250787 - Bookmarks menu and toolbar don't obey sorting preferences from the Library.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[RBL]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a2) Gecko/20040710 Firefox/0.9.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a2) Gecko/20040710 Firefox/0.9.0+

Installed Firefox. Imported Favorites from IE. Sorted bookmarks using Bookmarks
Manager. Surfed the Web.  Added two new bookmarks.  All new bookmarks appear as
the last entries on the Bookmarks drop-down menu.  Sorting the bookmarks using
Bookmarks Manager has no effect on the Bookmarks drop-down menu.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. SEE DETAILS.
2.
3.



Expected Results:  
Sorted the bookmarks and remembered the settings.  IE has a nice feature that
Firefox should clone:  right-clicking the Favorites menu offers a SORT option.

Comment 1

[Hermann Schwab]

Firefox has its own bookmarks manager -> Firefox

Comment 2

[Joe Cotroneo]

I can confirm that I am also experiencing the same problem.

The problem occurs when you use the bookmark folders on the TOOLBAR (not the
sidepanel). The bookmark manager and sidepanel are sorted correctly, but when
viewing the bookmarks via the toolbar, they are sorted by date (last added at
the bottom of the list).

Comment 3

[Charles Zuzak]

(In reply to comment #0)
> User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a2)
Gecko/20040710 Firefox/0.9.0+
> Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a2)
Gecko/20040710 Firefox/0.9.0+
> 
> Installed Firefox. Imported Favorites from IE. Sorted bookmarks using Bookmarks
> Manager. Surfed the Web.  Added two new bookmarks.  All new bookmarks appear as
> the last entries on the Bookmarks drop-down menu.  Sorting the bookmarks using
> Bookmarks Manager has no effect on the Bookmarks drop-down menu.
> 
> Reproducible: Always
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1. SEE DETAILS.
> 2.
> 3.
> 
> 
> 
> Expected Results:  
> Sorted the bookmarks and remembered the settings.  IE has a nice feature that
> Firefox should clone:  right-clicking the Favorites menu offers a SORT option.


Yes, it is quite annoying when the toolbar doesn't remember the sorting
preferences, but the sidebar does.  I prefer using the toolbar (since IE) so
it's habitual for me to go there and be disappointed that it's not working
properly.  Someone please work on this.

Comment 4

[Brian Rogers]

Confirmed. An IE-turned-Firefox user complained about this missing capability.

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

We have Sort by Name in 1.0 PR

The bookmarks manager sorting sucks and isn't persistent.  This is a
dupe/invalid.  Just because its true doesn't mean it should be confirmed.

Comment 6

[Stasys Adiklis]

*** Bug 268636 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Joseph Conner]

Does not integrate imported bookmarks with firefox added bookmarks.
Win XP Pro, Firefox v0.9.1+

Comment 8

[Stasys Adiklis]

Just to make sure that a fix to this problem won't be as half-baked as current
"Sort By Name" feature:

Folders should have a sorted-by-x/unsorted state. If it's on then folders'
contents must be sorted always: after addition of a new bookmark via Ctrl+D
dialog, after DnD a bookmark, after pasting a bookmark/folder, even if an user
drags a link in a context of the same folder (maybe unintentionally) -
everything should be autosorted automagically according to an alphabet.

There should just be no way for folders' contents to be in a wrong order after
an user has ordered it to be sorted.

Comment 9

[tom]

Bookmarks look normal in the bookmark menu but when going into manage bookmarks
they become rearranged, separators move around, etc.. Basically the Manage
Bookmarks option seems to be polluting the bookmarks.html file worse and worse
every time I go into it. This makes Firefox totally unusable to me so I'll have
to import into the retched Windows Explorer.

