Sort Bookmarks add-on for Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 18, 2017
Firefox, Firefox add-ons
|
28

Sort Bookmarks is a new Firefox add-on that you may use to sort all bookmarks of the browser using the sort options the add-on provides.

Bookmarks in the Firefox web browser are not sorted by default. When you add a bookmark to the browser, it is added to the end of the folder that you have selected.

This means that you will end up with unsorted lists of bookmarks in Firefox unless you manually sort the selection, or use the sort options that the bookmarks manager provides you with.

Note: Mozilla removed auto-sort options that were part of Firefox.

Both are manual operations that need to be done on a folder by folder basis. Depending on how many folders you have, and how many bookmarks you add to Firefox, you may prefer an automated solution. Enter Sort Bookmarks.

Sort Bookmarks

Sort Bookmarks is a simple add-on for Firefox that you may use for two things:

  • To sort all bookmarks folder of the Firefox browser at once.
  • To automate the process for future bookmarks that you add to Firefox.

The extension adds an icon to Firefox's main toolbar. A click on the icon displays the options that the extension offers:

  1. Display folders at the top, bottom, or mixed in with bookmarks.
  2. Sort bookmarks by title, URL or date added.
  3. Reverse the order.
  4. Always keep bookmarks sorted.

The last two options are optional and need to be checked. The add-on sorts the bookmarks according to the selected criteria. The process should not take long. What happens in the background is that Sort Bookmarks processes each bookmarks folder to sort the folders and bookmarks inside it according to the rules you specified.

Please note that this is an all or nothing approach, and that you cannot reverse the process.

The extension recognizes separators. If you have added separators to a folder, bookmarks won't be sorted across it. This means that each part that is separated is handled as an individual group of bookmarks.

If you tick the "always keep sorted" box, bookmarks are sorted automatically based on the sorting rules when they are created, changed, removed or moved across folders.

Sort Bookmarks is a WebExtension which means that it won't be disabled when Firefox 57 is released.

Closing Words

Sort Bookmarks is handy extension for Firefox users who add bookmarks to the browser regularly, and prefer sorted bookmarks instead of unsorted ones.

 

 

 

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Sort Bookmarks
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Comments

  1. Maelish said on August 19, 2017 at 7:45 pm
    Reply

    This is probably a bit off topic but is anyone aware of an add-on or method to style your bookmarks? Perhaps italics, bold or even colors? This sort of thing was easy to do years ago but not any more.

    1. Clairvaux said on August 20, 2017 at 11:30 pm
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      Ten years ago (that’s an estimate), Maxthon Browser had that hugely useful feature, by which you could designate a bookmark as “preferred”. That would make it stand out in bold red typeface.

      It’s a must-have if you bookmark and file intensively, as I do. You might have 30 bookmarks in a sub-sub folder, but only really use one or two. So you need a) to find them quickly, b) to keep the others because some day you might need them, c) to keep your folder structure.

      The old, marvelous Maxthon browser has long gone to the dogs, and has been replaced by a severely pared-down version with a lot of added cloudiness — if it still exists at all.

  2. paulderdash said on August 19, 2017 at 2:16 pm
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    I would want to exclude the ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’.
    Does this add-on sort all bookmarks, or can one choose only ‘My Bookmarks’, for example?

  3. Jake said on August 19, 2017 at 12:51 am
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    Out of topic question.. I remember reading some posts that future FF will remove acces to about:config ??
    Any truth to that… would be horrific from security point of view….

    1. Anonymous said on August 19, 2017 at 1:33 pm
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      Definitely not happening, of course

    2. Rick A. said on August 19, 2017 at 7:55 am
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      i’m pretty sure that is B.S., no truth to that.

  4. Mark Hazard said on August 18, 2017 at 9:04 pm
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    Not compatible with my version of Firefox (52.3 ESR).

