I-Firefox Community Forum

Hi, whoever may read this ...

I asked friendly & helpful volunteer @jscher2000 a couple of days ago about the Strange Case of the Disappearing Bookmarks that suddenly befell me in FF last week.

Last night, the Bookmarks came back - or came back in part, so to speak. ~ ~ There are outstanding problems. I hope these too resolve themselves or can be resolved in the near future, as it is a bit debilitating.

So, what are my current issues/problems with Bkmrks in FF?

1) Can't search my Bookmarks any more.

I enter a search term in the Bkmrks Search box (whether all Bookmarks or a defined subsection/folder I have made) - never a response but blank (though I know that term is among bookmarks somewhere) - and then, the content list of that sub-folder of my Bookmarks even goes blank when I search there. (That content list returns when I click on another folder and back to that one, but that's not much consolation.)

2) Problem adding any new Bookmarks.

Though the "Bookmarks Star" lights up when I try to add a new Bkmrk - suggesting it has been saved - the new saves are nowhere visible among "Bookmarks". Not under the folder I chose to save them to (or tried), nor anywhere else I can see under Bookmarks, such as in the general folder.

3) Can't even Export Bookmarks any more - as html or in any other format.

I go to Manage Bookmarks, etc., and click "Export as html" ,,, nothing happens. There is no trace of an exported html or other file at the location where I decided to save the file.

(To explain what may be obvious: the point of the (attempted) Exportation on this occasion is to (try to) investigate, access the saved Bookmarks, retrieve the sites, etc.)

Can anyone help - or maybe offer solace that FF might fix itself or be fixed in the near future? Like I said, it's a bit debilitating for work, research and entertainment alike.

I should perhaps add that I prefer to use a laptop (HP) where possible.

Best wishes

Peter Shaw London

Firefox lets me build elaborate hierarchies of bookmarks, just as a modern file system lets me build elaborate hierarchies of files. Once a bookmark exists, though, I can't find a way to tell what folder it's in. In contrast, once a file exists, it's easy to tell what folder it's in. In Windows, for example, I open a File Explorer window and search for the file by name, then right-click>Open file location to open the folder that contains the file. File Explorer's address bar shows the whole path to the folder.

If I find a bookmark through the Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks window's search box, the window gives no clue to where the bookmark is. If I display its properties with Bookmarks>Edit Bookmark, it shows what folder the bookmark is in, but it gives no clue to where that folder is. If the folder's name is unique, an I created it, I can probably figure out where it is. But if the name is something generic like Pending, it's hopeless. I could have 193 Pending folders in different places.

Is there any way to find a Firefox bookmark's location?

I have Firefox installed on three Windows Desktop Computers. On one, I just cannot delete Bookmarks, no matter what suggestions I try. Verify Integrity of the database produced no results. I do not, for a variety of reasons, sync bookmarks (or anything else) between the three installations. Experienced user that has spent far too long on what should be a simple issue.

From: cartwrm@talktalk.net <cartwrm@talktalk.net> Sent: Friday, July 18, 2025 2:14 PM To: no-reply@mozilla.org <no-reply@mozilla.org> Subject: Re: Bradforth posted an answer to your question "Ive lost mybookmarks on the left side of the screen"

It's really strange (I'm still trying to understand my relatively new Windows 11 laptop), bookmarks have been where I'd expect them for a few days, then this morning, it's as if Firefox has done some sort of clean/re-arrangement. The bookmarks had disappeared and there wasn't my usual array of sites available along the top. Then by clicking on a few things on the right (Firefox) 'most used' re-appeared, then later the toolbar is there on the right, I'd really like it back on the left And also I'd love to know whether I might have done something unconsciously which caused this.

Mike

Hello, any best practices for converting Firefox bookmarks once they're exported? The exported_bookmarks.html are an html file which are impossible to edit. Converting so the data for folders, titles and urls can be edited is what's needed.

I tried Vi with some Regex code, however the cleaned file is not so clean.

When I search for something, the location bar no longer shows the address and the star to add bookmarks unless I click on a little globe. I installed a Firefox update not long ago but this has only just happened. I'd like to be able to just bookmark searches like I used to.

Firefox is the default browser on my Dell Inspiron laptop which runs Windows 11 Pro. I have several bookmarks in my bookmarks manager that I'd like to copy to my desktop; how do I do that?

Please tell what creates the folder "Other Bookmarks", its function and the purpose that it is created. I do not put any there, yet there are dozens and I am ignorant of its proper use. I see sites that I might have visited, but still do not know how they got there. Thanks in advance for enlightenment of a user, especially the built in protections.

James

From Windows 11 start Firefox v 142.0.1 opens with an entirely blank page - toolbars, graphics, webpage - everything taking over a minute to load up with toolbars and then a further 2 minutes to load www.theguardian.com/uk. Firefox then frequently crashes and on re-start the bookmarks toolbar is empty - yes it is visible. I have been renaming places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old every few days since 27 Aug. The Manage Bookmarks - Library shows all bookmarks when Firefox is behaving but is completely empty when the bookmark toolbar is also empty. Restarting Firefox does not reinstall the bookmarks. The only solution is to restart Windows 11. Any ideas on speeding up and preventing this bookmark problem. Thanks

When i mouse wheel click the bookmark folder, it always switches to the first tab when doing so. This notably doesn't happen when i click the non-folder bookmark. Is there a way not to have this behavior ?

My bookmarks menu is (empty) and I cannot save new bookmarks. Will not import under manage bookmarks tab. WHY is this suddenly happening on this computer when all my bookmarks and passwords are fine on my other computer?

I used to use Firefox as my standard browser until this issue occurred some years ago. I can no longer add, edit, or see any bookmarks I previously had. When I start the browser, I'm met with an error message (see below), which then sends me to the site in the image below. The title roughly translates to: "The System for Bookmarks and Browser History is Non-Functional". I've tried following these steps in the past with no change regarding this issue, and I've had to switch back to Chrome. I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox, but the issue persists.

Has anyone else encountered this?