Corrupt localstore.rdf

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This article will help you fix problems caused by a corrupt localstore.rdf file, which include:

Changes to the toolbar reset themselves after you close Firefox and start it up again
Window size or position not remembered at startup
Bookmarks appear in the Bookmarks Manager but not in the main menu and can't be edited [1]
"Add Bookmark" dialog not working [2]
Back/forward toolbar buttons missing after Firefox upgrade and unable to restore using "View -> Toolbars -> Customize" [3]
Navigation Toolbar (a.k.a Location bar, address bar) or Bookmarks Toolbar is empty, even though selected in "View -> Toolbars" (or in Firefox 4 Options sub-menu). [4]
Unable to save or download files because the dialog box prompting you to open or save a file does not appear.

1 Solution
- 1.1 Safe Mode method
- 1.2 Manual method
2 See also
3 External links
- 3.1 Related bug reports

Solution

If you have a backup copy of the localstore.rdf file from a working Firefox profile, a quick remedy is closing Firefox and overwriting the localstore.rdf file in the Firefox profile folder with your backup copy. [5] If you have no backup, you need to remove the localstore.rdf file and let Firefox generate a new copy. Your toolbar customizations will be gone when you next restart Firefox but future changes will be retained.

Before continuing you may wish to save a screenshot of your Firefox toolbar customizations, to help you restore them later.

Note: You can restore the default set of toolbar items from within Firefox by opening the Customize Toolbar dialog ("View -> Toolbars -> Customize") and selecting "Restore Default Set" but this does not restore the default content of the localstore.rdf file and is not a solution if the localstore.rdf file is indeed corrupt.

Use either of the two methods given below, to regenerate the localstore.rdf file.

[edit]

Safe Mode method

Restart in Firefox Safe Mode using the instructions in the Safe Mode article. After restarting, a window called Firefox Safe Mode with some troubleshooting options will appear: