Hi, first, * - you can save your bookmarks where you want, in the form of an html file. go to FX Top Menu - Bookmarks > Show all B. which opens under the name of Library, (with history as well), from the Library window click top menu Import & Backup button and select Export HTML > in next window opening, save as & where you want it under the name bookmarks_2011.mm.dd.html for example.

Now, to answer your problem more specifically, your Library offers you a view of your history and bookmarks (all can be sorted in the alphabetical order or date order, same as you would do in Window Explorer). Here you can organise your saved links visited in folders, create new folders, move each bookmark around by dragging them with your mouse, or CTRL+C for cutting and CTRL+P for pasting, same as you do it in any of your home folder in your XP. When you want to update your saved bookmarks folders like the one you just did: bookmarks_2011.mm.dd.html you repeat same operation as * seen above.

You can also put this bookmarks_2011.mm.dd.html into Bookmarks Toolbar (Library window) so you can access the bookmarks file in its html form as a simple webpage with one click on your toolbar, How? Like This:

Within your Library window, click and select your Bookmark Toolbar folder on the left panel of the Library, then go to the right panel where you find the bookmarks contained in the Toolbar folder and right click in an empty space of that panel & select Open New Bookmark, or instead CTRL+click and drag one of the existing bookmarks to copy it then rename it inserting the location where you have saved your bookmarks html file in your system, ex: file:///media/storage180/bookmarks/bookmarks.t40.html - see 1st + 2nd screenshots

Each time you want to update your saved bookmarks_html file you can either save onto the same or make a new html file.

Now suppose you want 2 different versions of bookmarks, let say you have the technical stuff in one bookmarks_file.html and the other_topics_stuff in bookmarks.ots.html you can have both in your Toolbar menu, or have all folders of each bookmarks_file.html added into your Library left panel, by importing each bookmarks_file.html (same manip as the one you did when you exported earlier) top menu Import & Backup button and select Import HTML

I hope my explanations won't drive you insane, just take your time.

after arranging bookmarks they get rearranged later

Make sure you are not in Private browsing.

You can rearrange bookmarks in the bookmarks menu, the bookmarks toolbar, and unsorted bookmarks. You can rearrange bookmark folders only in the s in the library list, but not bookmark in the columns -- sorting on columns is temporary.

I find the best arrangement is alphabetical for my all bookmarks and use the "SortPlaces: extension to alphabetize them. I do allow the bookmarks toolbar to be sorted when I ask the extensions to sort my my bookmarks but I have 3 bookmark separators to break it up into groups. A group is sorted within the group but stay within the separator group. Please see the following article ...

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_and_rearranging_bookmarks_-_Firefox

I even allow my "unsorted bookmarks" to be sorted, but I do throw in bookmark separators at the bottom occasionally so if I organize some of those bookmarks later into folders in my "bookmarks menu", I may find others added about the same time to also move into the same or related fold.

If you don't think the above applies to you, you are not sorting or synchronizing bookmarks then make an obvious change in say your bookmarks toolbar, then restart Firefox to see if the change is still there.

If your change reverts to what you had before the change check the update date time stamp on your places.sqlite file, if it is not current then the file is not being updated can you may see another copy of the file named places.sqlite.corrupt which may be the one you need (check the dates). Deleting/renaming then rebuilding your places.sqlite will result in loss of history, and you would want to try all other avenues of fixing your problem and making sure you really do have a problem before destroying your history data.

Prevention minimizing problems: Always close Firefox properly with File > Exit or the red/orange "Firefox" button then Exit (not with the "X" in upper right corner which is close window). Always backup your Firefox profile and all personal data.

...(all can be sorted in the alphabetical order or date order, same as you would do in Window Explorer).... wasn't this relevant? I think the best way to keep a bookmark where it is - the Library window- is to save bookmarks by exporting the html file in a location rather than letting FX using the default location.

to dmcritchie:

Well...what I don't keep mine in alphabetical or anything, but what I noticed was the next time I opened firefox, and clicked bookmarks, they had moved to where I saved them. So I don't know if I had to open show bookmarks to do it, or if it just requires a restart of firefox. I can't say I like having to restart it, since I never had to do that before, and if I'm rearranging more than one that are related to each other, it'll be a lot of restarts if it's a constant issue. But I guess the restarting the browser is the answer.

By the way, I think you're the only person that actually understood what I was asking. Thank you for your reply. I'm by no means a novice with computers or a new user to firefox, I just recently upgraded to 6 because my older version was giving me problems. So I thought I'd give it a try and see if it helped the issues at all. I think that makes it even more frustrating when you know what you're doing more or less, and it still doesn't work.

Thanks again for your help, I'm glad that someone else has found what I suspected may be the solution, to be a solution as well.

Yes Bookmarks on the menu bar does get delayed, and was annoying when rearranging a lot of bookmarks, that might have be part of my reason for not using it though I think the main reason for switching to the sidebar was being able to collapse and expand bookmark folders in an indented column arrangement that stays put for the next time I view in sidebar, rather than looking at a lot of fly out menus. Also the ability to search in the sidebar for text strings in titles and urls just like on the Location bar before (or without) pressing Enter.