1432604 - Remember the last used folder when bookmarking through Firefox's UI

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Teiji]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:58.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/58.0
Build ID: 20180118215408

Steps to reproduce:

Press CTRL+D or clicking the bookmark star in the search field.


Actual results:

The folder to save the bookmark always default to "Other bookmarks" instead of the previously saved folder.


Expected results:

It should show the previously saved folder. For example, if I save a bookmark in a "Work stuff" folder. The next time I bookmark another page should have "Work stuff" folder as the default. Then if I want to change to another folder, I would click the dropdown menu and select another folder.

This is a new bug that just appear in v58 when I updated Firefox today. It wasn't there in v57.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

A related change is surely bug 1120110, but that should only have changed the default destination from the Bookmarks menu to Other Bookmarks, so that clicking the Star or CTRL+D end up doing the same thing.
We store the recently used folders in the dialog popup, but I don't remember that we'd pre-select one of them, so that should be checked.

I hope someone can find the time to confirm this regression.

Comment 2

[alex_mayorga]

¡Hola!

I'm marking this NEW as https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1201180 describes the same thing (in Spanish).

¡Gracias!
Alex

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Thanks!

Comment 4

[fireattack [:fireattack]]

This is not a regression, nor a bug.
It always works like this since I started to use Firefox (10 years ago at least).
And I just tested again in v57 with a new profile, it always use "other bookmarks" as default, not previously used folder (on the contrary, that's how Chrome works).

I suspect you have some addons modified the behavior before.

Comment 5

[tero gusto]

(In reply to fireattack from comment #4)
> It always works like this since I started to use Firefox (10 years ago at least).
...
> I suspect you have some addons modified the behavior before.

I have also been using Firefox for many, many years, and this is new behavior, introduced within the last week.

I have no Bookmark add-ons installed, and have happily been adding bookmarks CTRL+D'ing for years, and they have always been placed in "Bookmarks Menu" by default, not in "Other Bookmarks".

Comment 6

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to resa from comment #5)
> I have no Bookmark add-ons installed, and have happily been adding bookmarks
> CTRL+D'ing for years, and they have always been placed in "Bookmarks Menu"
> by default, not in "Other Bookmarks".

Not going to bookmarks menu IS NOT a bug, that's intended behavior, both ctrl+d and the star should go to unfiled.

What we are discussing here is whether the bookmarks were going to the last used folder (not bookmarks menu) instead, I didn't have time to test older versions yet.

Comment 7

[tero gusto]

Sure, sorry if it wasn't clear. I just used "Bookmark Menu" as an example, because I always save new bookmarks to that folder. Anyways, Firefox should remember where last bookmark was saved, and suggest using that folder next time, in stead of suggesting "Other Bookmarks", as it does in the new version.

Comment 8

[fireattack [:fireattack]]

I just tested again with 56 and 57, and can confirm the behavior is indeed the same as what Marco said.

Click star: 
Always by default add to "other bookmarks", in 56,57,58,Nightly

Use Ctrl+D: 
It used to go "bookmark menu" in 56, 57 (but NOT "previously saved folder"). Now it goes to "other bookmarks" after 58, to be consistent with clicking star (bug 1120110).


So far, it works as intended. If you want to request feature to use the "previously saved folder", which is a function Firefox never had (the "Chrome way", but I would like to have it too), should open a new, more clear ticket for that.

Comment 9

[ufo1947]

I have read what everyone has been saying here and I have some thoughts on this issue.  As a user of Firefox sine its initial iteration all I know is that when I used to save a bookmark it went to the bottom of all of my bookmarks on the screen.  This is where I wanted it to go so that I could drag and drop it into whatever folder I wanted it to be in.  Now, some code writer has decided that my bookmarks should by default go into “other bookmarks”.  I do not like and do not want that to be the way Firefox behaves.  And as for the suggestions of having to install some add-on program or hitting control-D to get the job done, I do not like either of them.

Has Mozilla somehow morphed into Apple and has started forcing users to do things the company’s way and not how the user wants to do it ?  I have never liked the other bookmarks folder anyway.  It does nothing but take up valuable folder space in the browser.  If I had my way, I would delete other bookmarks folder altogether.  I personally have no use for it.

Now, as for this being bug or not is irrelevant in my opinion.  Someone has changed the way Firefox behaves and I am sure that there are more than a few people who are upset with this change.  If anyone from Mozilla does actually read this forum, take note.  We do not like what you have done and we would greatly appreciate it if you would put things back the way they were without us having to jump through several hoops to accomplish the simple task of book-marking a webpage.