  5. Anonymous said on August 18, 2017 at 4:00 pm
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    Does anyone have any tips on how to organize bookmarks on Firefox for Android? I want to make subfolders, etc.

    TIA!

  6. Henk van Setten said on August 18, 2017 at 1:46 pm
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    My thousands of bookmarks are organized not alphabetically but topically, with about thirty main subject-oriented folders and ditto subfolders within each of them. In each subfolder, I put the five-to-ten most important bookmarks at the top of the list, clearly separated from the rest.

    I find this handy from a browsing point of view. For example, you know where to look for a bookmark even if you’ve forgotten its name. But of course from a maintenance point of view this setup requires some work. Often, not wanting to interrupt the actual browsing, I quickly dump new bookmarks in the Temp folder and then afterwards take a few minutes to move each of them into the topical folder where they belong.

    Theoretically, what I (and some other users I know) would like to have is a really **intelligent** bookmarks add-on. One that would understand the topical structure of the bookmarks collection, and that would instantly recognize what a newly bookmarked page is about (based on titles and headlines) — so it would automatically put a new bookmark into the proper topical folder.

    I think this should be technically possible, and there would be a market for such an add-on. But afaik something like this doesn’t exist yet. Or does it?

  7. Rick A. said on August 18, 2017 at 12:57 pm
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    When i add a bookmark i always drag the tab to the folder i want it in and release the tab where i want the bookmark to be. The folders i want organized alphabeticaly or however are already like that because i have always done this, keeping my folders organized and nice and neat. This is something i always loved about Firefox, something you can’t do in Sroogle Chrome….. Anyways, i think more Firefox users that don’t use this way of bookmarking should, as personally i find it faster, and i have several thousand bookmarks, lol. But this add-on or a similar add-on could be useful for someone that has a lot of bookmarks and they’re all un-organized.

    1. Clairvaux said on August 19, 2017 at 12:04 am
      Reply

      Let me ask you a question. I have always done the same as you, until some time ago when this would not work properly anymore.

      What happens now, when I try to bookmark a tab by dragging it in the appropriate folder, is either :

      > Firefox opens instead that Web site in a new window. If I close the window, the previous tab is no longer there, so I can’t try and drag it once again.

      > Or, instead of the page being bookmarked, a random bookmarks sub-folder is dragged into the target folder. It’s then very difficult to undo the action, because there’s no obvious indication where that sub-folder came from.

      > It might even happen that the bookmark is actually created, and then it’s a sort of achievement you feel like thanking Firefox for.

      So now I increasingly use the function New Bookmark from within the bookmarks tree, and of course it behaves in its own stupid, infuriating way. I will spare you the details.

      Of course the above behaviour is random, it wouldn’t be funny if there actually was an obvious way to avoid it. This might have begun when I installed any one of the following add-ons to repair the hopelessly broken and dumb bookmarking function of Firefox : Add Bookmark Here, Bookmarks Organiser, Go Parent Folder, Manage Folders, Omni Sidebar, Show Parent Folder and Sidebar Bookmarks Search Plus.

      I think I must have at least THREE add-ons just to be able to OPEN the side bookmarks panel with one click (and nothing more). Because good old Firefox does not do that natively.

      So color me skeptical when I see all that hand-wringing about Web Extensions making Firefox less customizable. Maybe it would be a good thing if you did not need ten add-ons to a car in order for it to turn right when you turn the wheel right.

      Now we have one more extension purporting to do what Firefox should have done natively since a hundred years. Let’s hope it does it right and does not break a thousand other things.

      My question is : how do you do to bookmark a blasted page by dragging it into your bookmark tree, without all sorts of unexpected things happening instead ?

      1. Clairvaux said on September 1, 2017 at 4:47 am
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        For the sake of anyone who might be interested, my Firefox messing up bookmarks was indeed due to mouse failure. I bought a new one, and bookmarking sites got straightforward again (with all the limitations and quirks associated with the software). Browsing buyers’ reviews on Amazon taught me that mice have become disposable items, with erratic behaviour often setting in after a few months’ use, even in big-brand items.

