Firefox 85 remembers the last used bookmarks folder and gets other bookmarking improvements
Firefox 85 Stable will be released next week, and the browser includes a number of new features and improvements. We looked at the browser's new network partitioning feature, support for importing passwords from KeePass and Bitwarden, non contiguous printing support, and improved Home and New Tab Page controls already.
Bookmarking is another area with improvements. When you bookmark pages in Firefox currently, you will have them saved into the Other Bookmarks folder by default with no option to change the default. One of the issues here, apart from the obvious one that made saving bookmarks to other folders a cumbersome operation, is that some users had troubles locating the other bookmarks folder.
Starting with the release of Firefox 85, Firefox will use the following logic when it comes to saving bookmarks:
- Bookmarks will be saved to the bookmarks toolbar if the user has not saved any bookmarks before or selected a different folder.
- The last used folder is picked automatically as the default for new bookmarks. Changing the folder will change the default as well.
Firefox 85 displays the Other Bookmarks folder on the bookmarks toolbar by default to address the "where did I save the bookmark to" issue in previous versions. The folder is not displayed if it does not contain bookmarks. Firefox users who don't want to see the folder on the toolbar may right-click on the bookmarks toolbar to uncheck the "show other bookmarks" option that is displayed from Firefox 85 onward.
Speaking of which, it is now possible to control where the bookmarks toolbar is displayed and how it is toggled. Previously, Firefox users had the option to display the bookmarks toolbar or to hide it. Firefox 85 introduces the new option to show it only on a New Tab Page but nowhere else.
Press the Alt-key on the keyboard and select View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar > Only Show on New Tab to make the change.
If you used the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-B to open the bookmarks library in Firefox, you will be in for a surprise as Mozilla mapped the shortcut to toggling the bookmarks toolbar in Firefox 85. Google Chrome uses the same shortcut. The new shortcut Ctrl-Shift-O is mapped to displaying the bookmarks library from Firefox 85 on.
Firefox 85 will be released on January 26, 2021.
Now You: do you use bookmarks in your browser of choice? (via Sören Hentzschel)
Just chipping in to agree with Lien. This new “feature” of remembering the last bookmark folder is bloody annoying and is NOT progress as, unless you remember to click twice on the “star” symbol, if you have a lot of bookmarks and folders you’re unlikely to ever find your bookmark again, particularly if you didn’t note the page name. Under the much preferable “old” system if you didn’t remember to select the folder then your bookmark was down the bottom of the bookmark list where you could just scroll through and find it then, by opening it in a new tab, file it correctly by either using one of the last five or selecting your folder of choice. Mozilla could at least make this a selectable option, even if users have to go where the dragons live
@Paul, that last bookmark folder appears in Firefox’s about:config : “browser.bookmarks.defaultLocation” (with its ID). The idea is to lock or at least reset this value, that corresponding to the default bookmark you wish to keep.
To lock you’ll need to use Firefox’s Autoconfig [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig] and set, i.e. “q-bIcs8i34n-” being the value corresponding to the folder you wish to “block” :
lockPref(“browser.bookmarks.defaultLocation”, “q-bIcs8i34n-“); // DEFAULT=”toolbar”
Otherwise you can add a user.js file in tour folder with the following setting:
user_pref(“browser.bookmarks.defaultLocation”, “q-bIcs8i34n-“); // DEFAULT=”toolbar”
This will only reset the bookmark folder on each Firefox start in the case the user would have bookmarked elsewhere. Locking is better given it allows you to bookmark anywhere whilst never having the “browser.bookmarks.defaultLocation” modified, but it requires Autoconfig as mentioned above.
I happen to like the “Other Bookmarks” as the default location. As I sometimes forget to choose the appropriate folder when bookmarking an item, I know where to find it when I realize (or not) my omission.
I have several hundred folders containing a total of several thousand bookmarks, so if I don’t remember my last bookmark location, I’ll probably never be made aware of the misplacement. With “Other Bookmarks” as the default, I could periodically check that folder to discover such mistakes and correct them.
What’s really annoying is that I wasn’t aware of the change, and yes, I do read the release notes before updating Firefox. If it was mentioned, I missed it.
When you bookmark a page by right clicking on the page, it always offers you the last folder that you saved to. I think it has always been that way. This “other bookmarks” issue is only related to clicking on the star by the address bar.
How can disabled Firefox remembers the previous bookmarks folder? or Can you add a checkbox to disable it?
I like the change, but not that new bookmarks now appear on top of the bookmarks menu. New bookmarks have always – I believe even since Netscape! – landed on the bottom, which is very practical, as they don’t interfere with the other bookmarks until you have the time to deal with them.
It would be nice also if Firefox would remember the last folder used when saving a bookmark, also if this user choice would be a sub-folder of the bookmarks menu. Or even, if you are benevolent, to let us use settings in about:config or userchrome to decice how we want our browser ourselves.