I don’t need anyone telling me that an add-on or some other procedure will solve my problem.  Something in the basic functionality of Firefox has been changed and it needs to be reversed so that the millions of users can once again feel pride in the best browser available.  Please don’t become Apple – stay Mozilla !!

Thank You
ufo1947

Comment 10

[tero gusto]

I think it's sad that ufo1947's comment (just above here, click the plus sign to the right of "Comment hidden (advocacy)") has been hidden. I must say I agree with the arguments. Firefox might work as expected now, but the new "expected" has become the opposite of what most users expect.

I really hope the developers will rethink this one, and not force usage of "Other Bookmarks" onto them.

Comment 11

[ufo1947]

Wow !!  I guess that I must have hit the nail on the head to have ruffled so many feathers at Mozilla.  They actually hid my comments about the bookmarks folder issue.  Instead of replying in a constructive fashion, they simply took the coward’s way out while silencing a long-time user and supporter of Firefox.

“What’s the matter Mozilla ?  Afraid of the truth ?

For those of you who wonder what I am talking about, check comment # 9 which says Comment hidden (advocacy).  Just click the little + sign at the right of that line.  Better do it quick though before Mozilla removes it altogether.  Please don’t let this issue die.  I wonder what an attorney would have to say about this kind of censorship ??

Comment 12

[you]

Hello

I also would like to have the previous behavior back (defaulting to bookmarks menu) or - as always - the best solution: let me choose the default location, if you like to keep the "others bookmarks" folder as default. Defaulting to a folder which is designed to be a gathering place for unsorted bookmarks is not the ideal behavior for a modern browser, I think. Especially since there already is a common saving space for bookmarks that are not specifically sorted into subfolders, the bookmarks menu folder. And considering this is a recent change from the previous default which many of us have used for years and thousands of bookmarks. If there are resources available and you want to be over the top (...Chrome?...) you could even think about using the most recent folder as default or predict the to-be folder location in some way.

Also, I think you should reconsider your choice of hiding comments only because they are irksome to you.

Comment 13

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Comments are not being collapsed (note they are not removed, for transparency and honesty reasons) for malicious reasons, this is a technical bug tracker, it's not a discussion forum, nor a place to point out our own preferences. This is a workplace for most of us, as such we should stay on topic and everyone should behave properly.

(In reply to you from comment #12)
>let me choose the
> default location, if you like to keep the "others bookmarks" folder as
> default.

I agree, indeed bug 1412263 is open for the community to pick up. It should be easy to change bookmarkPage to read the default guid from an hidden pref.

Regarding this bug, I'll test the behavior with previous versions regarding recently used folders, and figure out if it's an effective bug.

Comment 14

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

So, I tested Firefox 57, CTRL+D goes to the Bookmarks Menu, clicking the star goes to Other Bookmarks.
In Firefox 58 both go to Other Bookmarks, as expected after bug 1120110.

I couldn't find a way to make it bookmarks to the previously selected folder.

As such, this bug is not a regression, it's an enh request.

You're free to follow (and suggest patches obviously) bug 1412263 to allow to set the default destination folder. I suspect it will be an about:config pref at the beginning, we need UX involvement to do more than that.

If anyone should ever implement this "store in the last folder" behavior (if it's indeed what Chrome does), it could likely reuse the pref added in bug 1412263, that likely would just contain a guid.

Comment 15

[tero gusto]

Personally, I think saving new bookmarks to Bookmarks Menu by default should be the main priority, whereas remembering the previously selected folder is not that important, and maybe not even useful.

Comment 16

[mpmalloy]

Just chiming in here as an end user:

Don't care about Save to Previous Folder.
Would like everything to go initially to Bookmarks Menu (where I can sort it's final destination from there)...

Comment 17

[Chris Adler]

This has just started happening to me too. All of a sudden my bookmarks are now defaulting to "Other Bookmarks" whereas they always have defaulted to the bottom of the Bookmarks menu in the past. Don't try to say "I've been using Mozilla since XYZ and this is normal" I have been using Mozilla since Netscape 1.0 and then switched to Firefox upon its inception as well. I'm going back 20 years!!! This is not normal. Now it may be a new thing that has been implemented (Which would be a load of bs 'cause if it anit broke dont fix it!') but it has never done this before. This issue needs to be addressed and fixed ASAP! I believe it's a bug.

