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After upgrading to Firefox 8 there are no bookmarks in the sidebar when it is displayed. The bookmarks are there under the Bookmarks menu. History appears in the sidebar

  • 3 replies
  • 22 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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There are no bookmarks in the bookmarks sidebar. The only way I can access my bookmarks is by clicking on the Bookmarks Menu. All booksmarks and folder then show up in the drop down menu - but when I go to organise them, there is nothing listed under Organise. My history will show up in the sidebar. I can't find a way to sort my bookmarks, and don't know if I can save a new bookmark.

There are no bookmarks in the bookmarks sidebar. The only way I can access my bookmarks is by clicking on the Bookmarks Menu. All booksmarks and folder then show up in the drop down menu - but when I go to organise them, there is nothing listed under Organise. My history will show up in the sidebar. I can't find a way to sort my bookmarks, and don't know if I can save a new bookmark.

Chosen solution

A possible cause is a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.


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

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All Replies (3)

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Open or close History Sidebar --> CTRL+H
Open or close Bookmarks Sidebar --> CTRL+B

Click the small "x" to the right of the word History or Bookmarks in the Sidebar will close that sidebar
If the History Sidebar is open, CTRL+B will close it and open the Bookmarks Sidebar
If the Bookmarks Sidebar is open, CTRL+H will close it and open the History Sidebar


If this reply solves your problem, please click "Solved It" next to this reply when signed-in to the forum.



Not related to your question, but...

You may need to update some plug-ins. Check your plug-ins and update as necessary:

Modified by SafeBrowser

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Sorry SafeBrowser, I think I wasn't clear enough posting my query. I can open the bookmarks sidebar by clicking on the bookmarks icon, or using Ctrl+B, but there are no bookmarks in it. My bookmarks are only accessible by opening the Bookmarks menu and the bookmarks then appear in the drop down box. Also, when I open the Bookmarks Menu and go to "Show all bookmarks" no bookmarks appear. To be honest I was perfectly happy with my old version of Firefox, but I figured I should update to get the best security. I've had nothing but trouble since I upgraded to 8.

Thank you for the advice re plug ins, I will go through them.

By the way, Ctrl+H or history icon opens the history, and the history appears OK.

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Chosen Solution

A possible cause is a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.


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

Modified by cor-el