      2. Django said on August 22, 2017 at 9:38 am
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        Ah crap, it’s just that in my language there is what translates to a Personal bar. It should be the Bookmarks Toolbar, and I guess when you enter customize mode, this bar will by default have only one element named something like “Bookmarks toolbar element” or whatever, instead of “Personal bar element”. Damn you, creative translators!

        I’m not sure this setup will satisfy you though, and you probably know it already. Hope I didn’t get your hopes up :D

        I recently figured out that you can move the Bookmarks element in the address bar and reduce bookmarks and folders to nice icons, and have been happy ever since. How could I have not known about this simple trick ?

        Edit: And the bookmark folder that this “Bookmarks toolbar element” is a UI representation of should be the “Bookmarks Toolbar” folder, I assume…

      3. Clairvaux said on August 22, 2017 at 6:31 am
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        @ Django

        Thoroughness helps a lot !

        Yes, I created a fresh profile with no extensions. I’m discovering that mice are disposable items, too… Making them for a lifetime would have been too simple, apparently.

        I do have the bookmark icon, and I understand now where the hovering occurs. It’s just that I never access bookmarks through those drop-down menus, only from the side panel.

        I’m still confused about the personal bar. I don’t have an empty space on the UI bar with the address field. Right-clicking on this area opens a menu with Move to Menu, Remove from Toolbar, Menu Bar, Bookmarks Toolbar and Customise. But no Personal Bar.

        And I don’t have a Personal Bar bookmark folder, either. I have a Bookmarks Toolbar folder and a Bookmarks Menu folder. Did I get a dodgy Firefox on the black market ?

      4. Django said on August 21, 2017 at 4:40 pm
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        @Clairvaux

        Quoting myself:
        ” just like you can by clicking on the bookmark icon ”

        Just to be 100% sure we’re on the same line, there is a bookmark icon comprised of a star, a ” | ” and what looks like a speech bubble with three items inside. That’s the bookmark icon. I know it sounds completely dumb to say but it’s almost as if you somehow didn’t have it displayed in your profile and weren’t aware of its existence. The part where you wondered about hovering made me unsure, since you can hover at your heart’s content in there.

      5. Django said on August 21, 2017 at 4:23 pm
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        @Rick A.

        ui.submenuDelay should be set as a number. It definitely works here in Firefox 55 and has been since as far back as I can remember.
        Just to be sure we’re on the same page, it represents the time it takes in milliseconds for a folder to open when you hover over it. So it has to be a folder that would normally open by simply hovering over it, and setting the value to 0 means opening is instant.

        @Clairvaux

        ” I followed your kind advice and created a test profile, however the unwanted window opening still happens when trying to bookmark. ”

        With a fresh, unmodified profile ?

        Then your list of issues do sound like a problem with your mouse clicks. The sudden dragging of folders is characteristic, I recently changed my mouse for similar reasons. If you don’t want to buy a new mouse without being sure, you could try physically opening up your current mouse and experimenting with direct clicks on the actual inner button. Often, the external button is just tired plastic and fails to properly press the internal button.

        @Clairvaux

        ” What is the personal bar element ? And how do you open folders just by hovering over them ? We are speaking about bookmarks folders, right ? I never noticed such a behaviour. ”

        When you right click on an empty space somewhere on the UI bar that holds the address field and hamburger icon, you can see a “Personal bar” item on the context menu that pops up. Make sure it’s checked, then click on the hamburger icon and enable the Customize menu. You will see that the “Personal bar element” is the only element in the “Personal bar” by default. You can drag it out and put in in the address bar if you want, so you can then hide the Personal bar while still having access to the element. Or you can keep it there and keep the Personal bar displayed, whatever you like most. The point is that you can drag bookmarks and bookmarks folders (and therefore whole structures) inside the “Personal bar element”, regardless of whether it is still in the Personal bar or has been moved elsewhere. You can also bookmark new sites that way.