Comment 18

[Chris Adler]

Oh and here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=423617 is a comment from 10 years ago stating this:


	Bayle Shanks
	
Comment 3 • 10 years ago

By default, clicking the star places a bookmark in "unsorted bookmarks", while using the "Bookmark this page" menu item places defaults to the "bookmarks menu" folder.

Comment 19

[Chris Adler]

either way it doesn't seem like this will be fixed so I just added the add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/default-bookmark-folder/ which fixed this issue.

Comment 20

[mpmalloy]

(In reply to Chris Adler from comment #19)
> either way it doesn't seem like this will be fixed so I just added the
> add-on
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/default-bookmark-folder/
> which fixed this issue.

Thanks for that , Chris!

Comment 24

[howdytom]

I totally agree with Teiji.

Why do we have to install an additional extension for such a basic task? I do not understand why "Other bookmarks" is set as default location. It's not a bug, but it's really inconvenient to use.

Saving bookmarks to a previously saved folder is good compromise.

Comment 26

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Attachment: Bug 1432604 - use the last-used folder for new bookmarks, r?mak

Depends on D94879

Comment 27

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Alice0775 White from bug 1674539 comment #6)

I dislike "last used folder" thing... It will be another discoverability issue.
Because I must have forgotten the last used folder. I'll have to look for where it was saved.

I don't understand why. File open / save as dialogs work the same way. Why would it be a discoverability issue?

Comment 28

[Alice0775 White]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #27)

(In reply to Alice0775 White from bug 1674539 comment #6)

I dislike "last used folder" thing... It will be another discoverability issue.
Because I must have forgotten the last used folder. I'll have to look for where it was saved.

I don't understand why. File open / save as dialogs work the same way. Why would it be a discoverability issue?

So, I checked "Always ask you where to save files" in option settings.

Comment 29

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #28)

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #27)

(In reply to Alice0775 White from bug 1674539 comment #6)

I dislike "last used folder" thing... It will be another discoverability issue.
Because I must have forgotten the last used folder. I'll have to look for where it was saved.

I don't understand why. File open / save as dialogs work the same way. Why would it be a discoverability issue?

So, I checked "Always ask you where to save files" in option settings.

Sure, but the starting location of that dialog remembers the last-used place. Bookmarks would be the same - you can change where the bookmarks go, just that the default would be wherever you put the last bookmark, instead of always reverting back to a fixed folder.

Comment 30

[Alice0775 White]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #29)

(In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #28)

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #27)

(In reply to Alice0775 White from bug 1674539 comment #6)

I dislike "last used folder" thing... It will be another discoverability issue.
Because I must have forgotten the last used folder. I'll have to look for where it was saved.

I don't understand why. File open / save as dialogs work the same way. Why would it be a discoverability issue?

So, I checked "Always ask you where to save files" in option settings.

Sure, but the starting location of that dialog remembers the last-used place. Bookmarks would be the same - you can change where the bookmarks go, just that the default would be wherever you put the last bookmark, instead of always reverting back to a fixed folder.

Okay. I understand.

In case of uncheck "Show editor when saving", how does "last used folder" treat?.

Comment 31

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/455ff5647429
use the last-used folder for new bookmarks, r=mak

Comment 32

[Narcis Beleuzu [:NarcisB]]

Backed out for bc failures on browser_bookmarkProperties_addKeywordForThisSearch.js

Backout link: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/d2c0ca2f17bd606bc01e65c6b62663da16a82488
Log link: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer?job_id=320868524&repo=autoland&lineNumber=4573

Comment 33

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/58edeb3eb4e0
use the last-used folder for new bookmarks, r=mak

Comment 34

[Andreea Pavel [:apavel]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/58edeb3eb4e0

Comment 35

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Alice0775 White from comment #30)

In case of uncheck "Show editor when saving", how does "last used folder" treat?.

It behaves the same way - ie it still remembers things. We discussed this with our UX folks and decided to keep this behaviour like this for now and see what people do with it. It probably isn't a problem unless people both opt out of showing the editor when saving, and use the same editor to change the location of bookmarks (rather than the sidebar or the library, which don't alter the pref). That seems like an unlikely combination.

