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

bookmarks, history, and library seem to be the same thing?!

more options

Hi community, I want to bookmark only sites I wish to return to, but it seems that my entire history is bookmarked. I don't mind Firefox remembering my entire history, but it seems as though one's history and bookmarks and library are one and the same thing. I started using, "tags" to deal with it, but even tags require me to dig through my library/entire history to find them. Isn't there some way to have my bookmarks be separate from my history/library? Thanks in advance!

Hi community, I want to bookmark only sites I wish to return to, but it seems that my entire history is bookmarked. I don't mind Firefox remembering my entire history, but it seems as though one's history and bookmarks and library are one and the same thing. I started using, "tags" to deal with it, but even tags require me to dig through my library/entire history to find them. Isn't there some way to have my bookmarks be separate from my history/library? Thanks in advance!

All Replies (3)

more options

The places.sqlite database stores bookmarks and history (including download history) and you can't separate the two. When the link (URL) opened in a tab is bookmarked then the bookmark star at the right end of the location bar is highlighted blue. When you see a link in the location bar drop-down list that has a star attached to the favicon then this is a bookmark, otherwise this is an history item or a search suggestion.


more options

Thank you very much cor-el for the info. I still find it annoying but now I at least know it is the way Firefox works and not a choice in my options that I can change.

more options

Just to be clear: Firefox comes with about a dozen sites bookmarked in advance, but all other bookmarking is up to you.

The Library window distinguishes bookmarks, downloads, and history with separate categories in the left column.

If you find that sites are getting bookmarked automatically, hmm, that is really weird and not how it is supposed to work. Do you maybe have an add-on that is doing that??