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firefox is creating duplicate bookmarks. This just happened. How to fix?

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For the last week, Firefox has been creating duplicate bookmarks whenever I move a bookmark from "recently bookmarked" to a folder. I cannot delete either of them, because that deletes them both. Also, when I add a new bookmark, it does not appear at the bottom of the list, like it used to. I have to move each new bookmark into a folder immediately. It's very recent, so something must have happened to cause it. I have not changed anything I do. Thank you for helping!

For the last week, Firefox has been creating duplicate bookmarks whenever I move a bookmark from "recently bookmarked" to a folder. I cannot delete either of them, because that deletes them both. Also, when I add a new bookmark, it does not appear at the bottom of the list, like it used to. I have to move each new bookmark into a folder immediately. It's very recent, so something must have happened to cause it. I have not changed anything I do. Thank you for helping!

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Are you using Sync? If so, your Places file is probably corrupt. Help > Troubleshooting Information -> Places Database --> Verify Integrity can be used to fix the Places file on that one device. But Sync is probably propagating the corruption to other devices, too.

If that is the case, Disconnect all devices from the Sync server and fix each device one at a time. Then before connecting any device back to the Sync server, change your Password to flush the corruption from the Sync server.

As far as adding a new bookmark, it should land in the Other Bookmarks folder by default in Firefox 56 and later versions.

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Note that "recently bookmarked" is a so called smart folder that shows the result of a query and isn't a real exiting folder.


Some information about so called smart bookmarks folders.

  • /kb/Smart+Bookmarks+folders
  • "Most Visited" and "Recently Bookmarked" and "Recent Tags" are examples of so called Smart Bookmarks folders and are not real existing folders
  • smart folders show a list created by a query of the places.sqlite database that stores bookmarks and history in Firefox
  • most smart folder lists show a maximum of 10 entries by default
  • bookmark and history items that show up in a smart folder list are stored elsewhere in another folder and any changes made are applied to the real bookmark or history item
  • bookmarks created by clicking the star on the Navigation toolbar are created in the "Other Bookmarks" folder (formerly named "Unsorted")
  • bookmarks created by clicking "Bookmark This Page" (Ctrl+D) are created in the Bookmarks Menu folder
  • if you remove an entry then the list is shifted up and a new entry that wasn't shown previously is added to show 10 entries
  • if you add a new bookmark or visit a website then a new item is added at the top and the entry at the bottom disappears from that list
  • items that disappear from the list are not gone, but merely do not show up anymore in that list.
  • actions like copy & paste or delete that you perform on bookmarks in such a list are done on the original bookmark
  • if you do not want a specific list then remove that query (right-click: Delete), but do not delete the content that is displayed in such a list