        Note that this “Personal bar element” is the UI representation of the bookmark folder named “Personal bar” (not to be confused with the UI bar named “Personal bar”…).

        Once you have bookmarks or folders in the Personal bar element, for looks, you can rename them so they have no name and therefore only appear as icons (takes less space, looks prettier, but might not suit you). Once you have folders in the personal bar element, you can access their sub-structure with a click, just like you can by clicking on the bookmark icon: The list just drops down for you to browse. A left click opens a bookmark in the current tab, a middle click or a CTRL+click opens it in a new tab.

        As for this whole hovering thing, it occurs on the drop down menus. That’s where folders unfold from hovering (click works too), and ui.submenuDelay sets the delay in milliseconds. Sidebar bookmarks folders don’t open from hovering, only from a click, so this pref doesn’t affect them. Hovering only occurs in drop down menus as far as I know, it’s the same behavior as the regular Windows explorer.

        I probably said things you know already but better be thorough to reduce misunderstandings.

      6. Rick A. said on August 21, 2017 at 12:48 pm
        Reply

        @Clairvaux – i still have my Windows XP and that Firefox is on 52.3.0 ESR. So those 3 extension will still work and since i use Firefox Sync i can just fire up my XP if i ever need to use Show Parent Folder and Go Parent Folder. Also i can fire up my XP to use SavedSearchButton to create a Smart Bookmark. i’m just hoping Smart Bookmarks work on Firefox 57. i paused to do a search and couldn’t find nothing on it but i did find these: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/2i4qcy/smart_bookmarks_a_quick_guide/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Tech/Places/Places_query_URIs but i can’t get them to work. i can only find one Boolean related to Smart Bookmarks browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion and we can’t use that to create more.

        So yeah this Windows XP Firefox 52 ESR method will allow me to upgrade my Windows 10 and 7 Firefox to 57 and still use those 3 add-ons. i’m sure there’s other uses that other people can use with other add-ons as well if they still have their WIndows XP, even their Windows Vista. if not they will obviously have to use Firefox ESR 52 on their main devices.

      7. Clairvaux said on August 20, 2017 at 11:16 pm
        Reply

        @ Rick A.

        It turns out the developer of Show Parent Folder and Go Parent Folder has stated, in passing and in a quite stealthy manner, that he would abandon further development as far back as 2016 :

        http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14565203#p14565203
        http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14627933#p14627933

        I will soon remove those extensions in order to get used to a life without them.

        I would never have known about their depreciation if you hadn’t pointed out their removal from AMO. And that’s one more damning piece of evidence against Firefox’s present extension system (never mind Web Extensions) : what are you supposed to do if any Tom, Dick or Harry on the other side of the planet can suddenly pull the rug under your feet, without even warning you ?

        There are some very basic features lacking in Firefox, and everybody tells you : never mind, there is an extension for that. I’m set for automatic extension update, but what happens if the developer, not only does not update his product, but kills it silently ? How are we supposed to know ?

        That’s not meant to be a Chrome endorsement. I’ve never used it, and it’s possible it’s even worse in that respect.

      8. Clairvaux said on August 20, 2017 at 10:35 pm
        Reply

        @ Django

        I followed your kind advice and created a test profile, however the unwanted window opening still happens when trying to bookmark.

        What is the personal bar element ? And how do you open folders just by hovering over them ? We are speaking about bookmarks folders, right ? I never noticed such a behaviour.

      9. Rick A. said on August 20, 2017 at 6:48 pm
        Reply

        @Django – “To reduce opening time of sub-folders unfolded by hovering over them, you can create the preference “ui.submenuDelay” and set it to 0. (That isn’t useful with the sidebar since hovering is not involved there.)” – Do i set it as a String, integer or Boolean? i tried all 3 and saw no difference.

        i would like to be able to set it so my folders and subfolders don’t close so fast when i hover to far and accidentaly hover over another folder, then i have to go hover back over first folder to get to the subfolders.

