Have you tried creating a clean profile?

I've tried to reproduce this and I can't seem to do it on my end. Can you please provide more detailed steps? A screenshot would help as well.

firefox 13 changed the way live bookmarks are handled in order to improve performance - are you using any extensions that enhance live bookmarks functionality or hook into the feeds menu somehow? other users users have reported problems with some of them. you might have to disable them temporarily until an update is made available by the authors of those addons...

let me try to clarify the problem.

open a new firefox session.

in the menu bar, go to bookmarks > bookmarks toolbar > google news (as an example - any rss feed will do)

when the rss feed expands, you have 'open "google news"' followed by a dividing line, followed by 'live bookmark loading...', and no feed entries.

fine, as a new session you might expect this as the entries load.

now, after some time, you go back through the steps above via the bookmarks menu in the menu bar.

the new handling in firefox loads feeds on demand, so when you go to have a look at them.

via the menu bar, as detailed above, when you go to have a look at the entries for a feed, say 'google news', you get the same as above, no entries. leave 'google news', go back to it after a few seconds, or a few attempts even, and the entries are available, while the 'live bookmark loading...' is always there at the top of the list in grey.

if, however, you use the bookmarks button in the toolbar, and then go to 'bookmarks toolbar' from the pop down menu, which is exactly the same menu as from the menu bar, pick any rss feed and the entries are displayed instantly, and up to date, without a 'live bookmark loading...' at the top of each list; the same applies for the bookmarks toolbar if displayed.

the issue is with accessing the rss feeds via the bookmarks menu in the menu bar.

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

• Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

I'm having this same problem, and it's really making me regret updating to FF 13 as a lot of my bookmarks are Live Bookmarks that are now mostly useless.

I tried starting in Safe Mode as described in the link above, and it made no difference to the issue.

It's only when going through the bookmarks menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen on OSX. No issues accessing them anywhere else in the browser.

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_fix-the-bookmarks-file

You can also try to repair the places database with this extension:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

Try to repair the disk permissions:

• http://thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html
• http://guides.macrumors.com/Repairing_Permissions

Try to remove the Firefox plist file (org.mozilla.firefox.plist).

• http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060606082246983 How .plist files become corrupt and troubleshooting the results

Go to "~/Library/Preferences" and remove the plist file for Firefox (org.mozilla.firefox.plist)

Has this ever been solved? I'm having the same problem. They work in the toolbar, but not from the menu.

@madperson, @ cor-el

safe mode doesn't help here. see my screenshotvideo to understand our problem

(note: if i swipe over the bookmarks with the mouse AND wait for a VERY long time AFTER THAT, the rss bookmarks will probably load):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MciTEbBOffE

that video does well to explain the problem, this still needs to be resolved.

The live bookmarks in the Bookmarks menu may not be loading due to the fact that the menu bar and thus the Bookmarks menu is handled by the Mac OS and thus can't be updated that easily on Mac.
I don't know if this is a bug on Mac or only not working in some cases like yours.

I assume that you can load them via the bookmarks sidebar or the Library.

It had to be something that was done to Firefox though, because it was never an issue until Firefox 13. I used Firefox on my Mac for four years, and never had the problem until then (and it still exists up to the Firefox 15 beta that I'm currently running).

prior to ff13, the bookmarks loaded fine via the menu bar. the problem is not that they don't load, it's that they only load on the second or third time you open each rss folder - after a severe delay, whereas they load instantly via menu from the bookmarks button.

all the signs point to a firefox problem not an os issue.