FireFox 39.0 Keyword bug

[FrillyBits]

When I updated to FireFox 39.0 most of my Keywords disappeared from Bookmarks and only one relative to the bookmark would appear when I typed in the URL bar
I tried installing bookmark backups up to a week ago but no change
I installed a recent MozBackup but still no change
After playing around I found that only one copy of a Keyword could exist in Bookmarks, when I gave another bookmark the same keyword the first keyword disappeared

I went back to FireFox version 38.0.6 and there is no problem
All the keywords are back
I have 5 bookmarks with the same keyword and they all show in the URL bar list when I type in the keyword

So, the Keywords are not actually deleted in version 39.0, but 2 bookmarks can't have the same keyword

[therube]

Confirmed.

It looks like where/how keywords are stored in FF 39 is different then in FF 38.
As in on the first run of FF 39 must do some sort of "import", "transform".

And if you were then to revert back to FF 38, you will see that your keywords are not seen at all.
And then if you then run FF 39 again, you will see more oddities.

So, either a bug or "enhancement" in FF 39's behavior?


(
Don't you just luv these "silent" changes that you only come to find out about, by chance.
Let me actually look at the release notes first... Nope, https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/39.0/releasenotes/.

[Warning, LONG] Well the "complete list of changes" gives some pointers, like (& among others):

Bug 1125113 - Change the keywords schema associating them with uris
Bug 1125115 - Write a new keywords pseudo-API in PlacesUtils
Bug 1125117 - Use the new keywords API in autocomplete
Bug 1146299 - (bookmark keywords are broken!) v27 migration is using a bookmark description instead of POST data

What do the say about the devil & details .
)

[FrillyBits]

Version 39.0.3 still has this annoying bug
Back to version 38.0.6

[KilliK]

FrillyBits, it's not a technical bug, they have deliberately removed this function. you can now only assign one keyword to a specific uri/search engine. if you want this feature, you are forced to stay with FF38 which is the last one with it.

here is more info about the new changes:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... ywords_API

[FrillyBits]

I have updated to FireFox 40 for safety and I see that in All Bookmarks the option for a Keyword column is no longer available. I have given up on ever getting this great feature back (as it was) and now will have to remove all Keywords and start anew only using Keywords for a few important bookmarks

I have changed Options > Privacy > Location Bar setting to only Bookmarks ticked and then add the ^ when I want to search History.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/aw ... r-shows-me
I will need to add my own 'keyword' to some bookmark titles to ensure they show in the list. This should work ok but is certainly not as good as Keywords was before

I did try Tags but it didn't work for me, too many 'answers' I didn't want

[KilliK]

yeah, they have removed the keywords column, because according to one of the devs in the related bug, only "very few" use it.

here's the bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1145063

at least, you can find your bookmarks with keywords, by searching for %s in the Bookmark Manager.

[KilliK]

.

[Gary King]

I've got a problem, where after I create a keyword bookmark search, then close the Bookmark Manager, and re-open it, the bookmark will no longer have the keyword (the Keyword field becomes blank).

Anyone else have this problem in Firefox 40? I tested in a new profile.

[FrillyBits]

No, my keyword is still there as long as it was a new keyword not shared by any other bookmark.

I have found that I can't edit the keyword by replacing a letter, when I do the keyword will revert to the old one when I re-open the bookmark, I must delete all the keyword letters then type anew. This doesn't seem to happen all the time so it might also be related to keywords I have already that I can no longer see.

I do think it's time to give up on keywords, FireFox has no interest in them so I can't see it getting any better only worse

[Maaaks]

I'm having the problem with Firefox 40. I am trying to set keyword "j" to a search URL, but can't save it (when I try, for example, "jj", it does work).

But there is nothing associated with "j" in my bookmarks! When I type "j" in address bar, it takes me to https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=j. What can possibly make Firefox think that keyword "j" is not availiable? How to find it?

[Springtime]

I'm having the problem with Firefox 40. I am trying to set keyword "j" to a search URL, but can't save it (when I try, for example, "jj", it does work).

But there is nothing associated with "j" in my bookmarks! When I type "j" in address bar, it takes me to https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=j. What can possibly make Firefox think that keyword "j" is not availiable? How to find it?

I can confirm that Firefox Dev v42 (2nd September 2015 build) also has a similar bug. Only happened today, as yesterday it was fine.

For years I've set 'e' as the keyword for a custom eBay search and just today it stopped working. Checked the bookmark and Firefox has erased the keyword and won't permit me to add it back (clicking 'Save' fails to save the keyword).

Like you no other bookmark shares the same keyword, which is a slightly different issue from the OP but still relevant.

This needs a fix, is there a Bugzilla ticket for this yet?

