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A folder in bookmarks is open by default and will not stay closed

  • 8 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by ironwing1

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Every time I go to bookmark a page and open the bookmarks menu, one of my folders (which contains a very very long list of subfolders) is open by default, so I have to go through the procedure to close the folder (which does not happen with the usual one click) before I can scroll on efficiently to locate the subfolder I want to save the page in. How can I get the default on my folder to be CLOSED instead of open??? This has been going on for about a year, and is the same on all my computers, which are networked.

Every time I go to bookmark a page and open the bookmarks menu, one of my folders (which contains a very very long list of subfolders) is open by default, so I have to go through the procedure to close the folder (which does not happen with the usual one click) before I can scroll on efficiently to locate the subfolder I want to save the page in. How can I get the default on my folder to be CLOSED instead of open??? This has been going on for about a year, and is the same on all my computers, which are networked.

All Replies (8)

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What folder are you talking about?

Places Maintenance {web link} Allows to run Maintenance tasks on the database that drives Places, the bookmarks and history module behind Firefox.

Open the Add-ons Manager. Locate the add-on and press the Options button. Then follow the directions.

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Do you mean in the Bookmarks Sidebar? It's not normal for any folders to be open when you use the drop-down menus.

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No, not in the Bookmarks sidebar. In the dropdown menu. That's why it is SO FRUSTRATING.

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Perhaps I'm thinking of the wrong feature. Now that I re-read this --

ironwing1 said

Every time I go to bookmark a page and open the bookmarks menu, one of my folders (which contains a very very long list of subfolders) is open by default, so I have to go through the procedure to close the folder (which does not happen with the usual one click) before I can scroll on efficiently to locate the subfolder I want to save the page in.

-- is the problem happening inside the little panel that says "Page Bookmarked" and lets you select the folder to save in?

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When you click on the star in the upper right corner on the bookmarks toolbar, a dropdown window appears. There is no 'panel', only this little dropdown window for you to choose which folder you want to put the bookmark in. When I arrow over the star, it says "bookmark this page (Ctrl D)". The window will be titled either "Bookmark This Page" or "Edit This Bookmark", depending on whether the star is clear or blue. The first field is marked Name, the one below it is marked Folder and the bottom field is Tags. When I hit the dropdown arrow at the right end of the middle field (Folder) and then "Choose" from that dropdown list I have to scroll through the subfolders I have added to find the folder I want to store the link for the page I want to save in. As I get to the "Changing Thoughts" folder, it is always open by default and itself contains about 25 sub-subfolders. I cannot get it to remain closed by default. When I click on the arrow to close that subfolder, I have to use several clicks before it will close. This started with a Foxfire update I installed over a year ago and has continued through all updates since then. I wish to **** I could remember which version this started with. I thank you for your attention to this problem.

Modified by ironwing1

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I think that all folders are expanded by default. Maybe you can move this large folder to the bottom of this list (Bookmarks Menu folder), so you do not need to hide it or scroll down.

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If you close/collapse the folder you don't want expanded by clicking its triangle, and then check "Edit This Bookmark" again on the same or a different tab, is the folder expanded again? Or does the problem recur the next time you exit and restart Firefox?

On mine it stays shut during the same session; however, I'm not using multiprocess (disabled by add-ons) or Sync, which may or may not be factors.

My Firefox seems to be storing the id of last folder I expanded in the xulstore.json, which is a frequently updated file storing numerous details about the size and position of UI elements.

Under 'chrome://browser/content/browser.xul': {

the last couple items:

'place:folder=BOOKMARKS_MENU&excludeItems=1&excludeQueries=1&excludeReadOnlyFolders=1': { 'open': 'true' }, 'place:folder=11444&excludeItems=1&excludeQueries=1&excludeReadOnlyFolders=1': { 'open': 'true' }

So that is correct:

  • Bookmarks Toolbar, closed
  • Bookmarks Menu opened, C&F folder opened [according to the SQLite Manager extension, id=11444 is the C&F folder]
  • Other Bookmarks, closed

But the file also lists:

'place:folder=12082&excludeItems=1&excludeQueries=1&excludeReadOnlyFolders=1': { 'open': 'true' }, 'place:folder=12096&excludeItems=1&excludeQueries=1&excludeReadOnlyFolders=1': { 'open': 'true' }

And those two folders are not expanded, at least not in the current window. They may automatically expand if I open a new window, then expand the Bookmarks Menu. Does that make sense? I collapsed Bookmarks menu, but I didn't collapse the expanded folder inside that menu, so when I expand Bookmarks Menu again, that folder also expands?

Anyway, the xulstore.json file is tricky to edit because it's one long line. When problems arise with the file, we typically suggest you rename it to restore default sizing/positioning. Here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. We would expect that none of the three "categories" are expanded in Bookmark This Page, and that none of the folder within them are expanded when you expand the top level categories.

Also, xulstore.json stores information about whether the Menu Bar and Bookmarks Toolbar are displayed. To turn different bars on and off, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

  • right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank spot on the tab bar (or the "+" button)
  • (menu bar) View > Toolbars
    On Windows, tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar temporarily.
  • in Customize mode > Show/Hide Toolbars (see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars)

To turn on the Bookmarks Toolbar, Menu Bar, or other bars, click it on the list.

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Wow, you are awesome. That's pretty technical for me so I am going to have my husband go through it and see if we can get this problem cleared up. Thank you so much for your instructions.

The folder is expanded every time I go to save a new page, even in the same session. SO frustrating.

I'll let you know how it goes. I hope you are having a great week...