I have 7500 bookmarks under Unsorted Bookmarks, most for Real Player, how do I get rid of them
I cannot delete the Unsorted Bookmarks folder (delete is grayed out, as is Cut) and it has literally thousands of entries. I rarely if ever use the star so they must be being added automatically. Most of the entries are "Real Player Home Page." I think this huge number of (useless to me) bookmarks is affecting the Sync function as it keeps telling me it has encountered an error.
Until recently I was using Xmarks but that, too, has stopped functioning.
I am at a loss as to what to do to get rid of all those bookmarks under the UB folder.
Chosen solution
OnTheRoad41 said
Can I just edit the bookmarks html file to delete the innumerable references to RealPlayer? There are innumerable of these: ....
Rather than using an HTML editor program to edit the bookmarks.html file, you could open that file in Firefox (like a webpage) and use the edit page bookmarklet. https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/misc.html#edit_page the guy - Jesse - who created that website in 2000 is a Mozilla developer - that bookmarklet still works to delete page content which is highlighted by using the Delete key - I have used it dozens of times over the years to "edit" a bookmarks.html file and remove hundreds of contiguous lines of bookmarks in "one fell swoop", or separate groupings of bookmarks When you are done "editing" just make sure you save that "edited" bookmarks.html file.
As far as how that problem started, using Xmarks and Sync together was the prescription for disaster. And using Bookmark Deduplicator while Sync was still "connected" to that Profile just "dribbled" those duplicates back into that Profile as you described happening.
I used Deduplicator and it removed 53,548 duplicates! BUT as soon as I opened Unsorted Bookmarks it was repopulated with some huge number of RealPlayer Home Page bookmarks. I could actually watch the little bar marker on the left getting smaller and smaller as it repopulated. Something weird is going on.
As you are working towards getting rid of those "duplicates" - either by using the Bookmark Deduplicator extension or by editing a bookmarks.html file for import into a new Profile, make sure Sync is Disconnected and that you change you Sync password to clear your data from the Sync server before you connect back to your Sync account. Otherwise this problem will just reappear again and again.
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Could you try using the Library dialog? To open that, either:
- Ctrl+Shift+b
- Show All Bookmarks
What is suggest is using the search box and starting with real and modifying the query until it matches the bulk of those unwanted pages. Then you should be able to select all in the list (Ctrl+a) and press the Delete key to remove them. It may take a minute for Firefox to process that.
Then in the left column click Unsorted Bookmarks and see what is left in that category. You can't remove the category, but you can remove its contents on the right side.
We had another thread earlier this year about bookmarks duplicating themselves. I can't recall whether/how it was solved, but if that continues, we should look it up.
I only have 23 of those useless bookmarks, which is way more than anyone needs. Delete is also on the right-click context menu if you find that more convenient than using the keyboard. (Screen shot attached for reference)
Maybe it is best to use Shift and page down to select about 1000 bookmarks at the time and press Delete to delete the selected bookmarks instead of selecting all 7500 at once.
jscher2000 said
Could you try using the Library dialog? To open that, either:What is suggest is using the search box and starting with real and modifying the query until it matches the bulk of those unwanted pages. Then you should be able to select all in the list (Ctrl+a) and press the Delete key to remove them. It may take a minute for Firefox to process that. Then in the left column click Unsorted Bookmarks and see what is left in that category. You can't remove the category, but you can remove its contents on the right side.
- Ctrl+Shift+b
- Show All Bookmarks
We had another thread earlier this year about bookmarks duplicating themselves. I can't recall whether/how it was solved, but if that continues, we should look it up.
Thank you all for your help!
OK this is very strange. I can delete the FOLDERS that are in the Bookmark Menu but they still show up when I open the Library. I try to delete the 3583 entries for Real Player and nothing happens. Possibly it just will take hours for that to happen because I marked 12 to delete and it took FF39 about 30 seconds to delete them. I'm pretty sure all those bookmarks are slowing FF and causing it to freeze, sometimes permanently.
A couple of the other things I've done or are happening:
I have completely removed FF (Revo Uninstaller) and reinstalled it and Sync it with my account.
Since I did that and have only deliberately bookmarked one place (this support page), the Recently Bookmarked folder has been populated with 9 instances of RealPlayer Home Page plus the page I bookmarked.
I am going to now select all the RealPlayer Home Page entries under Unsorted Bookmarks and press delete and go away for a couple of hours to see what happens.
Do you have RealPlayer installed on your computer? Programs on your computer can do strange things to Firefox sometimes.
George4211 said
Do you have RealPlayer installed on your computer? Programs on your computer can do strange things to Firefox sometimes.
Yes I apparently have Real Player on my computer but I cannot find it to delete. I have use Revo and the windows uninstall, neither finds RealPlayer. I'd love to get rid of it because it clearly is doing strange things to my browser.