[Springtime]

The September 6 build appears to have fixed the issue, at least for me. 'e' can now be saved again as a keyword.

Talking to someone on Bugzilla it seems Firefox may be forgetting to remove saved keywords from deleted bookmarks/searches. Not sure if this has been resolved or I just got lucky. May do some tests later.

[doktor5000]

Does anybody have a suggestion on how to prevent Firefox from removing the keywords from bookmarks?
At work I often need to switch back and forth between latest ESR (currently 38.4.0) and latest from Mozilla.

This regularly wipes out my keywords, and I've got quite a lot of keyword searches, at least a few dozen.
It costs quite a lot of time to restore my most used keywords after each profile "upgrade".

[xqzy]

I've experienced this bug on Firefox 44 but managed to work out a fix. Felt that i should share it here just in case anyone runs into the same problem and finds this thread (like i did, earlier)

The Bug:
To be clear, the bug is being unable to set a particular keyword for a bookmark, even though no other current bookmarks share the same keyword. This manifests when trying to assign a new keyword - the change will not save (i.e. the keyword field resets to blank or to the last valid keyword) and the assigned keywork does not work in the location bar.

As some of you have already figured out, Firefox is not deleting keywords properly when bookmarks are deleted, which leads to a hidden persistence of previously used keywords. Thanks to the "unique keywords" policy, it mistakenly thinks that the keyword is still in use and refuses to reassign it to the new bookmark. (note: i have not been able to consistently reproduce the conditions under which keywords are not being deleted properly. It seems to affect my deleted bookmarks seemingly at random)

The Fix:
Firefox stores data pertaining to bookmarks, keywords, history etc in Places.sqlite. This file is located in your profile folder. Our deleted keywords are not being cleared properly from the database.

You need a little basic SQL know-how for the next bit. Make a backup of Places.sqlite before you proceed! Close/quit Firefox, open the database, and run the following command to see a list of keywords in the moz_keywords table:

Code: Select all

SELECT keyword FROM moz_keywords;

If your problem keyword is in the list even though it does not exist in your current bookmarks, you have found the root of your problem. Delete the offending record like so (replacing badkey with your keyword):

Code: Select all

DELETE FROM moz_keywords WHERE keyword = 'badkey';

And that's it! With the bad record gone, you will now be able to recycle it again for a new bookmark. For those who are unfamiliar with SQL command line, you can achieve the same with any of the numerous SQLite GUI editors available online - open Places.sqlite (make a backup first!), navigate to moz_keywords table, delete the record (row) which contain the keyword in question. Save and close, restart Firefox.

I discovered many unused keywords in moz_keywords, and got rid of them all as a matter of housekeeping.. you may consider doing the same too. Good luck and I hope this helps someone else who is having the same issue!

[Springtime]

I've experienced this bug on Firefox 44 but managed to work out a fix. Felt that i should share it here just in case anyone runs into the same problem and finds this thread (like i did, earlier)
..

I discovered many unused keywords in moz_keywords, and got rid of them all as a matter of housekeeping.. you may consider doing the same too. Good luck and I hope this helps someone else who is having the same issue!

Thank you! After giving up hope that Mozilla will fix the issue it was great to find this after being frustrated with a problematic keyword earlier today.

For anyone who needs the full step by step:

1. Go to the official SQLite.org download page and download the version for your OS with the extra command line tools (in my case for Windows it was the second download under Precompiled Binaries for Windows).
2. Extract the binaries to a folder somewhere.
3. Exit Firefox if it is running.
4. Make a backup copy of the places.sqlite file in your Firefox profile (name it something like places [backup].sqlite, then copy the original places.sqlite file to the same folder where you extracted the SQLite command line tools.
5. Launch sqlite3.exe and enter the following command to open the file:

   Code: Select all

   .open places.sqlite

6. Then this command to check the keywords list:

   Code: Select all

   SELECT keyword FROM moz_keywords;

7. It will output a list of all stored keywords. Check the list for the problematic ones then use the following command for each one (replacing badkey in the command with the actual keyword, leave the single quotes intact):

   Code: Select all

   DELETE FROM moz_keywords WHERE keyword = 'badkey';

8. When done enter the following command to save to a new file:

   Code: Select all

   .save places2.sqlite

9. Close the program, delete the copy of places.sqlite, then rename the newly created places2.sqlite to places.sqlite and move the file into the Firefox profile directory for use.

That should be it. Worked for me (on my first attempt I didn't use the save command, but did on the second attempt and it fixed the issues).

2017-09-19 update: Updated the last two steps since upon reproducing the steps I realized the program doesn't overwrite the original .sqlite file when saving (it instead creates two separate files with the updates), so saving to a different filename is necessary. The original last two steps worked when I first made this post however so not sure what's different when I tried it this time, but updated to reflect my experience.