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I've done everything suggested and still cannot save bookmarks to the toolbar

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So I had to do a Firefox refresh. Didn't expect it to delete my entire set of bookmarks, but it did. So now I'm trying to rebuild my bookmarks toolbar, which I use almost exclusively to navigate to desired web sites. Unfortunately, I can't simply drag and drop web addresses to the bar. I've followed the various 'solutions' posted to similar questions, but none work. I have also noticed that I get site identifiers in the address bar. Rather, I get the circled letter 'i' and either a lock or a shield symbol, but these apparently cannot be dragged to create a toolbar bookmark. Whenever I try to click and drag, only site info button is highlighted.

Any help on how to get back to normal would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Ken

So I had to do a Firefox refresh. Didn't expect it to delete my entire set of bookmarks, but it did. So now I'm trying to rebuild my bookmarks toolbar, which I use almost exclusively to navigate to desired web sites. Unfortunately, I can't simply drag and drop web addresses to the bar. I've followed the various 'solutions' posted to similar questions, but none work. I have also noticed that I get site identifiers in the address bar. Rather, I get the circled letter 'i' and either a lock or a shield symbol, but these apparently cannot be dragged to create a toolbar bookmark. Whenever I try to click and drag, only site info button is highlighted. Any help on how to get back to normal would be appreciated. Cheers, Ken

All Replies (4)

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Hi Ken, sorry to hear about you losing your bookmarks, that isn't supposed to happen.

Before proceeding any further with manual reconstruction, could you take a look in the Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop for your old profile (settings) folder? Inside there should be a subfolder named bookmarkbackups that contains numerous files named along these lines:

bookmarks-2016-11-29_9876_gibberish.jsonlz4

That file would contain 9,876 bookmarks "as of" Nov. 29, 2016.

You can restore one of those backups, but it would replace the manual work you've done so far. If you need to save that work, you can add the Optional steps:

(1) (Optional) Export your newly added bookmarks. See: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks

(2) Restore your old backup file, which will completely replace your current bookmarks. See: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer (you'll use Choose File then point Firefox to the Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop, etc.)

(3) (Optional) Import the HTML file you created in Step #1: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file

(4) (Optional) If you imported an HTML file, it usually would be added to the bottom of the Bookmarks Menu, or sometimes in "Other Bookmarks". You can use the Library dialog to rearrange those to their correct locations. This article will get you in the ballpark: Use bookmark folders to organize your bookmarks.

Does that help?


Two other notes:

(1) Dragging and dropping the i-in-a-circle icon should work

(2) If you haven't redisplayed the Bookmarks Toolbar since the Refresh, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select it there:

To turn on the Bookmarks Toolbar, Menu Bar, or other bars, click it on the list.

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Thanks much. Didn't know about the backup files. Did the trick.

Cheers,

Ken

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Okay, check that. I was able to restore the bookmark toolbar for that session, but when I reopened the Firefox browser this morning, it was back to no bookmarks. I was able to again load a backup file, but nothing got saved from what I did yesterday. How do I make the restore permanent?

Thanks much,

Ken

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Hi Ken, is this a problem with the display of the toolbar, or are the bookmarks actually missing when you open the Library dialog and click Bookmarks Toolbar in the left column to check its contents?

In the worst case scenario:

You shouldn't lose your bookmarks overnight. There actually are no features in Firefox to erase bookmarks between sessions (unlike erasing history, cookies, etc.).

When does the data loss occur?

  • When exiting Firefox and starting it up again?
  • When shutting down Windows and starting it up again?

There are some utility programs that "clean" browser data either between sessions or at Windows startup. I've never heard of one that removes bookmarks, but maybe there's a bug somewhere? If you have any programs like that, try making an exception for Firefox in case they are doing it.

Making a safety backup:

Before shutting down, create your own end-of-day backup using the steps in this article, just in case: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer (skip the restore section of the article).