Bookmarks
Hi There:
I have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox. Some of them are outdated and no longer work.
On this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-delete-bookmark#w_deleting-a-single-bookmark it describes two ways to delete a bookmark. I've tried both. Neither one works. Suggestions appreciated.
Thanks, Mike.
All Replies (4)
Can you locate the bookmarks in the Bookmarks Manager (Library) or sidebar ?
Hi There: I realize I should have provided more information. I have the Bookmarks toolbar showing, with several subfolders. I can also go to Library/Bookmarks or press Ctrl-B to bring up the bookmarks sidebar. Now, let's say I have a bookmark open in Firefox. Per the help page, I click on the Star icon and click Remove Bookmark. Nothing happens. So, I go to the Bookmarks sidebar, right-click on a bookmark and select Delete. Nothing happens. So I go to Library/Bookmarks/Show All Bookmarks. I click on the Bookmark, go to Organize/ Delete. Guess what? Nope. I tried creating a new folder and dragging unwanted bookmarks into that. No again.
Also, since I'm in the Bookmarks Library anyway, I go to Import and Backup and select Backup. I have the option to save a .json file. I click Save. Nothing happens. I try again, selecting export as HTML. Nothing happens. Am I being repetitive here?
If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.
This can be caused by a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite databases in the Firefox profile folder.
- use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page
If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.
If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. 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
You lose the history when a new places.sqlite is created.
See also:
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional
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 Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
Hi There: Thanks much for your reply. It's taken me a bit to get back to this...
As you suggested, I ran Verify Integrity and it reported errors. I closed Firefox and went to the Firefox profile directory and moved places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite to the Desktop, then restarted Firefox. It rebuilt the Bookmarks from the Backup, and everything worked fine. However, the last uncorrupted backup was from last November. Fortunately I maintain most of my long-term backups in Linkman Pro rather than Firefox, but more recent/ short-term bookmarks stored in Firefox since last November were all gone. I closed Firefox, went back to the profile directory and copied the places.sqlite file back in from the desktop then restarted Firefox. This restored the more recent bookmarks, but as before I was unable to delete any of them or to create a new backup file. It appears that my only option at this point is to manually open each (new) bookmark and save the links out to a Notepad file, then remove the places.sqlite/favicons.sqlite again to get back to November but before I go to that trouble I wanted to ask if there were any other options. There aren't an egregious number of links but there are a few.
Thanks again, Mike.