Did you mean you updated to Firefox v55? Many have reported issues.

Places Maintenance {web link} Allows to run Maintenance tasks on the database that drives Places, the bookmarks and history module behind Firefox.

Open the Add-ons Manager. Locate the add-on and press the Options button. Then follow the directions.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

yes - updated to 55 is when problems started

I tried the places maintence and it just hung and hung ... never completed.

i stared FF in safe mode. The slowness was still there ... page toggled (slowly) between getting info and "not responding". eventually a page would finally load.

Bookmarks never appeared in safe mode - so I couldn't verify if that was still a problem or not

I called for more help.

If the Places Maintenance extension can't repair the places.sqlite database then remove all places.sqlite file(s) in the Firefox profile folder to make Firefox rebuild the places.sqlite database 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
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

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

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

You can also check the read/write permissions of all files (especially places.sqlite) in the profile folder and make sure that you are the owner.

I did all of the things that you suggested, with no change in performance.

Firefox browser has slowed to an intolerable pace ... and vacilates between loading and "not responding".

I found the places.sqlite file in the profile folder and removed it. restarted firefox - a new file was ccreated ... but it would not let me do anything with the bookmarks either. (I put the old file back since there wasn't any difference)

I found a file on my desktop called "Old Firefox Data" and attempted to "restore" the bookmarks from there, no luck.

I tried importing from Edge and from Chrome ... and that didn't work either.

I also tried to set a new bookmark - and that wouldn't work either.

I'm using Edge and Chrome now ... but want to go back to Firefox it if with start working right again...

one more question: when you type "about:profiles" into your firefox address bar what is the full path of your profile shown in the root folder column?

Phillip - I don't know that that info will help now - as I have reverted to Firefox 54. On 54 all is working correctly again.

If you still need the info, let me know and I will get ... but can't get it for the profile when using firefox 55 ... which is where I was having ALL the problems

hi, yeah the info would still help as the profile doesn't change when you switch between versions. thank you!

Phillipp: here is what I got on about:profiles

C:\Users\L's laptop\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\zgpazsc0.default-1502306423152

great - we now think that the ' (apostrophe) in the path is playing into the problem and working on a fix for that. thank you for your help!

how will i know when it is safe to allow update to Firefox 55?

updates for users on 54 have been disabled for the moment - in the coming days there will be a version 55.0.2 fixing this problem. once it's ready, you will receive an update automatically.