The newer Firefox versions have an item under Bookmarks labeled Recently Bookmarked (with 5 items — in my case not so recently bookmarked). The item takes up space and is irrelevant to my purposes but I find no way of eliminating it.

Even by going to about:config under browser.bookmarks.showRecentlyBookmarked there is no way of changing the default setting of true (as far as I can tell and have tried).

If there's any way to disable/discard this entry, I'd like to know about it.

These screenshots are of the window generated by clicking on Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks.

If you control-click on "Recently Bookmarked", and then click on "Delete" in the contextual menu, "Recently Bookmarked" will disappear...which is not to say that it won't reappear the next time you add a bookmark.

(I remember the "Recently Bookmarked" category having existed for quite a while.)

I assume you know that your Firefox is way out of date?

Yes, almost 2 months old! Yikes!

Version-wise (52.5.0 - 57.0.4)...didn't even look at dates, not to mention Meltdown and Spectre protection.

There've been a lot of updates in those two months; I wonder why grelber hasn't got a newer version?

For me the Recently Bookmarked is greyed out and therefore inaccessible. If I try to do as you suggest, Recently Bookmarked doesn't even show up under Show All Bookmarks.


I'm actually using Firefox ESR 52.5.3 which according to Firefox is totally up-to-date.
[I just changed the thread's title.]

Got me beat! (I just tried adding a new bookmark to see what I could see, and the Recently Bookmarked category didn't reappear.)


According to both Firefox — Notes (52.5.3) — Mozilla and Firefox - Wikipedia, that's incorrect.

That's really weird. In preparation for upgrading to El Capitan, I downloaded the latest Firefox ESR version (5.2.3) a week ago.
I just went to "Check for Updates" via About Firefox; the result was:
Firefox ESR
52.5.3 (64-bit)
Firefox is up to date.
You are currently on the esr update channel.

You've got the latest ESR release, but you're a dozen "real" Firefox versions behind. (Mozilla Firefox Web Browser — Mozilla Firefox Release Notes — Mozilla)

Two different animals.

I know. I just got comfortable with the ESR version when that was the longer-lasting version of Firefox and one that I could continue to use when everything else was out-of-date and/or not supported.

I'm going to grab Firefox 57 and see what happens. (I'll get back to you soon.)

According to Firefox Extended Support Rel...Mozilla, there should be a new ESR release re Meltdown and Spectre.


I wonder if bookmark behavior has changed in recent Firefox versions, so you maybe ought to check "Recently Added" after you update.

Holy crackola!

The new Firefox 57 (in my case 57.0.4) is totally different from earlier versions: way leaner and meaner; claims to be twice as fast (leaving Chrome in the dust); uses less memory; etc.
Here's the blurb from their Release Notes:

Version 57.0.4, first offered to Release channel users on January 4, 2018
Brace yourself for an all-new Firefox. It’s fast. Really fast. It’s over twice as fast as Firefox from 6 months ago, built on a completely overhauled core engine with brand new technology from our advanced research group, and graced with a clean, modern interface. Today is the first of several releases we’re calling Firefox Quantum, all designed to get to the things you love and the stuff you need faster than ever before. ...
Fixed: Security fixes to address the Meltdown and Spectre timing attacks.

On the other hand it wiped out most of my extensions and plug-ins, noting that they were incompatible with the new Firefox. Too bad, to some degree, but it should save a lot of time vis-à-vis updating same.

So far I "can live with it". We shall see. (I may still revert to the ESR version.)

Back to Bookmarks: Recently Bookmarked doesn't even show up. So that resolves that problem.

Addendum

I just checked a number of websites for speed of access via Firefox Quantum.
For example, The New York Times loaded in about 1/10 the time as previously, in fact almost as quickly as FTM; Gmail ditto. And the tracking protection is truly superb.
I'm impressed. This version seems to be a game changer.

Yes indeed. That's why I was raving about it in the "Goodbye Safari" thread.

I can see you passing on the Meltdown/Spectre update, but with your Internet connection, I can't see you foregoing the speed boost.

And now you mention it, I have noticed that the few websites I visit in Firefox now load as quickly as they do in Safari.

I'm impressed that after 56 versions of telling me that Firefox is faster than Safari it's finally caught up.


Judging from my results, I guessed that the update might resolve your issue, but I wonder why your item disappeared unilaterally and mine needed assistance?

If you're running 57.0.4, then that's a puzzler.
I just bookmarked a previously unvisited site and no Recently Bookmarked category showed up under Bookmarks.

So far, the only downside of the latest version (Firefox Quantum) is the "TLS handshake" which precedes each and every URL access. Sometimes it 'fails' and I have to hit reload one or more times for it to 'catch'. That may be an issue with my dialup transfer speed, and it's quasi-tolerable. [For example, gaining initial access to FTM took 5 reloads for the TLS handshake to 'catch' and opening up the reply window took only one.] Apparently the "TLS handshake" has been a problem across all platforms ever since it was introduced in version 54; but it would appear that most kinks have been worked out.

Yep, 57.0.4, and I posted a while back that "I just tried adding a new bookmark (More: different page of previously bookmarked site) to see what I could see, and the Recently Bookmarked category didn't reappear."


I know nothing from "TLS handshake" other than that I'd be reeeally unhappy having to reload a website 5 times before it would work.

If the problem is pervasive, it negates the speed boost.

I was wrong; the TLS handshake only occurs with secure URLs (which almost every organization has now switched to).

From a number of sources:
Transport Layer Security (TLS) — and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is now prohibited from use — are cryptographic protocols that provide communications security (privacy and data integrity) over a computer network.
We still refer to our security certificates as SSL because it is a more commonly used term, but when buying SSL from Symantec you are actually buying the most up-to-date TLS certificates with the option of ECC, RSA or DSA encryption.

As for the necessity of reloading, as far as I can tell, there's no way of predicting when or if it will happen. Once again, I suspect that it has to do with my access speed which can vary. Once in a while it's aggravating but mostly not. Once the connection is verified by the TLS handshake, the loading speed is way better than previously.

FWIW, this sounds like a handshake issue at the server end to me....I too have seen this reload to the logon page recently with one of my financial institutions. For now, it's never more than a single event, but my internet connection is somewhat faster than yours....

Just an observation ...

Has anyone noticed the change in the Firefox logo/icon? I don't know when it was introduced (maybe even with Quantum), but the fire-tail is larger/longer and now covers the entire right hemicircumference. (A sign of the creators congratulating themselves?)

I suspect that you're right. Because of my data transfer rate (in the low KB/s range) my connections have often failed on initial contact because they time out (and then require reload).
Add to that that all intermediate sites which any given URL might need to access in setting itself up must also undergo a TLS handshake en passant. (I monitor the activity bar at the bottom of Firefox's window. Anyone with faster connection speed than I probably wouldn't even see what's in process.)
It's wholly unpredictable. I've just gotten used (almost inured) to it.

Further to the TLS handshake issue ...

I was experiencing a few unrelated conflicts and so decided to let El Capitan sort it all out by shutting the iMac down for 15 minutes. Not only did the conflicts seem to resolve themselves but the rampant reload issues associated with the TLS handshake also pretty much disappeared ... at least so far — we shall see what we shall see.

Before a moderator recognizes how off-track this thread has become, I'm shifting discussion of Firefox Quantum to a new thread by that name.