Firefox Update - No History, No bookmarking

[jglen490]

So now I'm on Firefox 32.0, and unhappy. The Preference settings did not change from version 31.0, yet I have no history, and can't save any new bookmarks. I have the same question over on the Mozillazine forum, but no joy so far. Any ideas?

[Qqmike]

No problem here w/32.0 (using Kubuntu 12.04). And your settings are correct under Privacy > History. Maybe just save your html bookmark file and try a re-install (through Muon, for example)?

[jglen490]

I just removed and re-installed - same outcome. And what's really weird is I can't save any bookmarks - my existing bookmarks are fine, just no new ones.

It was all good until this last update from ver. 31 to 32. "about:config" doesn't show anything funky.

Here's my Prefs page:

[Qqmike]

Looks right, except, and I'm not remembering too much about this, I use:

Under History

Firefox will: Use custom settings for history.

Then I check off
Remember my browsing and download history
Remember search and form history
Accept cookies from sites
Clear history when Firefox closes

(The first two of these four being most important for this problem.)

Just for kicks, you might try this, even though the net effect * should be * the same as the net effect of your settings.

[Qqmike]

No luck with that change?

[jglen490]

I tried that, including checking the Clear History When Firefox Closes box. But then I went into the Advanced Setting for Clear History, and unchecked all the options. I closed it normally. I went to a few different sites, but no History was written. I unchecked the Clear History, and closed the box. When I opened it back up, the option was changed from Custom Settings to Remember.

I don't know. I checked back with Mozillazine, there was another response that mentioned getting the SettingSanity addon. It was useful in its own right, but didn't do anything about this problem. I'll just save any new Bookmarks to a Leafpad page or a Kate file until this gets resolved. I'll be moving to 14.04 when I get some time to pay attention to that conversion, maybe it'll be better.

Thank you!

[notabug]

For bookmarking in Firefox 32, it took me a bit to figure this one out. Right click anywhere on an open page, once you get the popup, right click on the star for bookmarking. A mouse over on each icon will tell what they are used for.

[Qqmike]

and enable the Menu Bar and other helpers, icons, ...

[Snowhog]

For bookmarking in Firefox 32, it took me a bit to figure this one out. Right click anywhere on an open page, once you get the popup, right click on the star for bookmarking. A mouse over on each icon will tell what they are used for.

Cool. I didn't know about this.

[jglen490]

Actually, GOOD NEWS. Simple fix. Somehow, the "... .mozilla/firefox/<xxxxxxxx>.default/places.sqlite" file got clobbered. In looking at some old Mozilla KB, a previous fix was to delete the file, close FF, and restart FF. That worked. Of course, I didn't delete the file, just renamed it - DAMHIK! There's a new version out there, all my current bookmarks made it through, and History is now building again.

[Qqmike]

Wow, amazing. And the new re-install of 32.0 from Muon didn't carry with it that necessary file? Not questioning you, just questioning how this obscure little file got knocked off.

Edit, added: It also occurs to me that sometimes with Firefox (and Thunderbird), after making a change in settings, you have to close and re-start to get the change to take. Maybe some of that was going on here, too. I have had similar problems as this, and just thinking out loud what might have slipped up here for you.

[jglen490]

Based on the date of the old file, something probably happened the day or two before I actually updated to FF 32. We've had some power fluxes during thunderstorms. Actually the file was "clobbered" only in the sense that at some point it was no longer updating, probably broken pointers, bad structure, etc., but it still existed.

I can't say that a power flux was the reason for sure, but the file after the FF 32 upgrade existed and had data, I just noticed that history and especially adding new bookmarks just wasn't working post-upgrade. Not something that I do everyday, but anyway thanks for everyone's input!