Workarounds to problems with Fast Dial and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by chiaroscuro on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 20:24.
The developer telega is unwell at the moment.
There have been a whole number of reports of problems with Fast Dial 2.22b/2.23b1 and Firefox 3.5+
The symptoms are that the Fast Dial suddenly presents just a Blank Page with no cells visible.
If one looks in Bookmarks one discovers that all the bookmarks from the Fast Dial Root Folder (Fast Dial) have ended up in Unsorted Bookmarks.
The Fast Dial Folder seems to be populated by a random selection of bookmarks.
It is quite unclear what triggers this sudden transformation.
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I would strongly recommend the regular backup of your Full Firefox Profile with FEBE as a way of safeguarding your Fast Dial (as well as your Firefox Profile).
It would seem that one can adopt different Approaches to resolving this problem, which is essentially a corruption of Bookmarks.[places.sqlite]
Approach 1
This is the method we have been recommending on this site as a result of feedback from users.
(see here and here)
Joe Blogs paraphrased this method very well on AMO
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Fast Dial Lost Icons Fix
This is what you do,delete nothing.
Start Fire Fox.
Click Bookmarks.
Click organise bookmarks.
Click import and back-up.
Click restore
Choose the latest date when it was working, i.e Yesterday.
It's back now.
Like it never happened. ;-)
Thanks JoeBlogs
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I have tested this method and it seems to work fine for restoring Fast Dial.
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For a more detailed description of this same procedure please see here
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Bookmarks are automatically backed up in more recent Versions of Firefox, so you should be able to find an earlier backup of Bookmarks, even though you yourself made no backup.
If on doing the above Fast Dial is still blank, then please see which folder in Bookmarks contains your Root Cells and if the Folder is called Fast Dial or your original Root Folder name, then please do the following:
Please see here
This worked for me in this situation.
For Russian users please see here
Approach 2
Used by Ria Klaassen here [for the more technically minded perhaps]
This essentially is the same as Approach 1 but uses a different and perhaps more elegant technique to arrive at the same end.
Quote:
I could solve the problem by deleting the file places.sqlite in my profile.
Then it imported automatically a bookmarks backup. Deleting places.sqlite will
make you lose your history.
For more details on how to do this please see here
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I have tested this Method.
Works just fine
Fast Dial was back as before.
For a more detailed description from Mozilla about this whole procedure see here
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If on doing the above Fast Dial is still blank, ( I experienced this once) then please see which folder in Bookmarks contains your Cells and if the Folder is called Fast Dial or your original Root Folder name, then please do the following:
Please see here
This worked for me in this very situation.
Approach 3 (found on AMO)
This involves copying all the Fast Dial bookmarks that have ended up in Unsorted Bookmarks (this seems to happen every time) into a new Fast Dial Folder.
Excellent and Very clear description
Please find here
(uploaded to Userlogos)
Many users have found this system works fine for them.
But for user simplicity my impression is that Approach 1 or 2 are less involved.
Approach 4
Others have found it sufficient to simply uninstall and reinstall Fast Dial.
But this is less common.
For users of XMarks (Previously Foxmarks) there is a detailed and helpful post on AMO.
I have uploaded it to Userlogos.
Please find here
In an effort to centralise this question in one thread, I am listing below links to reports of this problem.
The developer telega has tried to reproduce the problem without success.
All feedback most welcome, this needs sorting fast !!
Userlogos Threads
I upgraded to Fast Dial 3.5 and all cells empty - may 25
FD and FF 3.5 - june 6
includes bug report
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=495898
fast dial draws link from history - june 8
Does this happen to anyone else - june 14
My Fast Dial is Blank - june 25
Null color and blank cells - june 25
Firefox 3.5 - june 30
Fast Dial 2.22b konnte nicht installiert werden - july 7
Fast Dial not working with new Firefox 3.5 - July 14
Lost all my fast dial Bookmarks - July 23
Fast Dial does not work in 3.5 - July 25
AMO (Mozilla Addons)
There are many users with problems
- chiaroscuro's blog
- Login or register to post comments
2
(2 votes)
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by Lis (not verified) on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 15:48.dammit !!! another try but starting from p.8
8.Предупреждение: Ожидался идентификатор для псевдо-класса или псевдо-элемента, но найдено «[». Правило проигнорировано из-за плохого селектора.
Source: chrome://global/skin/radio.css
Line: 83
em...O_o .. i'll try to translate: Warning: expected identifier for pseudo-class or pseudo-element, but found "[". Rule ignored because of bad selector
i hope you got the idea of the message, because my translation is "blind", almost word by word
9.Предупреждение: Ошибка при анализе значения «filter». Потерянное объявление.
Source: chrome://fastdial/content/about/theme/style.css
line: 20
oh god.. again..ok: Warning: Error found while analysing meaning of "filter". Lost message (or warning - i don't know which word is suitable here)
10. Предупреждение: Неизвестное свойство «-moz-opacity». Потерянное объявление.
