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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Manually sorted bookmarks being reset after a while

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by CnZhx

CnZhx
CnZhx
more options

First of all, I am using Firefox 50 on a Linux distribution of openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Most of my bookmarks lie in Bookmark Toolbar, and are arranged in folders whose positions are set manually. And several bookmarks there are manually sorted as well. They all work like promised. But, several bookmarks in some of the folders, mentioned previously, jumps back to random positions after a while after the manually sorting.

Could anyone help me understand the jumping back or randomly, and solve the problem?

I already read the posts seemingly related here,

  1. . Bookmarks keep un-sorting <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1126890> /questions/1126890, seems alike but attracts little response and remains unsolved.
  2. . Can't manually sort bookmarks windows 7. tried help articles-nope <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1143902>/questions/1143902, is not the same as my problem.

Thanks in advance. CnZhx

Edit formatting & links. Hash cahacter makes numbered paragraphs. Square brackets used for links, internal ones may be short. (Markup may change soon we will migrate to new software) ~J99

First of all, I am using Firefox 50 on a Linux distribution of openSUSE Tumbleweed. Most of my bookmarks lie in Bookmark Toolbar, and are arranged in folders whose positions are set manually. And several bookmarks there are manually sorted as well. They all work like promised. But, several bookmarks in some of the folders, mentioned previously, jumps back to random positions after a while after the manually sorting. Could anyone help me understand the jumping back or randomly, and solve the problem? I already read the posts seemingly related here, #. Bookmarks keep un-sorting <s><https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1126890></s> [/questions/1126890], seems alike but attracts little response and remains unsolved. #. Can't manually sort bookmarks windows 7. tried help articles-nope <s><https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1143902></s>[/questions/1143902], is not the same as my problem. Thanks in advance. CnZhx Edit formatting & links. Hash cahacter makes numbered paragraphs. Square brackets used for links, internal ones may be short. (Markup may change soon we will migrate to new software) ~J99

Modified by John99

Chosen solution

Are you possibly using Sync the sync bookmarks because that could be a cause?

Also some problems with the places.sqlite database can cause Firefox to restore bookmarks automatically from a JSON backup to rebuild places.sqlite.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

See also:

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

Are you possibly using Sync the sync bookmarks because that could be a cause?

Also some problems with the places.sqlite database can cause Firefox to restore bookmarks automatically from a JSON backup to rebuild places.sqlite.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

See also:

Modified by cor-el

CnZhx
CnZhx Question owner
more options

Thanks a lot, cor-el.

Yes, I'm using Sync. I feel it could be due to Sync as well. But do you think Sync should sync my latest modifications to the server or other devices right after I save preference or close Firefox? I still cannot understand why it reverts my manual changes.

I manually deleted all the session files of my system and those of Firefox last night. And made my modifications to the bookmarks. After several restarts of Firefox, the changes kept. This morning, after I booted my system and started Firefox, I noticed that the changes are kept. But, after a while, they are reverted. So, it has a big chance to be caused by the Sync feature.

Maybe there is any mechanism of Sync not being implemented correct. Or, is Sync designed to be like this? But this feature is too useful to be dumped.

For your suggestions,

I used the extension you suggested just now. It reports Firefox to be sane. Here is the statitics in case it helps: Report of Places Maintenance

And for the articles you provided,

  1. I can add new bookmarks, so I guess my Bookmarks File is writable.
  2. The places.sqlite seems working well.

Thanks again for your help. And do you have a workaround to make Sync not revert my modifications?

========== Updated on 15:45 06/12/2016 The disconnect and reconnect operations on secondary devices solved the problem.

Today, the bookmarks are sync-ed to my mobile phone. After manually sync on my phone, then on the main device, the manually sorted bookmarks are kept.

If anyone having the same problem wants a detailed procedure, please refer to the section below.

========== Updated on 15:14 05/12/2016 After previous investigation, based on cor-el's suggestion, I performed the following tweaks, and the bookmarks look good until now. And Sync must be the culprit.

Operations:

  1. Disconnect sync-ed devices (PC at work, mobile phone) except the main one of my laptop
  2. Sort bookmarks manually on the main device which still connected to Sync server
  3. Sync to server manually
  4. Delete and create a new profile for Firefox on the PC at work following this <Use the Profile Manager to create and remove Firefox profiles >
  5. Clear DATA of Firefox app on the mobile phone following this <How to clear app cache and app data in Android 6.0 Marshmallow >
  6. Re-connect other devices and sync again

So far so good except bookmarks have not being sync-ed to my mobile phone after reconnected more than 5 hours.

I still think the working scheme of Sync should be tweaked to make sure the very last active device has the priority to be the ultimate version of sync-ed information.

I will update this post after bookmarks being sync-ed to my mobile phone.

Modified by CnZhx