The displayed/hidden state of the Bookmarks Toolbar is stored in a file that sometimes becomes corrupted; this file also stores certain toolbar customizations. You can rename the file and customize from scratch.

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

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore-old.json. If you see a legacy file named localstore.rdf, delete it.

Start Firefox back up again. Any improvement?

If you want to look into the contents of the old file, you might be able to spot an issue. Or it could be a waste of time... If you want to try it:

Scroll down and find xulstore-old.json and make a copy somewhere convenient.

Open the file in Firefox's "Scratchpad" tool as follows. Launch the Scratchpad from the Developer menu, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > Developer > Scratchpad
• (menu bar) Tools > Web Developer > Scratchpad

Use the Open button on the Scratchpad's toolbar to open the backup copy of xulstore-old.json and then click the Pretty Print button on the toolbar to re-layout the data in a more readable format.

Then use Find (Ctrl+f) to search for PersonalToolbar and you should see information about the contents and status of the bar. For example:

'PersonalToolbar': { 'currentset': 'personal-bookmarks,ctraddon_bookmarks-menu-toolbar-button', 'collapsed': 'true' },

Anything odd or any duplicate entries with a different status?

Note: you don't need to save the changes when you exit unless you want to keep the "pretty" version for reference.

Thanks for your quick reply. My first attempt to follow your directions was not a success. I will try again tomorrow. Let me know if you discover toolbar removal for dummies before then.