      10. Django said on August 20, 2017 at 12:35 am
        Reply

        @Clairvaux

        Do tell if using another mouse solved your issue. Otherwise you should try out if things work on a new profile, to see if there’s an issue with your current one. It’s not impossible since you installed and uninstalled a bunch of add-ons doing similar things…

        What I do when I want to try out new add-ons, is to either duplicate my profile or try them on a new profile. Then instead of uninstalling I can simply revert to my original profile.

        Just throwing ideas in case there’s one you didn’t know and it’s an acceptable replacement for a one-click open:

        – You can open the bookmarks side bar with CTRL+B (You probably know that one)

        – You can use the personal bar element and put entire folder structures in there. If you don’t want to display the personal bar, you can move the personal bar element out of it and into, say, the address bar. Then you can rename folders to shorter names or no names at all so they’re just icons that all look the same but you memorized their order so…

        – To reduce opening time of sub-folders unfolded by hovering over them, you can create the preference “ui.submenuDelay” and set it to 0. (That isn’t useful with the sidebar since hovering is not involved there.)

      11. Clairvaux said on August 19, 2017 at 10:54 am
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        Thank you, Rick A. I just changed my settings to make them coincide with yours, and the unruly behaviour remains.

        However, I thought of something : it might be a hardware problem. My mouse has grown an attitude recently, and I have trouble selecting text and doing other routine click-related actions. I think the contacts might be worn out and will try to replace it. Maybe it’s just giving out random signals to the software, and the poor thing does not know its front end from its rear end anymore.

      12. Rick A. said on August 19, 2017 at 7:43 am
        Reply

        @Clairvaux – “how do you do to bookmark a blasted page by dragging it into your bookmark tree, without all sorts of unexpected things happening instead ?” – i also use Go Parent Folder, Show Parent Folder and SavedSearchButton and i have no such problem so it can’t be those 3 add-ons and i have no other bookmark or even tab add-ons installed, so i would say you have another add-on causing the problem or maybe a preference you have toggled is causing the problem.

        Also, i have “Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order” – Unchecked.
        “Open new windows in a new tab instead” – Checked.
        “When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately” – Checked.
        “Show tab previews in the Windows taskbar” – Checked.

        i only mention these settings because maybe if you have a tab or bookmark add-on that i don’t have maybe it’s clashing with one of those settings, i don’t see why that couldn’t be a possibility, and if it does than the add-on author would need to fix his add-on.

        Also, i drag the tabs to either the folder on my bookmark bar, drag the tab to the word “Bookmarks” on the top left because i have the “Menu Bar” enabled, and i drag the tabs to the “Star” / “Show Your Bookmarks” Button the least, and i just tested that and no problem.

        if you ever find out the problem reply cause i’d like to know what was causing it.

  8. TelV said on August 18, 2017 at 12:20 pm
    Reply

    Right click and then “Sort by name” still works for me to sort both folders and bookmarks alphabetically.

    1. clas said on August 19, 2017 at 2:46 pm
      Reply

      TelV, wow, thanks for that little snipet…i never knew you could do that. so simple and easy. thats one of the good things about martins blog…the people that add the little goodies they have found. right clik and sort…ahahha

  9. Robert G. said on August 18, 2017 at 12:00 pm
    Reply

    Downloaded on wednesday Aug. 16, I’ll test it tomorrow.

    Hope it’s as good as Auto-Sort Bookmarks 2.10.12:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-sort-bookmarks/

  10. wybo said on August 18, 2017 at 11:50 am
    Reply

    Is this add on sort of the same a Quickmark, whiich I use currently..
    I noticed that Quiickmark also has the dreaded legacy logo.

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