Bookmark Toolbar drop-down menu has disappeared
Issue
I have a problem with my bookmarks, cookies, history or settings
Description
After updating to FF ver. 3.6.6, 'Bookmarks Toolbar' under the 'Bookmarks' heading (between 'History' and 'Tools') does not work. However, when I click on the Bookmarks icon located next to the Printer icon, the full bookmark section appears in the left-hand margin of the browser page.
I've tried to find a way to copy and paste the bookmarks from 'Organise Bookmarks' so that they will appear in the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' section at the top of the browser, but I can't seem to do this.
Also, this is in relation to cookies, I have ticked 'ask me every time' regarding the setting of cookies, but even though I have also ticked 'remember this preference for all cookies from this site' or whatever it says in the 'accept cookies' pop-up, it doesn't remember my preference and I have to click 'allow' 4 times every time I visit my home page (or any other page that I frequently visit). Why doesn't FF remember my preferences?
I've checked in 'exceptions' and the cookies in question are shown there as 'Allow', and yet I am asked to verify if I want to allow, allow for session or deny every time I visit a site.
Troubleshooting information
Application Basics
Name Firefox
Version 3.6.6
Profile Directory
Open Containing Folder
Installed Plugins
about:plugins
Build Configuration
about:buildconfig
Extensions
Name
Version
Enabled
ID
British English Dictionary 1.19 true en-GB@dictionaries.addons.mozilla.org
ForceField Toolbar 1.5.36.15 true
Java Console 6.0.16 true
Java Console 6.0.17 true
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.2.1 true {20a82645-c095-46ed-80e3-08825760534b}
MR Tech Toolkit 6.0.4 true {9669CC8F-B388-42FE-86F4-CB5E7F5A8BDC}
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.4 true
Java Console 6.0.20 true
Modified Preferences
Name
Value
browser.history_expire_days 0
browser.history_expire_days.mirror 180
browser.link.open_newwindow 2
browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion 2
browser.startup.homepage http://home.bt.yahoo.com/
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone rv:1.9.2.6
extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6 true
general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C)
network.cookie.lifetimePolicy 1
network.cookie.prefsMigrated true
privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies false
privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs true
privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown true
Firefox version
3.6.6
Operating system
Windows Vista
User Agent
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.6) Gecko/20100625 Firefox/3.6.6 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C)
Plugins installed
- -Office Plugin for Netscape Navigator
- 2.0.0048.0
- getplusplusadobe16241
- Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 8.2.2
- NPRuntime Script Plug-in Library for Java(TM) Deploy
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
- Version 1.2.0.0
- Default Plug-in
- Google Update
- Shockwave Flash 10.1 r53
- Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.5
- iTunes Detector Plug-in
- Picasa plugin
- 4.0.50524.0
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) plug-in for Mozilla browsers
- Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_20 for Mozilla browsers
- Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 8.2.3
Wšykne wótegrona (9)
same thing here w/ OS 10.6. sucks big time.
I backed up a copy of my bookmarks to my desktop and then went to 'organise bookmarks' from the FF browser bookmarks drop-down menu. I then selected import/export and imported the bookmarks backup from the desktop file location. It worked. I have restored the full bookmarks drop-down menu.
I still have the question about cookies, though, so if any of you can help, please.
My File, Edit, Bookmark, etc. bar is all of a sudden missing. This makes accessing my bookmarks a huge pain. WHERE DID IT GO? And how do I get it back?
Hi Porky ... are you running Zone Alarm firewall security, by any chance? If so, then do a search for my post "Cure for Firefox 3.6.6 Conflict Issues with ZA Extreme Security" / Author: Tuf - Nut.
If you're not using ZA, did your FF recently update to version 3.6.6? This could also be the issue. Your profile might be corrupted if it conflicted with another anti-virus/spyware application that you had running when FF automatically updated.
For future reference, go to Tools/Options/Advanced/Update and tick "Ask me what I want to do" so that FF won't automatically update. Then shut down your anti-virus/spyware program. (Perhaps you'd want to temporarily turn on the Windows firewall at this point, until you're finished). Then re-open FF and go to Help/Check for Updates and install the new version of FF. Then close FF, restart your anti-virus/spyware program (and turn off Windows Firewall at this point, unless your anti-virus program does that automatically, when it starts) and then, and only then, open FF again.
OK ... that's what to do in the future, but for now, open 'Organise Bookmarks' in the Bookmarks heading. Do you see all of your Bookmarks there, when you click on 'Bookmarks Menu' in the left-hand column? If so, you're fine. You've got your bookmarks, it's just that they don't appear in the drop-down when you click on the Bookmarks heading. This is because your FF profile has been corrupted (probably because of the reason I described above ... ?).
You may not have to uninstall and reinstall FF (creating a new profile in the process ....) but if you do, then make sure you find my other post I described earlier and follow the instructions there on how to do that .... but try this first ... from 'Organise Bookmarks', click on 'Import and Backup' at the top of the page and click on 'Backup'. Save the Backup to your desktop. Rename the Backup file on your desktop, giving it the file extension .json (if it didn't save with this extension already).
Now go back to 'Organise Bookmarks' and select 'Restore' and point the Restore function to your saved .json file on your Desktop.
Then restart FF and see whether your Bookmarks have returned. If they haven't, then find my other post described earlier and go through the uninstall/reinstall process (make sure you follow the instructions in the post or else you will lose all of your bookmarks! And saved passwords, too, for that matter, if you've got any of those. I would ignore the bit in the post about saving your extensions, though ... as they might be part of the problem. You can add and enable new extensions when and if you need them).
Actually, Porky, that wasn't a good answer at all for your problem. I read it as 'bookmarks missing' and then whipped off a reply. I haven't the faintest idea what you can do about that issue. I mean, you need to be able to go to 'View' and then make sure the you want to see are all ticked, but how can you do that if you can't see 'View' in the first place? This might require an uninstall/reinstall of FF. Again, if you're doing that, take a look at my Tuf - Nut post.
To make things easier, here's the link to that other post:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1937519
Scroll down a bit and you'll find the part where I talk about uninstalling/reinstalling FF. Ignore the bits about ZA, if you're not using that anti-virus application.
In Firefox 3.6 and later on Windows you can hide the menu bar via "View > Toolbars" or via the right click context menu on a toolbar. Press F10 or press and hold the Alt key down to bring up the menu bar temporarily. Go to "View > Toolbars" or right-click the menu bar or press Alt+V T to select which toolbars to show or hide (click on an entry to toggle the state).
See also Restore the Menu bar in Firefox and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_customization
Thanks Wils and Co-rel. You were both super informative. It was F10 that did it. After the temporary toolbar reappeared, I went to View: Toolbars: then clicked on Menu Bar, which checked it. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so great! Thanks so much. Not having that bar really made browsing a hassle.
This issue occurred for me a day ago. To reiterate, the star-icon bookmarks button with the drop down arrow on the right disappeared, which appears on the Navigation Toolbar. I tried to add the button again through the customize menu, but I could only add the Bookmarks button that did not have the drop down functionality, and which made the Bookmarks sidebar open on the left. I didn't want to open the sidebar each time, I wanted the drop down bookmarks menu.
The solution for me was to simply right click on the top of the window, on the - minus sign (hard to see) to the right of the + button used for adding tabs, and hide and then re-show the Navigation Toolbar. When the toolbar re-appeared I had my old drop-down bookmarks button back!