Hi Jerry, does your Firefox save any history at all? When you click the History menu, usually there will be a list of recently visited pages. Anything there?

How about previous sessions: you can check "Show All History" and there should be a date range selector in the left bar to see previous days' / weeks' / months' history. Anything?

If your Firefox has no history, this could indicate:

(1) Firefox is set to use automatic private browsing.

(2) Firefox is set to clear history when it closes.

(3) The data files that stores history or site icons are corrupted or locked.

To check on #1, click the menu button and open the Settings (Preferences) page. On that page, in the left column, click Privacy & Security and scroll down to the History section.

You should find a selector with these options:

• Firefox will: Remember history => OK, no problem
• Firefox will: Never remember history => PROBLEM
• Firefox will: Use custom settings for history => Need to review the settings

If you have custom settings, make sure there isn't a check mark in the box for "Always use private browsing mode". That will prevent Firefox from saving any history.

If that's okay, do you have a check mark in the box for "Clear history when Firefox closes"? The Settings button to the right lets you choose which categories of data to clear if this is turned on.

How does it look so far?

Thank you for your help. I did follow your suggestion and changed my history setting to remember. I hoped this would solve the problem but it did not. When I click on "show all history", it still is empty, but the page it opens to says "library" instead of "history" Is this a clue?

Do you only have a problem with the browsing history or with the bookmarks and possibly other settings as well?

This could be a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

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

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-troubleshooting-information-page-fix-firefox

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from the most 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
• you lose the history when a new places.sqlite is created

You may have to restore an older bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder via the Bookmarks Manager (Library).

• Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cant-add-change-or-save-bookmarks

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

• Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
  Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

If the new profile works, you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

HI Cor-el. You are right. ; When I try to bookmark a file, the program opens up to the "library" page, same as when I check history. Is that a clue? I am very computer unsophisticated. You lost me right at the start, when you say to open up the Firefox profile folder. I can't find it at the top of the screen firefox menu and when I go to apps and open firefox, I can't find it either. My firefox was migrated through an external drive from a ten year old iMac. Rather than dealing with all these terms I don't understand, is it an alternative to just delete the progam and download it again. Would that likely solve the problems? Thank you for your help.'Jerry

Hi Jerry, as the first step in interpreting cor-el's post:

Normally you can bookmark the current page by pressing Command+D or clicking the star icon in the address bar. When you do that, is Firefox able to save the new bookmark? This is a test to see whether the history/bookmark database is accessible and working normally.

Thank you. I tried both the Command + D and by clicking on the star in the address bar. It is not bookmarking. My Firefox program was migrated, through an external hard drive, from a 10 year old iMac. Is the easiest way to deal with this to delete the program and to download it again?

Hi Jerry, you can create a new profile. Here's how:

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Return to load it.

Take a quick glance at the page and make a mental note of which Profile has this notation: This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted. That is your current default profile. You might want to grab files from this one later, but that can wait a few moments.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like December2023, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

Firefox will switch your default profile to the new one, so you just have to Quit Firefox and start it up again to start using the new profile.

Now... about your old data. If you have been using Sync, some of it probably will be restored after you connect to your Firefox/Mozilla Account. If anything critical is missing, we can help with retrieving file from your old profile.

Thank you all for your help. This seems to solve the immediate problems. Not that i would be surprised if I discover more, and increasingly smaller ones. <G>