Those that use bookmark toolbars and other new ways to interact with bookmarks might not understand. I use the old-fashioned menu, and ‘bookmarks’ in that menu is what is appears as “bookmarks menu” under “all bookmarks”. I still think it is the only use case that is practical, and where you can access all the bookmarks with one click.
I use Firefox and Brave as my browser, However I like the user experience with the browser extension “Tree Style Tab”, so my favorite browser is “Firefox ESR”.
I wasn’t dissatisfied with the “Bookmark” feature when using Firefox, but I read Comments (users review) and also tried those extensions (Bookmarks Manager and Viewer, Bookmark Manager), but all of them are fully realized by the extension “Tree Style Tab”.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/
Currently, I have saved 1864 item bookmarks, but it is comfortable without any inconvenience to searching / editing / deleting / moving / duplicate management and import / export.
As a complementary function, the extension “Bookmarks Organizer” is useful.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bookmarks-organizer/
Hello,
Does somebody know a way to reverse both changes?
1. Make “Other bookmarks” folder always default
2. Remove “Other bookmarks” folder from toolbar
@DuMuT6p,
I want to delete the “Other Bookmarks” folder from the toolbar
If you don’t want to see it, go to about:config
Set browser.toolbars.bookmarks.2h2020 to false and reboot.
@owl
It seems the update that placed the folder on the toolbar was Firefox 84.0.2 (64-bit), but on right click there was no option to remove it. Currently on 85.0 (64-bit) and the tickbox is there.
Very stupid of Mozilla to release it like this.
Yes, you can hide the other bookmarks folder by right-clicking on the bookmarks toolbar and selecting the option. I don’t know if there is an option to restore the default save folder though.
Hello Martin,
Thank you for the answer, but there is no such option either clicking on the toolbar, folder itself nor small area after folder.
This is on Firefox 84.0.2 (64-bit), Linux so it seems some changes come with this version and hopefully option to remove it will come in 85. I will add a comment after update next week.
From another site, for FF 84 users go into about:config, search for browser.toolbars.bookmarks.2h2020, toggle to False and restart.
Annoying and unwanted change removed !!
The unwanted ‘Other Bookmarks’ folder just appeared without warning in my FF 84. It cannot be deleted or renamed – WTH Mozilla?
I just found a possible workaround in https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-remove-the-new-other-bookmarks-button-from-firefox/
I’m reminded of the old Harry Nilsson song ‘You’re Breaking My Heart’ – look up the lyrics.
This article is largely incorrect. Many of these changes were made almost a month ago when Firefox 84 was released. Kinda concerning that Martin seems to be completely unaware of this… makes you wonder about the quality and accuracy of information in his blog.
harsh
“some users had troubles locating the other bookmarks folder.”
Yes, that incredible stupidity of placing bookmarks by default in that subfolder instead of the root lasted for so long that it made me suspect that they wanted to sabotage bookmarking to incite basic users to use instead their automatic bookmarking system of most visited sites on the home page which adds sponsored sites to the lot and mines data to personalize Pocket ads. Removing the bookmarks button by default from the interface to replace it with multiple clicks was another irritating idea in the same vein.
@Anoymous.
You are right.
+10 years using bookmarks with the old Netscape style.
With Firefox and other bookmarks menu, I haven’t used bookmarks.
You have to click a lot of times to click in the menu.
The interface is ugly.
As usual I rejoiced too fast about Mozilla doing something good, they actually introduced a bug and additionally broke bookmarking extensions.
Now the browser remembers the last used folder for bookmarking and enforces it where it should not be : creating a bookmark by drag-and-drop into a folder does not create it in the targeted folder.
And it’s no longer possible to choose a default bookmark location and keep it so even after occasionally using another location. Even extensions can’t solve this problem any more by allowing us to choose our default folder and not the stupid rules that Mozilla enforces on us, because of the neutered API webextensions have access to:
https://github.com/teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder/issues/399
@Anonymous,
https://github.com/teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder/issues/399
Your comment has been distorted.
Quoted extension developer (Teddy Gustiaux) Comments are as follows.
The Firefox team has been working towards a project called “2020H2 bookmarks improvements” (meta Bugzilla entry here).
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1665353
As the name indicates, it intends to improve the experience regarding bookmarking with the browser, which I believe is a good thing!
â— Are more Firefox internal changes going to cause more issues in the future?
I wish I knew! At the moment, it does not appear so but that is always a possibility. Ultimately, I want the add-on to adapt to the Firefox internal changes rather than fight them. If future changes prevent the add-on from working completely, then my hope is that Firefox incorporates the add-on main feature internally. To be honest, that would be a great scenario.