Comment 10

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs, filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change

Comment 12

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

from original report in bug 347614:
i'd like to have following small enhancement of bookmark handling:

(let's say you have A-Z ordering set in the bookmarks-manager)

- after you add an bookmark

a) using creation in a certain folder: it should be automatically sorted the
way by the rule set in the bookmarks-manager (in this case A-Z ordering)

b) the 'normal' way of just adding to the root: after a 'browsing-session' when
you were too lazy to specify adding the bookmark to a certain folder (as
described in a) you want to do it afterwards using the bookmark-menu. so you
drag'n'drop all those new bookmarks from the root to your destination folders.
the dropped bookmark should be sorted automatically following the rule set in
the bookmark-manager (in this case A-Z)


the handling now is kinda pedestrian:

after adding bookmarks using methods described in a) or b) you have to open the
destination folder for every bookmark (using here the menu or manager makes no
difference), right-click an entry & click 'sort-by-name'.

i repeat it again: this should really be done automatically.
above wished behaviour should of course be un-/checkable somewhere.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 13

[Robert Mawn]

Who in the heck is in charge here?  Somebody should consider this problem as a top priority!  It is a pain to find a book mark when the folders are not in order.  I am not a programmer, I am just a user who needs to be able to do my tasks quickly and easily with out jumping through hoops.

Comment 14

[Not my real name]

This problem is still there.  

Comment 15

[Not my real name]

and the problem is still there after the new revision came out. I have to echo Robert Mawn'n concern; a concern that seems to remain unanswered. What in the world is NOT going on here.

Comment 17

[Robert Mawn]

I'm still waiting for someone to offer a solution to the problems with bookmark sorting. 
. 
I just did an upgrade and it was the typical Firefox screw up.
.
My woodgrain skin was gone
My add-ons were gone
My bookmarks were deleted.
.
Luckily I had downloaded my add-ons to a separate folder ( I no longer install as I download) where Firefox could not find them.  I simply re-executed each one to put them back.  A pain, but at least my back-up plan worked.
.
The bookmarks were another matter. Since the last screw up, I have been saving my book marks each week into a separate folder on my back up drive.  This way Firefox can't find and delete them.  Firefox is smart and will look in both the documents folder and the recent documents folder as well as the temp folder. Once Firefox is assured it knows where you keep all of your important data, it deletes everything.
.
But, as I said, I have fooled Firefox, my critical data is safe!
,
But, now do the import thingy, and what does Firefox do?
It duplicates every folder!
So, I go in and delete the folders I don't need.
After using Firefox for a day, what happens?  Firefox has created new duplicate folders again!
Now it has been 5 days since the last screwup and Firefox has grudgingly left my bookmarks alone.
So It will hold, no doubt, untill the next time there is an upgrade to security or heaven forbid, a new version!
.
I hope people reading this will now appreciate why Micro-Soft always has so much trouble coming out with new versions of their software!  It must really be a pain!

Comment 18

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Using Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9b3) Gecko/2008020511 Firefox/3.0b3 ID:2008020511 shows me following:

When I create a new folder on the bookmarks toolbar and put some new sub folders and bookmarks in there, they are sorted as they were added. The sorting preference from the BM is not applied. After doing a "Sort by Name" within the Library the bookmarks are sorted correctly within that sub folder of the toolbar.

Marco and Mano, would this be a trivial fix to run the sorting immediately when adding a new folder or bookmark? 

Comment 21

[Paul J. Weiss]

The lack of stable, persistent sorting for bookmarks in Firefox 3 is a big detriment to me.

Comment 22

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

This is as expected (and this is certainly a dupe).  Bookmarks have always allowed arbitrary placement for various reasons, and while the manager has multiple views for sorting/filtering, that is confined to the bookmark manager.

We tried this once, and a lot of people lost their carefully-organized groupings.  Not pretty.

Comment 23

[Paul J. Weiss]

No, of course we wouldn't want to force any particular sorting on users. Some of my own bookmarks folders I have sorted in some manual way. But we need the option of a user-selected persistent sort, and for whatever sorting a user has done in the bookmark manager to also be used in the bookmark menu and toolbar (via a user-controlled option.

Comment 26

[Micah Gersten]

Ubuntu Bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/401615

Still an issue in Firefox 3.5.1

Comment 27

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Bug 451915 - move Firefox/Places bugs to Firefox/Bookmarks and History. Remove all bugspam from this move by filtering for the string "places-to-b-and-h".

In Thunderbird 3.0b, you do that as follows:
Tools | Message Filters
Make sure the correct account is selected. Click "New"
Conditions: Body   contains   places-to-b-and-h
Change the action to "Delete Message".
Select "Manually Run" from the dropdown at the top.
Click OK.

Select the filter in the list, make sure "Inbox" is selected at the bottom, and click "Run Now". This should delete all the bugspam. You can then delete the filter.

Gerv

Comment 31

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

Resolving as wontfix based on comment #22.