It's also not clear what would be better - it'd be unexpected for most users if we start updating the folder if you tick that checkbox and then stop if you untick it. It'd also be unfortunate to just never update, or to get rid of the option not to show the editor when creating bookmarks. We considered not updating the default folder if you edit bookmarks with the dialog (as opposed to creating new ones), but that also creates a strange inconsistency, and also doesn't match what other browsers do so would confuse users who are used to that behaviour.

So for now, we're going to try it like this. Happy to hear if there is some other solution we're missing here or a usecase we're not aware of, that should trump all the other concerns at play...

Comment 36

[vaindil]

This was working for a week or two but is no longer working as of 84.0b7 (or maybe an earlier version, not sure exactly when it stopped working). I opened a new bug because I wasn't sure whether to reply here or open a new one.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1680337

Comment 37

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to vaindil from comment #36)

This was working for a week or two but is no longer working as of 84.0b7 (or maybe an earlier version, not sure exactly when it stopped working). I opened a new bug because I wasn't sure whether to reply here or open a new one.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1680337

Yes, the fix for this bug was disabled in late beta. We will do some testing in the 84 release cycle and then hopefully roll out the changes to everyone in 85 or 86.

Comment 38

[tero gusto]

Thanks for fixing this. Now (Firefox 84.0.2) browser.bookmarks.defaultLocation under about:config is updated, according to where I last created a bookmark by pressing CTRL+D. For example the value for Bookmarks Menu is menu________, whereas the value for a customly named folder is set to something like oJ7SkpfTj_6J.

The title could be updated, and CTRL+D added, since this not only affects bookmarking by clicking the star icon?

Comment 39

[PikeUK]

This change broke the single-click bookmarking feature. Before, you could click the Star to remember a site and find it again by going to "Other Bookmarks". Now after you click the star the bookmark is saved to a "random" folder (wherever you last saved a bookmark) and can only be found again by searching your bookmarks. Obviously you can manually adjust the folder, if you remember to override the habit of a decade, but single-click Bookmark saving was one of the most convenient features of the Firefox Bookmark system IMO.

p.s. I'm happy to file a bug if that is more appropriate than commenting here.

Comment 40

[fireattack [:fireattack]]

I don't get your issue.

All you need to to is to change the save folder to "Other Bookmarks" for the very first bookmark you saved.

Then, all the future saved bookmarks would be saved in this folder by default, because it is your "last saved" folder.

Comment 41

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to PikeUK from comment #39)

This change broke the single-click bookmarking feature. Before, you could click the Star to remember a site and find it again by going to "Other Bookmarks". Now after you click the star the bookmark is saved to a "random" folder (wherever you last saved a bookmark) and can only be found again by searching your bookmarks. Obviously you can manually adjust the folder, if you remember to override the habit of a decade, but single-click Bookmark saving was one of the most convenient features of the Firefox Bookmark system IMO.

p.s. I'm happy to file a bug if that is more appropriate than commenting here.

Please file a new bug with more specifics - comment 40 is on-point in that it is not clear to me off-hand why the bookmark would get saved to a "random" folder - if the previous bookmark you saved was saved in "other bookmarks", that's where the next one should be saved to, too, and you shouldn't have any issues. (If not, perhaps there's a bug. But for sure we would need more specifics about what you're doing and what you're seeing Firefox do, to comment in more detail and/or fix anything.)

Comment 42

[PikeUK]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #41)

(In reply to PikeUK from comment #39)

This change broke the single-click bookmarking feature. Before, you could click the Star to remember a site and find it again by going to "Other Bookmarks". Now after you click the star the bookmark is saved to a "random" folder (wherever you last saved a bookmark) and can only be found again by searching your bookmarks. Obviously you can manually adjust the folder, if you remember to override the habit of a decade, but single-click Bookmark saving was one of the most convenient features of the Firefox Bookmark system IMO.

p.s. I'm happy to file a bug if that is more appropriate than commenting here.

Please file a new bug with more specifics - comment 40 is on-point in that it is not clear to me off-hand why the bookmark would get saved to a "random" folder - if the previous bookmark you saved was saved in "other bookmarks", that's where the next one should be saved to, too, and you shouldn't have any issues. (If not, perhaps there's a bug. But for sure we would need more specifics about what you're doing and what you're seeing Firefox do, to comment in more detail and/or fix anything.)

Comment 40 would only make sense if you never use the dropdown to file bookmarks into different folders and only ever rely on single-click bookmarking. I've filed Bug 1691729 with more details and explanation.