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"Location" of some bookmarks is randomly set to "about:blank"

  • 13 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Firefox loses the "Location" data from "Properties" of bookmarks.

I start Firefox and click a link on the Bookmark toolbar and it may work fine; if I restart Firefox that same link may not work; on checking "Properties" for that bookmark I find the "Location" now reads "about:blank".

If I restart Firefox again that link may now work (with the correct address now back again in the "Location" box) but another link could now be set to "about:blank". And so it goes on.

I have reinstalled Firefox three times and I have created a new profile with none of my bookmarks installed, and the problem still occurs.

I should greatly appreciate some help with this, as it making Firefox unusable.

Firefox loses the "Location" data from "Properties" of bookmarks. I start Firefox and click a link on the Bookmark toolbar and it may work fine; if I restart Firefox that same link may not work; on checking "Properties" for that bookmark I find the "Location" now reads "about:blank". If I restart Firefox again that link may now work (with the correct address now back again in the "Location" box) but another link could now be set to "about:blank". And so it goes on. I have reinstalled Firefox three times and I have created a new profile with none of my bookmarks installed, and the problem still occurs. I should greatly appreciate some help with this, as it making Firefox unusable.

All Replies (13)

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https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/update-firefox-latest-version?cache=no Did you update Firefox to the latest version 65.0.1 February 12, 2019 Many issues were fixed.


[v57+] Places Maintenance is built into Firefox.

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

You will find Places Database near the bottom. Press the Verify Integrity button.

When done, copy and post the results here.

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Firefox 65.0.2 was released yesterday, Feb 28, 2019.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/65.0.2/releasenotes/

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Hi, thanks for your message

Verify Integrity data is as follows:

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 5120KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 5120KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 5120KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 5120KiB + pragma_user_version is 52 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 112348 unique pages + Table moz_origins has 30 records + Table moz_places has 160 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 256 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 0 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 29 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 2 records + Table moz_annos has 8 records + Table moz_items_annos has 0 records + Table moz_meta has 3 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 16 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_originidindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex > Task: _refreshUI

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Looks good. Is the problem still there?

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Problem still. I am very grateful to you for giving me your time in thinking out with me.

To recap:

I have version 65.02

I have uninstalled completely and reinstalled.

I have created a new clean profile and built a new bookmark toolbar from scratch. I have added 5 new bookmarks to test.

The problem is not just the location property being reset to about:blank, although that was just the last straw and so ludicrous that it got me to contact you in desperation.

Links do not work, even in the brand new test bookmarks I created yesterday - some do and some don't, even though the addresses seem fine and have not been reset, they simply do not work. (Incidentally today none of those test bookmarks have been reset to about:blank).

If I put a link in the address bar, Firefox refuses to respond.

At the moment Firefox is unusable, and I love it, used it for ages.

I am very sorry this case may get very boring for you, but I think you may need to know about certain other problems affecting Firefox. Things have been getting weird over the last month or so.

1. Firefox was sometimes very, very, very slow on initially accessing a site (sometimes including a major site like Amazon) but then worked fine. But at least links eventually worked, until now.

2. About December time Norton Full System Scan began to go incredibly slowly at a certain point in its scan, so slow that even using a wordprocessor became very difficult. I checked out with Norton and they came onto the computer and confirmed that Full System Scan was working correctly, but they had no idea why everything went so incredibly slowly. I then began to watch in Full System Scan which files were being processed when it went so slowly, and I saw that the files concerned were all in Firefox, being processed at a snail's pace little more than one at a time. From my memory they all seemed to be in the main folder and to be "TEMP" files. When Full System Scan got past these Firefox TEMP files, it went like a flash processing batches as normal and the computer worked normally again. I checked in Windows Explorer to see what on earth these TEMP files were, but Windows Explorer (set to show hidden files) could not see them or find them!! I removed the cache but it made no difference. Since I could not get rid of these mysterious files myself through Windows Explorer, about 6 weeks ago I reinstalled Firefox and the problem with Norton Full System Scan, so far as Firefox was concerned, was cured. But I still did not know what the weird files were. (I have since realised that the same problem is affecting Nuance - I use Dragon - and the same weird secret TEMP files appear there too).

3. About 5 weeks ago Norton Full System Scan found a high risk virus/threat on my system and it was in a Firefox installer or downloader file!! I had taken this down as I intended to reinstall Firefox but I cannot remember if I used it, I may have downloaded the downloader again. I now always ask Norton to check it individually before I use it.

4. Norton Full System Scan is currently and repeatedly giving me a clear scan result on all my drives.

I should very much appreciate your thoughts on this.

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Okay, it's time to get tough. Please follow these instructions:

First; we will make a copy of your bookmarks.

Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

Once the window is open, at the top of the page, press the button labeled Import and Backup. Select Export Bookmarks To HTML, and follow the prompts and save it to a HTML file. Copy the file to another computer/profile. Repeat the instructions above, BUT select Import Bookmarks From HTML.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks

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Next; make a backup copy of your current profile;

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.{web link} I use an add-on that makes backups of my user profile, Just In Case. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the current Firefox.

Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.

If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.

Note: In case you need to restore from these backups, you may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.

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That is what I like about Firefox there are lots of clear help/instruction notes which are understandable.

I have been slow in responding to you: Firefox would not access some of the support/help links you gave me.

I hope I have now followed your instructions correctly:

1. I have backed up the bookmarks as HTML and have restored them.

2. I have created a new profile called Test using the Profile Manager and have opened Firefox using Test. It is a completely new clean profile. All I have done is to show the Menu bar and the (empty) Bookmarks toolbar. Otherwise I have done nothing to this profile yet, no bookmarks, passwords or cookies.

3. about:profiles link would not work when typed into the address bar (Firefox simply would not respond, in any way), but I was able to get to it from the Troubleshooting Information page. It shows I am using this Test profile.

4. I have typed in the address bar the address of the email site that I use, but Firefox would not respond or access it. I cannot access my emails. I know this is not a crisis as it is all a test. I tried several times, but no luck.

5. I exited Firefox and restarted, still could not access my emails.

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greenfirebird said

still could not access my emails.

Are you getting an error, or is the browser just sitting there?

Let’s do a full clean re-install;

Download Firefox For All languages And Systems {web link}

Save the file. Then Close Firefox.

Using your file browser, open the Programs Folder on your computer.

Windows: C:\Program Files C:\Program Files (x86) Note: Check Both Folders

Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-download-and-install-firefox-mac

Linux: Check your user manual. If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it. See Install Firefox on Linux; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux

If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder Firefox in your home directory. http://www.mozilla.org/firefox#desktop ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Look for, and remove any Mozilla or Firefox program folders. Do not remove the Mozilla Thunderbird folder if there is one.

Do Not remove any profile folders.

After rebooting the computer, run a registry scanner if you have one. Then run the installer. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If there is a problem, start your Computer in safe mode and try again.

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linux+Safe+Mode This shows how to Start all Computers in Safe Mode; Free Online Encyclopedia

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Thanks.

No opportunity to install Firefox yesterday. Done that now.

I deleted all C: folders but the new installation still found and used my Test profile (I wonder how it did that, it was on the E: drive).

I will play around with it today and see how it goes.

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I am afraid it is no better. If I search, Firefox simply does not respond. No error messages, just no response. I searched for "Amazon" and after half an hour there was still no reply.

I have just one bookmark in Test profile, to my email site, and it will not work - it correctly puts the address in the address bar, but the address will not respond.

I am so sorry to be a nuisance, but I am completely stuck with it.

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Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}