Lately, I’ve been having some problems with my bookmarks in Firefox 3 (FF3).

I can’t do anything with my bookmarks, including adding, deleting, editing, or even moving them from one folder to another.  I love FF and all, but this issue has got to go!

So I decided to take a look online and realized I’m not the only one having this problem.  Just do a Google search on “can’t delete bookmarks in firefox 3″.  I came up with about 365,000 results…yeah, I think there’s a problem here.  But first, let me explain how FF3 is different than previous versions of FF.

The Old School Way

In previous versions of FF, bookmarks were simply stored in the file bookmarks.html, end of story.  One file…easy to backup and easy to replace if corrupted.  This also allowed for easy transfer of bookmarks between PCs.  Just copy over the one file and you were all set!

The New Technology

FF3 uses a new type of bookmarking system which brings up an all-too-familiar question, where are FF3 bookmarks stored and saved?  Bookmarks, and the history for that matter, are now stored in the database file places.sqlite.  This database allows you to add tags to your bookmarks in FF3 as well as allowing the browser to handle requests more quickly.  The only problem is the headaches it creates (two for me).

WTF is JSON?

Along with the new database, you may see a folder called bookmarkbackups containing  several JSON (Javascript Object Notation) files.  These files serve as backups in case your database is lost or corrupted.  You can import these backups of your bookmarks through the Organize Bookmarks functionality in FF.  This is not the primary location where FF3 bookmarks are stored.

There are ways to view the bookmarks in your database by using add-ons such as the SQLite Manager, but I’m not going to get into that right now.  I don’t need to see the same bookmarks in the database that I can see in the browser.  I just wanted to mention that there are ways to view the content of the database.

So How Do I Fix My Bookmarks?

Ok, on to the reason I posted this article…a straight-forward and quick method to fix bookmark issues.  I actually didn’t even know I had a problem until I tried moving an existing bookmark to another folder.  It looked like it moved, but when I restarted FF3, it went back to its original location.  Upon further investigation, I realized I couldn’t edit, delete, or even add a new bookmark!

First thing you want to do is type about:config in the URL field.

This will bring up a long list of preferences for your browser.  I wouldn’t recommend changing these unless you know what you’re doing.  Think of it like the Registry in Windows…don’t touch unless you know what you’re doing.  We want to filter this list so it only shows what we’re looking for.  Type browser.places in the Filter field.  The list will update automatically.

A much shorter list now!  The values for each preference may be slightly different than above, don’t worry about it.  The next thing you want to do is right-click each of these values and select Reset.

After selecting Reset for each preference, close your browser and restart it.  You should be all set!  It worked like a gem for me.  Hopefully, it does the same for you!

Have a good one!