A possible cause is a problem with the file places.sqlite that stores the bookmarks and the history.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_places-database-file

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

Hi Cor-el,

Thanks for replying so fast. I've been through all the "lost bookmarks" sections of Firefox - no answers there to my specific problem. Most of them focus on bookmarks or toolbar being completely missing - but in my case it's only the Folders that are missing.

A search for bookmarks* in my finder brings up nothing. There is only one Firefox Profile folder in my Application Support. No bookmarks in the trash. The Toolbar is not missing, just all the folders. Not all bookmarks are missing, only all the important ones that were filed into folders. The missing folders do not appear in either Bookmarks Manager or the menu so it looks like it's not a problem with localstore. I already tried restoring from backups from yesterday and the day before - which is before I upgraded to Firefox 9, and it did not recover the lost folders. So I'm stumped about where they are, or why Firefox 9 cannot display them. I was using them yesterday - all my folders were there after the upgrade but that was before I shut down for the night! It's only on newly re-starting Firefox 9 that they are gone. I'm on Mac, and the lost-after-restart problem is only listed for Windows. I have not done any "clean-ups" of my computer. The only thing I can think of is that there was a momentary power-down yesterday, but I don't think explains it as the folders were still there when the power came back on.

Do you know of any seriously technical people in Firefox/Mozilla who can go deeper than the stuff suggested on their website?

thanks, Dianne

Did you try to delete or move the places.sqlite file and delete all other places file like places.sqlite-journal?

A problem with an SQLite database file can manifest itself in all kinds of ways ans missing folders can be one of them (corrupted index tables). Restoring or importing bookmarks may fail as well in that case. Firefox will rebuild the places.sqlite database from a JSON backup if you delete or remove all places.files.

(actually I already had posted my answer before noticing your PM)