Bookmarks not saved

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Unable to add new bookmarks or make other changes

If you are unable to add new bookmarks or if changes you make to the toolbar are not saved when you restart Firefox, see Toolbar keeps resetting.

If you cannot add new bookmarks or make other changes to your bookmarks and you have a Firefox extension related to bookmarks installed (e.g., for synchronizing bookmarks or detecting duplicate bookmarks) follow the instructions in Troubleshooting extensions and themes to determine if an extension is causing the problem.

It is recommended that you disable any extensions related to bookmarks as explained here, before proceeding with the rest of the solutions suggested below.

Changes are lost whenever you restart Firefox

If you are able to add, delete, rearrange, and make other changes to your bookmarks but your changes are lost whenever you restart Firefox, try these solutions.

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Places preferences

If changes to bookmarks are not being saved after restarting Firefox 3, reset the browser.places preferences to the default settings:

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press EnterReturn.
    • The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
  2. In the Filter box, type browser.places
  3. For each browser.places preference that has a user-set status, right-clickhold down the Ctrl key while you click on it and select Reset.

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Places database file

Bookmarks and browsing history are stored in the Firefox profile folder in the file places.sqlite. If there is a problem with this file, your bookmark changes can be lost whenever you restart Firefox. You can fix this by forcing Firefox to rebuild the Places database, as follows:

  1. (Optional) Export your bookmarks to an HTML file named bookmarks.html (see Exporting bookmarks to an HTML file for detailed instructions) and place the bookmarks.html file in the Firefox profile folder. If a bookmarks.html file already exists, allow the exported file to replace it.
  2. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  3. Open the Firefox profile folder and delete (or rename) the places.sqlite file and, if it exists, places.sqlite-journal.
  4. (Optional) If you want Firefox to automatically import your bookmarks from an existing bookmarks.html file in the profile folder, instead of from a JSON backup, open the bookmarkbackups folder and remove all bookmarks-(date).json files to another location.
  5. It is probably a good idea to also delete the localstore.rdf to remove the references to the old Places file but you will need to add back any toolbar customizations.

Firefox will create a new places.sqlite file and automatically import the most recent bookmark backup file. If no JSON backup is found, Firefox will automatically import your bookmarks from the profile folder bookmarks.html file, if it exists.

Note: You may also need to use to reset the browser.places preferences to the default settings (see above).

Bookmarks file is write-protected

If your changes to your bookmarks do not appear when you restart Firefox, the issue may be that your bookmarks file is write-protected. A write-protected file cannot be changed, which prevents your edits to your bookmarks from being saved.

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Windows:

To enable writing of your bookmarks file:

  1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu, and select the Exit menu item.
  2. Go to your Firefox profile folder.
  3. Right-click the file places.sqlite, and select Properties to open the Properties window.
  4. In the Properties window, select the General tab. Near the bottom of the window, verify that Read-only is not selected.


Mac OS:

To enable writing of your bookmarks file:

  1. From the menu bar, select Firefox and then select the Quit Firefox menu item.
  2. In the Finder, go to your Firefox profile folder.
  3. Select the file places.sqlite.
  4. From the menu bar select the File menu and select Get Info. The places.sqlite info window will open.
  5. In the places.sqlite info window, remove the check mark from the Locked check box.




Based on information from Bookmarks not saved (mozillaZine KB)


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Page last modified on Wednesday 12 of August, 2009 17:39:07 PST.
Contributors to this page: Bo , underpass , indigo , RightFlyer , AliceWyman , djstsys , skulvis and Chris_Ilias .
- This is a support/troubleshooting article -