This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

In the Navigation toolbar, the Forward/back buttons are dimmed, and the URL bar has "Search Bookmarks and History"

  • 4 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Edent

more options

The Forward and Back buttons are dimmed and don't work, and "Search Bookmarks and History" is in the URL bar. Also, I sometimes find blank pages with "Search Bookmarks and History" in the URL bar after visiting some websites.

The Forward and Back buttons are dimmed and don't work, and "Search Bookmarks and History" is in the URL bar. Also, I sometimes find blank pages with "Search Bookmarks and History" in the URL bar after visiting some websites.

All Replies (4)

more options

This can be a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.

more options

I've removed "places.sqlite" and "places.sqlite-journal" and restarted my computer, but the problems "Toolbar functions such as Back/Forward are disabled" and "URL is not updated in the Location Bar as you browse" remain. Should I delete other ".sqlite" files?

more options

No, no need to remove other SQLite files in the Firefox Profile Folder

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the add-ons is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).

  • Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.

See:

If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.

  • Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window to disable all extensions.
  • Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
more options

I've solved the problem (for the time being) by uninstalling Firefox, with personal data and customization removed. Then restarting computer, installing Firefox, with bookmarks, etc. imported from Internet Explorer (which I used previously) during the installation.