delete a bookmark again.

If there are, please can you copy and paste them here, or attach an image. Some errors may have a little triangle at the start of the error message, if you expand that there is more detailed information that may be useful to us as well.

Additionally, if you can reconfirm that creating new bookmarks etc does work at that time, that may be useful in tracking this down.

Well, you know, this isn't a thing that "happens". It's something that you realize has happened. You may not realize it happened until several days of using Firefox. So I think console messages may not be helpful, especially since those messages are not obviously listed with any dates and times.

Hi danll, I think the suggestion is the next time you try to delete a bookmark and it won't delete, then please open the Browser Console and then try deleting the bookmark again. If there is a fresh message specific to the attempt to delete, that would be interesting. The other billions of messages, not so much.

OK, that's an interesting idea. I opened Firefox and, whaddaya know, I can't delete bookmarks. So I open the Browser Console, and try again to delete a bookmark. NOTHING comes up in the Browser Console. (I assume that the bottom of the Browser Console is the most recent stuff - no times and dates on these entries, which is kind of pathetic!) So the Browser Console seems not to be telling me anything and, it kinda looks like when I command a bookmark deletion, and it doesn't do it, the Browser Console isn't even aware of my command.

Did you try to close and restart Firefox to see if that makes it possible to delete this bookmark?

As I said WAAAY up above, this whole issue gets fixed if you restart/relaunch Firefox. Something introduces the problem sometime after Firefox gets started. So fundamentally, it's really easy to fix. Just a bother.

Oh, by the way, it appears that when FF is in this mode, I can't edit bookmark names either. I try to edit the name, hit return, and the name of the bookmark remains unchanged.

By the way, doesn't anyone find it REALLY BIZARRE that the Firefox console doesn't do a time stamp on each entry? Useless.