And the fixed version “Version 3.1.0” has been approved by AMO (addons.mozilla.org) and released.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/default-bookmark-folder/versions/
Supplementary material:
teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder Wiki | GitHub
Known issues
https://github.com/teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder/wiki/Known-issues
Known issues resolved or superseded
https://github.com/teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder/wiki/Known-issues-resolved-or-superseded
fix: support Firefox internal changes related to “2020H2 bookmarks improvements” | teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder · GitHub
https://github.com/teddy-gustiaux/default-bookmark-folder/commit/da2e46a4a95e34ff9695d587741a80970ee93819
For me the biggest issue with Firefox bookmarks is weak search support.
Search via Bookmarks panel will correctly find bookmarks but… there is no column with info WHERE the bookmark is!
I have plenty of bookmarks in catalogues so without info where is bookmark saved – search is not very useful for managing them…
At least there are addons that resolve this issue:
https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/bookmarks-manager-and-viewer/
https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/chrome-bookmark-manager/
Agreed, this is by far the biggest annoyance with Bookmarks. You search for a bookmark and it won’t tell you where the bookmark is!? Crazy!
I also hate how slow and careful you have to be when dragging bookmarks from one folder to another on the toolbar – drag too quickly (or diagonally) and the folder collapses.
Also annoying that multi-row bookmarks has never been built-in. How can 1 row be enough for managing all your bookmarks? And why would anyone keep them in the Bookmarks Menu or Other Bookmarks? Why isn’t there just 1 place instead of 3?
“For me the biggest issue with Firefox bookmarks is weak search support.
Search via Bookmarks panel will correctly find bookmarks but… there is no column with info WHERE the bookmark is!”
Exactly! To me this makes bookmarks almost useless!
Thanks for the addon recommendations.
I intensively use the Other Bookmarks folder, I save to it directly with control+D without showing the pop-up. It seems that from now on I will have to check every time if I am pointing to the right folder, it’s horrible.
I’m convinced that showing the Other Bookmarks folder in the bar (as chrome has done for years) was more than enough for any newbie. I wish I didn’t have since years the feeling that Mozilla only makes irrelevant changes or to make it worse…
Version 84 already offers the option to display the bookmarks toolbar only on new tabs (at least for me).
Never understood the default location vs. toolbar which seems the logical default. This is a change for the better.
Lemme post the regular comment whenever firefox is mentioned.
It just has 3% of users. its going to die soon, its bad blah blah blah repeated old shit.
@someone
Your comment shows that you are still somewhat in touch with reality, for you fear the inevitable outcome for Firefox (I don’t).
But Firefox is only version 85, and Chrome is version 87, and 87 being a bigger number than 85, automatically makes Chrome better.
version 85 , that is the one where we need to enable the backspace function again, right ?
I use the Bookmarks Toolbar extensively to the point of setting it as the root of all my bookmarks instead of ‘All Bookmarks’ which allows me to have them all (folders and links) directly accessible. I’ve also set the ‘Other Bookmarks’ folder to be replaced by one of my own (named ‘unsorted’) which is in the very Bookmarks Toolbar, so whenever I’ve bookmarked a page it appears immediately in the Bookmarks Toolbar / unsorted. I did this with the ‘Default Bookmark Folder’ extension.
To be noted : CTRL+SHIFT+B already toggles the ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ here on Firefox 84+
Given my above mentioned settings I always keep this ‘Bookmarks Toolbar’ opened.
I’m not fond of the idea of having the last folder used to bookmark a page set to become the default one for bookmarking (bad wording, sorry, hope you get the idea). But this is personal of course.
Globally, forgetting my own settings, the move is IMO a substantial improvement regarding bookmarking easiness, especially for beginners, those which must never be forgotten : we all know how the intuitive logic of an application is important when we discover it for the first time. It’s also sometimes surprising to notice that our modifications of an application, when feasible, may appear later on as the application’s default.
I’m afraid I may have not expressed my thoughts quite correctly in English. A pic being worth a few correct words — sometimes! — a screenshot of what I meant to say : [https://funkyimg.com/i/3aaGD.jpg]
Already that In French I happen to be the only one who understands what he says/writes :=)
Weird, I did a fresh install of v84 and to my surprise it was already like that.
I just opened Firefox today and it was like this. But without the option to uncheck the Other Bookmarks folder. I freaking hate this. It’s the main reason why I don’t use Chrome-based browsers. I hate their bookmark toolbar. I don’t want no freaking folder on the toolbar.
Let me remove it.
Had to get on the about:config to get that annoyance fixed and really the Mozilla Foundation needs to focus more on other things and stop playing around with things Windows 10 style. Fo one I’d lake an option to force FF’s spell checker to honor my US Spelling dictionary preference and not assume or allow any other website to assume that choice is some other English language spelling dictionary.