Firefox Bookmarks Menu Problem

[tman70]

Windows XP Home SP3--Firefox 3.0.4

Last night when I turned off the computer everything was fine.

This morning I turned on the computer and went to Firefox Bookmarks and clicked on the file for Newspapers. The folder where I have several links opened on the left side of the dropdown menu. It has always opened on the right side. I did a restore where I knew it was working and that seemed to fix the problem until I tried to open another newspaper and the folder opened on the left side again.

IE favorites opens subfolders on the right side.

Can anybody tell me how or what I need to reset so Firefox bookmarks subfolders opens on the right side and stays there?

Thanks.

Edited December 12, 2008 by tman70

[tman70]

I have fixed my problem but have not solved the "WHY" it happened or how to correct.

I keep spare Cloned HD's that I clone every week or so in case I have a problem.

I can not find anything to help me solve this problem even though I also posted on the MozillaZine forums and tried a search on their forums. Probably wasn't wording the search right.

so I just cloned my spare Hd back to my main Hd and now the links and sub folders all open to the right side again.

[CurlingSteve]

Did anything update in between?

A Theme or Extension?

That might have changed a setting (or reset it to a default) that changed the positioning.

---------

Just in case, you might try copying the folder...

C:\Users\<Your Account Name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

... to a secondary folder for quick backup/restore.

---------

I do this at least daily, since I tend to play around with settings a lot.

If I screw things up, I use Firefox's Profile Manager to switch to a working profile.

You can open the PM this way...

Start, Run, Firefox -p

---------

If you open the ...\Profiles folder you will see that profiles are named XYZ.Name, where XYZ is random and Name appears in the Profile Manager.

Copying those to a backup lets you keep various working setups available if (when in my case) a profile crashes.

Or keeping "...\XYZ.NameA", "...\XYZ.NameB" versions can help.

---------

Oh, by the way, the list you can select from in the Profile Manager is in...

C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini

which is a text file you can edit in Notepad if you want to.

The layout is fairly straightforward.

Edited December 12, 2008 by CurlingSteve

[tman70]

Did anything update in between?

A Theme or Extension?

That might have changed a setting (or reset it to a default) that changed the positioning.

---------

Just in case, you might try copying the folder...

C:\Users\<Your Account Name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

... to a secondary folder for quick backup/restore.

---------

I do this at least daily, since I tend to play around with settings a lot.

---------

I don't know of anything that updated. This is the first time this has happened since I have been using FF. I'm sure someone, somewhere has had this problem and solved it. I have yet to find anything. Would like to understand the why and how of it though. Appreciate your tip and will keep it handy along with my cloned HD's.

Thanks.

[CurlingSteve]

I've edited the above post a bit.

[CurlingSteve]

As you seem to have experienced,

I've seen Firefox "suddenly" break or act strangely, even when I'm not personally playing around with it.

But for the most part, it's one of the better browsers (my favorite) around.

I like that I can change almost any setting (at my own risk) to make it look and behave the way I prefer.

"Out of the Box" it's quite stable and reliable.

----------

Is there any chance you moved windows around to look at something else then closed out?

(That might explain the repositioning).

----------

Or was there a crash/reboot?

(Grasping at straws a bit here).

I get a similar situation with IE when it crashes, it forgets where windows were.

(Just curious).

[tman70]

As you seem to have experienced,

I've seen Firefox "suddenly" break or act strangely, even when I'm not personally playing around with it.

But for the most part, it's one of the better browsers (my favorite) around.

I like that I can change almost any setting (at my own risk) to make it look and behave the way I prefer.

"Out of the Box" it's quite stable and reliable.

----------

Is there any chance you moved windows around to look at something else then closed out?

(That might explain the repositioning).

----------

Or was there a crash/reboot?

(Grasping at straws a bit here).

I get a similar situation with IE when it crashes, it forgets where windows were.

(Just curious).

I also like FF because I can customize it to my preferences which are most likely not the same as yours.

I closed out a web page and then shut down the computer as I always do.

Maybe it is a glitch or a bug in FF.

So far everything is working fine.

Thanks for the info.

[Pete_C]

If you close opera and it is set to clean your private data and it goes about deleting things and you then decide to open opera and it is still at work you will get a warning about opera already running and please try again later.

Other programs will do similar; but not firefox.

If it is still running doing something maintenance wise such as installing an update or cleaning your private data , or downloading something in the background and you close it and then change your mind and re open it; it will instead of giving you a warning just create a new blank profile with default values.

Often when this happens folks think they have lost their bookmarks or settings. Not so , they are still there just in the other profile, accessed by going to start / run and typing

firefox /p

and hitting enter.

Otherwise firefox will just continue to load the last profile used.

I guess that system restore could get back the registry entry to load your original profile; just never heard of doing it that way.

[jcl]

Other programs will do similar; but not firefox.

If it is still running doing something maintenance wise such as installing an update or cleaning your private data , or downloading something in the background and you close it and then change your mind and re open it; it will instead of giving you a warning just create a new blank profile with default values.

It's warns me -- and by "warns" I mean "displays an error and exits". AFAIK that's been the default behavior for years.

[tman70]

Other programs will do similar; but not firefox.

If it is still running doing something maintenance wise such as installing an update or cleaning your private data , or downloading something in the background and you close it and then change your mind and re open it; it will instead of giving you a warning just create a new blank profile with default values.

It's warns me -- and by "warns" I mean "displays an error and exits". AFAIK that's been the default behavior for years.

I have at one time or other have clicked on the "X" instead of the "-" sign and then when I restart FF it says there is another FF running and to close it first.

Pete_C's post explains why I have at times got that warning. Thanks Pete.

However my original problem started after the computer had been off all night.

[CurlingSteve]

No one, myself included, has asked what Themes or Extensions you use with Firefox.

If you post that, someone might recognize a known problem.

Sometimes there are conflicts among them (T's and E's) that will lead to a problem.

I'd have to look back in my backups to give you an example, but I've seen it before.

A fresh profile, linked to recent Theme(s) and Extension(s) usually will solve any issues.

[tman70]

No one, myself included, has asked what Themes or Extensions you use with Firefox.

If you post that, someone might recognize a known problem.

Sometimes there are conflicts among them (T's and E's) that will lead to a problem.

I'd have to look back in my backups to give you an example, but I've seen it before.

A fresh profile, linked to recent Theme(s) and Extension(s) usually will solve any issues.

Themes:

Walnut For Firefox 1.8.43

Extensions:

Adblock Plus 1.0

All-in-one Gestures 0.19.1

ChromeEdit Plus 2.7.2

EbayNegs! 0.7

FEBE 6.0.3

Image Zoom 0.3.1

Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2

Password Exporter 1.1

Print 0.3

So far the Bookmarks menu is still working right after I re-cloned the Hd.

Edited December 16, 2008 by tman70