That sounds very frustrating. When the bookmark is suggested in the address bar autocomplete drop-down, does it show the yellow star? After loading the site, click the yellow star, and on the line that says Folder, click the button on the far right to expand the folder hierarchy. Does it reveal the current location of the bookmark?

Do you use the Firefox Sync service?

It does show the yellow star. In the drop-down, it will show the three default folders and only two of the 8 or more folders that should be there.

Also, not that I'm aware of on the syncing. I know when I upgraded my phone I never have installed Firefox to sync the stuff that way.

Hi chevcamo, my explanation wasn't complete. Once you expand the folder hierarchy, if you scroll down to where Firefox has highlighted the current location of the bookmark, where is it?

The bookmark I tried out that was in a very specific folder showed that it was in that folder.

For example, I have some bookmarks that are about specific firearms, this bookmark was about 10/22s. I have a folder names 10/22, this bookmarks shows that it's in the 10/22 folder. But there are no folders showing up in the bookmarks menu, drop-down, or any other location. Not even when I do the expanding to where I could change the location of the bookmark, that folder isn't showing up.

There is a settings file that stores toolbar customizations, window sizes, and some other UI information. This file sometimes becomes corrupted. I'm not sure what role it plays in relation to the bookmarks menu, but I think it's worth a try renaming it and having Firefox regenerate it.

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

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename localstore.rdf to something like localstore.old

Restart Firefox. Any improvement?

For recustomizing your toolbars, see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

Nope, didn't work.

Is there anything in the "about:config" that could affect this?

Maybe you covered this before, but do the bookmarks display correctly in either the sidebar or Library dialog?

• Ctrl+b opens/closes the bookmarks sidebar
• Ctrl+Shift+b (or Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks) opens the Library dialog

Did you check whether everything got dumped into the Unsorted Bookmarks category?

Could you try Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Any difference?

Nope, they don't show up at all. None of the bookmarks themselves nor the folders that I have some sorted in.

I've even tried the Safe Mode and had no difference.

I even restarted my computer to see if it was just something didn't load right and nothing changed.

Another user had a similar problem a couple of days ago, but was fortunate to have a backup of places.sqlite to restore. See: Invisible bookmarks.

When you deleted places.sqlite file and Firefox regenerated your database, it presumably used the most recent backup. I wonder whether the most recent backup contains the same mysterious corruption. Do you want to try recovering from the next older one?

In your profile folder, after exiting Firefox, open the bookmarkbackups folder and move the most recent JSON backup file(s), anything from today, to a safe location (e.g., your Documents folder). Then go back up a level and rename places.sqlite to something like places.wtf.

Note: if Windows does not display these file extensions, turn on viewing of file extensions to ensure that you can work with similarly named files accurately. This article has the steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/865219.

When you start Firefox, it should rebuild the places database again, this time with that older backup. Any difference?

Note that current Firefox versions append the number of bookmarks present in the bookmarks-####-##-##_xx.json file after the date (i.e. the xx part), so you should be able to select the most promising JSON backup to restore the bookmarks.

Neither thing worked.

Also have already tried using an older backup files to restore the bookmarks, didn't work either.

1 thing I did just notice that is also happening. When I close Firefox, it is doing the same thing for my most recent history and logging me out of anything I'm signed into. Before it would keep me signed in until I shut the computer down no matter how many times I opened or closed Firefox.

What all happens if I do the "Reset Firefox"?

Well, this is starting to piss me off.

I've done the Reset Firefox, nothing. I've created a new profile to see if it would then show up using the backup, nothing. I've created a new places. sqlite, nothing. I've downloaded the Places Maintanence add-on, nothing.

I think you have ruled out a problem in the settings folder by creating the new profile. However, there might be an issue with your JSON backups which is replicating this problem when you restore them. If you don't restore them, can you create new bookmarks normally and have them appear in the assigned locations?

In case Firefox's program files are corrupted, or alien files mixed into those program files are causing the problem, could you:

(1) Rename C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox to something like OldFox (keeping this folder around under another name will let you perform a file compare and/or extract plugins that may have been installed into it)

(2) Reinstall Firefox 26 (full installer: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/)

I can create new bookmarks and they will show up in the unsorted folder. I did do a reinstall Firefox, but I didn't keep the old folder

I still have all the old bookmarks as they still show up under the location bar when typing something in and it suggesting a finish for it.

They just won't show up in any of the menus I pull up.

Let me change how I worded that. I didn't keep the original folder, but have the folder from where I done the Reset Firefox that had the other stuff in it and last night I copied the original folder to a different location to see if deleting certain things would change it pulling up.

I'm a little confused by all the folders. Let me clarify my last suggestion.

Fundamentally, there are:

(1) Program folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

(2) Profile folder under: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

(3) Corresponding cache folder (named in parallel with your profile folder(s), but located under AppData\Local instead of AppData\Roaming)

When you use the Reset feature or create a new profile manually, you are adding a new folder type #2 and #3.

My last suggestion was to rename #1 and reinstall Firefox after that. I'm not sure whether you tried that one yet.

One other thought: could you restore your JSON backup file into a different installation of Firefox? For example, you could create a new profile on a different computer or you could use the "portable" package of Firefox on the same computer. It is designed to run from a folder instead of installing into the registry. You could download either Firefox 26 or Firefox 25.01 for the test. Those downloads are available here:

PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB - Browse /Mozilla Firefox, Portable Ed. at SourceForge.net

If the bookmarks are visible on that menu, you could try "transplanting" the places.sqlite file from the portable profile folder into your normal profile folder.

How many bookmarks are stored in the JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder according to the names of the files?

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

Do you see any of the bookmarks in the Library when you do a search for ":", possibly in a sub folder?

806.

I figured out how to move the bookmark file into the location bar and it will pull up all the coding with text and links it. Hopefully it is all of the stuff because it is 63 pages worth of stuff.

Do you mean search for just the colon, or search for the quotes and the colon together?

I did download the portable version you linked and it didn't make any difference.