Continuing my saga of inability to delete Unsorted Bookmarks: I've attached a screen shot of all the Folders I have there in addition to the 1000s of RealPlayer entries. I cannot delete any of them. I right click on a folder (empty by the way, all empty), click on Delete and nothing happens. No delete, nothing. R click on another, same thing.
Under Unsorted Bookmarks, I can highlight a dozen or so entries of RealPlayer and delete those but if I do Ctrl-A to highlight all of them and try to delete, nothing happens. I waited several hours just to see if it took that long. Nothing deleted. I can't delete several thousand 12 at a time.
I am at my wit's end! I love FF but it's broken. I added this as a bookmark last night and today the bookmark was gone. FF hangs occasionally and I'm pretty sure it's because of all the Unsorted Bookmarks.
Any ideas?
Right. What operating system are you using?
Can you try this:
- Open the Run dialog. To do this, in the start menu/screen, search for "run" and click on the result.
- In the run dialog, type "cmd" and hit enter. (without the quotes)
- You're now in command prompt. Type "wmic product get name,version". (without the quotes)
- It'll take a few seconds.
- You'll get a list of programs. It's hard to read, but see if you can find RealPlayer in there, and let me know if you can find it.
OnTheRoad41,
Try using this extension - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bookmark-deduplicator/ - to remove those duplicate bookmarks.
Long list (if you can tell me how to do it I could send it to you) but I cannot find Real-anything. No RealPlayer or anything resembling that. Lots of Microsoft (of course!) and programs I recognize and a few that I have no idea about.
I'll attach a screen shot of part of the list because I think it's interesting that all the entries for RealPlayer are for the same time!
I appreciate your help!
You might need to disconnect from Sync while cleaning up the bookmarks, in case the delay is caused by sending the changes to the server. Is it possible the RealPlayer bookmarks are from another system on the account, or is this the only one?
There are some database utilities to address issues with the places.sqlite database in case the duplication is caused by file corruption. Hopefully another volunteer has links at their finger tips.
You may want to create an extra backup and export in case they are needed for salvage operations:
- Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks (save an HTML-format file to a convenient location)
- Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer (save a JSON-format file to a convenient location)
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
- Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/
jscher2000 said
You might need to disconnect from Sync while cleaning up the bookmarks, in case the delay is caused by sending the changes to the server. Is it possible the RealPlayer bookmarks are from another system on the account, or is this the only one? There are some database utilities to address issues with the places.sqlite database in case the duplication is caused by file corruption. Hopefully another volunteer has links at their finger tips. You may want to create an extra backup and export in case they are needed for salvage operations:
- Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks (save an HTML-format file to a convenient location)
- Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer (save a JSON-format file to a convenient location)
OK, I don't know how to disconnect from Sync. And if I do, won't the original bookmarks be saved on the server up in the cloud or wherever?
I used Deduplicator and it removed 53,548 duplicates! BUT as soon as I opened Unsorted Bookmarks it was repopulated with some huge number of RealPlayer Home Page bookmarks. I could actually watch the little bar marker on the left getting smaller and smaller as it repopulated. Something weird is going on.
I'm thinking what I ought to do is export the booksmarks I want to an html file, make a new FF account (if that's possible with the same email). remove FF completely (as I did a day or so ago) and reinstall it and then import the html to the new FF.
Doable? Will it solve the problem?
You could create a new Firefox profile, which is a settings folder created in parallel with your current profile. It will be pretty much blank. You then could restore a bookmark backup into it and since it is not connected to Sync, you should be able to clean it up undisturbed. You then could try replacing your "real" places.sqlite with the clean one, although, you would lose all your history that way so probably best to keep a backup in case you decide to undo the switch.
If you want to try it:
You'll need to exit Firefox in order to switch between your profiles. After the exercise, I suggest retaining the "extra" profile because it's a little too easy to delete the real profile by accident.
Since AppData is hidden by default, the easiest way to get to the profile folders is 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 "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in the currently active profile.
You can change the password of the Sync account to reset all stored data.
Did you check for issue with the places.sqlite file like I posted above?
Sync is notorious for occasionally messing up bookmarks. Sync is also unable to cope with anything like your number of bookmarks. You probably have no chance of clearing up this issue if bookmarks are set to be Synced with Firefox Sync.
jscher2000 said
You could create a new Firefox profile, which is a settings folder created in parallel with your current profile. It will be pretty much blank. You then could restore a bookmark backup into it and since it is not connected to Sync, you should be able to clean it up undisturbed. You then could try replacing your "real" places.sqlite with the clean one, although, you would lose all your history that way so probably best to keep a backup in case you decide to undo the switch. If you want to try it: You'll need to exit Firefox in order to switch between your profiles. After the exercise, I suggest retaining the "extra" profile because it's a little too easy to delete the real profile by accident. Since AppData is hidden by default, the easiest way to get to the profile folders is using either:In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in the currently active profile.
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
I'm going to try this as nothing else has worked. Thank you for your patience. I gave up yesterday and now that I'm fresh I'll try again.