Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar Acting Funny (but not

September 4, 2006 2:17 PM

I have been using Firefox for forever. I keep folders with my most used bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar (View -> Toolbars -> Bookmarks Toolbar). I also tweak my Firefox browser to oblivious and back again on a regular basis. Recently, I think something I did make the bookmarks toolbar disappear, and I can't figure out what it was.

In order to remedy the problem, I've tried the following:

• Disabled every extension I had, restarted.
• Backed up all my extensions, plugins, etc. Then uninstalled FF completely and deleted the FF Program Files directory.
• Even messed with the registry a little to get rid of every shred of FF, then restarted and reinstalled. Still no luck.

Help me find my toolbar! Here's a picture of the browser right now. Look below the address bar. What you will see is a white space where my bookmarks used to be. When I try to drag anything there, I get that circle with a line through it. "No!" It seems to say. "You can't have any bookmarks here anymore!" Help me show FF who's boss!

posted by abbyladybug to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Have you tried starting up Firefox in safe mode? (is an option in the start menu)
posted by jouke at 2:23 PM on September 4, 2006

I was having somewhat similar minor issues with my Firefox Bookmarks.
Following the advice in this article fixed it.
posted by ktrey at 2:23 PM on September 4, 2006

broken link...but one time this happened to me, and it ended up that while customizing my toolbar buttons, i had accidentally removing the doohickey on the bar that said "this is where toolbar bookmarks go".
posted by dreamyshade at 2:24 PM on September 4, 2006

Try right-clicking on your Navigation Bar somewhere, select Customize, and Click 'Restore Default Set'.
posted by Boobus Tuber at 3:16 PM on September 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hooray! That last answer was the easiest, and it totally worked! THANK YOU!
posted by abbyladybug at 3:43 PM on September 4, 2006

For your future reference: Firefox keeps its user settings (including extensions and UI customization settings) in your Firefox profile. Firefox profiles are folders under C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles, not registry settings; which means that none of the uninstallation steps you described would have touched your profile (except removing your extensions).

Many odd Firefox bugs - particularly bugs caused by bad or mutually incompatible extensions - can be fixed by starting over with a new profile. More here.

Note that although extensions are part of your profile, plugins are not; they do indeed live inside the Firefox program directory.
posted by flabdablet at 11:28 PM on September 4, 2006