Источник: chrome://fastdial/content/about/theme/style.css
line: 20
this anounces the following: Warning: unknown characteristic "moz-opacity". Lost message (or warning - as in previous case)
11. see p.9 all the same but line 23
12. see p.10 all the same but line 23
13. again all the same as p. 9 but "font" instead of "filter" and line 54
14.Предупреждение: Ошибка при анализе значения «font». Потерянное объявление.
Источник: http://userlogos.org/files/css/37a89ea51e3cd98db5a85aadc6f1179a.css
line: 1
Warning: error found while analysing meaning of "font" bla-bla all the same further except for the alias and line
15.Ошибка: view.selection is null
Источник: chrome://global/content/config.js
line: 369
16.Предупреждение: Использование getBoxObjectFor() не рекомендуется. Если возможно, попробуйте использовать element.getBoundingClientRect().
source: chrome://fastdial/content/fastdial.html
line: 0
Warning: using getboxobjectfor() is not recomended. would you please use element.getbouncingclientrect()
how do you work with that?? it's worse than chemistry!
17.Предупреждение: Использование getBoxObjectFor() не рекомендуется. Если возможно, попробуйте использовать element.getBoundingClientRect().
Источник: http://userlogos.org/node/2206
Строка: 0
the same as p.16 but other source and line
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by Lis (not verified) on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 15:52.Ok. very well. Now to the p.7
7.Error: wrong
Source:
Line 1, symbol 46
Primary code:
&u=5281206
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by Lis (not verified) on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 15:56.Ahrrrr... why doesn't forum accept p.7???
7.Error: wrong
Source:
Line 1, symbol 46
Primary code:
&u=5281206
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by Lis (not verified) on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 15:58.Sorry guys, I give up
I can't post this damned p.7 in forum
and I have no idea why:(
Anyway thanks.
Lis
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by chiaroscuro on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 16:30.@lis
I tried the following: restoring bookmarks from all of the available backups. Didn't work.
Creating a new backup file (to my desktop) and restoring from it- didn't work.
Switching off other addons - didn't work.
Deleting fastdial and reinstalling it - didn't work either:(((
Many thanks for this and all your other detailed information.
We need to look at things slowly
Please could you first try this
This will make sure that you are in the right Folder in Bookmarks.
After you have done that, try again to restore your bookmarks from a previous backup
Many thanks
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by Lis (not verified) on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 18:49.Wow!
Amazing! it works!!! yeeeeah!!!
Dear chiaroscuro, thanks alot!!!!
(actually there was no such folder, so I had to create it - nevertheless- it worked for me)
GREATEST THANKS TO CREATORS OF FAST DIAL! AND TO CHIAROSCURO, for sure=))
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by chiaroscuro on Sat, 07/04/2009 - 21:28.@lis
Wow!
Amazing! it works!!! yeeeeah!!!
Dear chiaroscuro, thanks alot!!!!
(actually there was no such folder, so I had to create it - nevertheless- it worked for me)
GREATEST THANKS TO CREATORS OF FAST DIAL! AND TO CHIAROSCURO, for sure=))
Good news !
Great that you have managed to sort everything out !
Thanks for all your detailed responses, these will be most useful to help us try and understand what is going on.
Many thanks
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by chiaroscuro on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 02:12.Found this very detailed post on AMO
I am posting it here to see if it sheds some light on the whole problem.
Personally I would recommend the bookmarks restore method.
It is much more straightforward.
Fastdial bookmarks missing; blank page; gone; poof! Firefox 3.5
Rated 5 out of 5 stars by TheInvaderBN on July 4, 2009
I noticed a lot of people complaining about all their bookmarks missing, the same thing happened to me after i installed ff3.5 (i was left with a blank page) - But, thank goodness its very easy to fix.
Who knows what the heck happened to the FastDial folder, but it seems to be corrupt somehow.
Here's the cure for this strange disease!! :P
1. Delete the corrupt fast dial folder from your bookmark menu. (bookmarks/organize bookmarks/bookmark menu)
2. Uninstall FastDial and restart firefox
3. Quickly fly down to mozilla and re-install FastDial - (then restart ff again)
4. Now you should see a bunch of empty boxes
4. All you deleted bookmarks should be in the 'Unsorted Bookmarks' folder. (bookmarks/organize bookmarks/Unsorted Bookmarks)
5. Just click inside the area where the URLs are, and hit Ctrl+A to select all of them.
6. Drag them into the FastDial folder (just located under the bookmark menu)
7. Open a new tab and all your bookmarks should be back around.
Uptional: If you notice some old bookmarks showing up in your thumbanails, they've probably been in the unsorted bookmarks folder for a while, and you've just copied them into the fastdial folder. So, to get rid of them... you know what to do ;)
I hope this helps anyone looking for a solution.
Thanks InvaderBN !
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by chiaroscuro on Sun, 07/05/2009 - 12:46.Restoring bookmarks resolved the problem for another user here
Thanks for the feedback snapafun
Re: Problems with Fast Dial 2.22b and Firefox 3.5
Submitted by digit (not verified) on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 07:58.Hi,
I did this trick, but it didn't work for me completely.
After relaunching ffox the Fast dial page was totally blank: after some test i did notice that the thumbnail was there but completely invisible. I resolved changed the Opacity in the Appeareance tab on the preference menu.