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Why when I click "show all bookmarks" I don't see my personal bookmarks no matter what I expand, unless I click "recent bookmarks"?

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

iusedtolikefirefox
iusedtolikefirefox
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When I click the "Show your bookmarks" icon in the top bar, I can see my personal bookmarks at the bottom of the list. When I select "show all bookmarks" they are not visible in the sidebar, even when I expand "bookmarks menu." I have to expand "recently bookmarked" to see them. (They're not in unsorted.) They won't be recent forever. Then I have to recreate them?

When I click the "Show your bookmarks" icon in the top bar, I can see my personal bookmarks at the bottom of the list. When I select "show all bookmarks" they are not visible in the sidebar, even when I expand "bookmarks menu." I have to expand "recently bookmarked" to see them. (They're not in unsorted.) They won't be recent forever. Then I have to recreate them?

Chosen solution

JSON backups are automatic - once per day, for the days when Firefox is used. The backup is done as Firefox is Exited, and will be updated every time Firefox is Exited that day if more new bookmarks were saved.

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All Replies (5)

cor-el
cor-el
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Does anything come up if you type a colon (:) in the search bar?

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

See also:

You can try to restore a JSON backup.

  • Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Restore

The name of a JSON bookmarks backup file includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once.

  • bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync while performing maintenance/repair efforts to files in the Firefox profile folder.

iusedtolikefirefox
iusedtolikefirefox Question owner
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Thank you cor-el for the detailed response.

Now I see, expanding "Bookmarks Menu" is not enough. I have to click it a second time to get the list of bookmarks to reorder and organize.

Modified by iusedtolikefirefox

iusedtolikefirefox
iusedtolikefirefox Question owner
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Thank you again cor-el.

In regards to your suggestion to restore a JSON backup: I am guessing that a JSON backup is only available if I have created one. Or is that done automatically behind the scenes?

Modified by iusedtolikefirefox

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
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Chosen Solution

JSON backups are automatic - once per day, for the days when Firefox is used. The backup is done as Firefox is Exited, and will be updated every time Firefox is Exited that day if more new bookmarks were saved.

cor-el
cor-el
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Firefox keeps rotating compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups of the bookmarks in the bookmarkbackups folder within the Firefox profile folder. The file name includes a total item count and a hash value that makes it possible to only create a new backup when changes are detected.

  • bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item-count>_<hash>.jsonlz4

Automatically created JSON backups have a .jsonlz4 file extension to distinguish them from uncompressed backups that have the .json file extension. You can create a normal uncompressed JSON backup manually in the Bookmarks Manager (Library) since the compressed jsonlz4 format is only used for automated backups.