"Recently bookmarked" actually displays the results of a search in your bookmarks, so those are the actual bookmarks. All the little blue foldered "bookmarks" are actually searches. If you don't find a blue folder useful, you can remove it or move it into a regular (yellow) folder so it's out of your way.

I'm a little surprised about CCleaner and Advanced SystemCare removing bookmarks. Are you running them while Firefox is still open? It could be that some temporary files that Firefox uses to store pending database updates are getting removed. Firefox should reconcile all the changes when you shut it down normally (i.e., they might not be reconciled when Firefox crashes). And then after that, it should in theory be safe to clean up. But I don't personally use such utilities myself and do not recommend letting them touch your Firefox data.

• "Recently Bookmarked" is a so called Smart Bookmark that shows the result of a place query in a list.
• "Most Visited" and "Recently Bookmarked" and "Recent Tags" are examples of so called Smart Bookmarks folders and are not real existing folders.
• Smart folders show a list created by a query of the places.sqlite database that stores bookmarks and history in Firefox.
• Smart folder lists show a maximum of 10 entries by default.
• Bookmarks and history items that show up in a smart folder list are stored elsewhere in another folder and any changes made are applied to the real bookmark or history item.
• If you remove an entry then the list is shifted up and a new entry that wasn't shown previously is added to show 10 entries.
• If you add a new bookmark or visit a website then a new item is added at the top and the entry at the bottom disappears from that list.
• Items that disappear from the list are not gone, but merely do not show up anymore in that list.
• Actions like copy & paste or delete that you perform on bookmarks in such a list are done on the original bookmark.

jscher:

I only do the housekeeping with all other programs/browsers closed down.

Webpages bookmarked with Firefox two or three versions ago remain unaffected by this issue. Just something that seems to have crept in recently.

Strangely, as I think about it, I can now recall how I've tried to delete bookmarks I no longer need, only to find that they reappear the next time I open the browser!?!?

Something somwhere seems arse about face!

Cor-rel:

Ok thanks for that. I get what your saying, though I can't see the point of it personally. Just an observation, curios for an explanation.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.

• 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

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