Can you remove these bookmarks directly on the Bookmarks Toolbar via the right-click context menu ?

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

In case errors are reported with "Verify Integrity" close and restart Firefox and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Wow!

Thank you for that reply.

At the moment the only thing I can tell you is that I am NOT using sync and NO, I am not able to delete the bookmarks on the Bookmarks Toolbar via the right-click context menu ?

I will try the balance of your recommendations and post a second reply.

Thank you again ...

Peter

Integrity check failed.

"Unable to check places.sqlite integrity: Error: Error(s) encountered during statement execution: database disk image is malformed"

Followed your instructions by renaming PLACES.SQLITE and FAVICONS.SQLITE in the roaming profile. (using Win 7 Pro)

After restarting Firefox, all my bookmarks were gone.

The profile folder contains new PLACES.SQLITE and FAVICONS.SQLITE files which are about half the size of the originals.

I suppose I can always delete the newly created sqlite files and rename the original ones back to their original names to recover my bookmarks, but that will not resolve the original problem.

What recommendations do you have now?

Firefox would normally use a compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder to rebuild the bookmarks.

Aren't there any backups available in the bookmarkbackups folder or are these backups corrupted as well?

• Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore

You can look at this utility to inspect a compressed .jsonlz4 file.

• https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html

Thank you for your additional feedback.

I was able to find the backup bookmark files. But I noted that my bookmarks were reduced from 835 to 51 sometime in February this year. Since February the back up was always around 51 bookmarks.

I am wondering if this did not happen during one of the frequent Firefox updates, as for the world of me I am not aware that there is anything else wrong on this workstation.

I seem to be back on track now, with the exception that all the restored bookmarks all have the same icon!

How would I be able to recreate the appropriate icons for the bookmarked websites?

Thank you again for guiding me to all the appropriate locations to effect the changes.

Peter

You need to remove favicons.sqlite in the profile folder like I wrote above if you haven't done this yet.

Yes, I did rename the Favicons.sqlite in the profile as I followed the instructions to the letter!

When favicons.sqlite is renamed then Firefox should retrieve the favicons from the server if you open a bookmark in a tab.

Do at least get the correct favicon on the tab if you visit such a page?

It would appear that I do get the Favicon on the tab, but the bookmark does not update the icon.

Actually, that is only partially true. Some bookmarks get the Favicon updated when the website is called up. But many bookmarks do not update their favicons, despite the tab showing the correct icon.