Bookmarks get changed randomly / Bookmarks Bar does not stay showing after reboot
This is a brand new installation of FireFox 17.0.1 download directly from Mozilla. The previous installation was completely removed using Revo in an attempt to find the cause of this problem.
I have my bookmarks saved to a .json file so after full installation of FireFox, I rebooted the computer, came back into FireFox, enabled the Bookmarks Bar and imported my Bookmarks. Looks good so far. Then I shut it down and rebooted the computer. The bookmarks are gone, the FireFox size is back to default, and the Bookmarks bar is no longer showing.
In my previous installation, sometimes the bookmarks were there, sometimes they weren't. But even when they were, the actual URL that the bookmark was supposed to go to had been changed to some site that was opened at some point during the previous session (but not bookmarked).
The same types of problem do not occur in Opera, Safari, Chrome, or IE so I don't believe it is anything interfering with the saving of customizations.
Anyone have any ideas?
All Replies (4)
The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.
To Reset Firefox do the following:
- Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
- Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
- Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
- Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.
Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.
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Bookmarks shouldn't have been changing by themselves. Your places database (which stores history and bookmarks together) might have been corrupted. Your new installation should not have that problem, at least not right out of the box.
Sometimes Windows permissions, files in use, or other factors can cause Firefox to lose changes or start up incorrectly. This article might help: How to fix preferences that won't save.
Are you just running the standard release of Firefox directly on Windows? In other words, I assume:
- It's not the "Portable" edition of Firefox.
- You are not using sandboxing or virtualization software that isolates Firefox from the system.
That looks like it might have been the problem. I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to the Revo uninstall to verify that the SQLite tables were being deleted during the uninstall as well. But after exporting bookmarks, then manually deleting them and reimporting them, the problems now seem to be gone. Thanks for the pointer.
Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox Profile Folder if this happens again.