It is not recommended to downgrade a profile since this can lead to serious issues like you encountered. Changes to files and folders have been made that cause some files no longer to be compatible. Best would be to create a new profile for the older version and restore the bookmarks from a JSON backup.

• Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I don't see how that will work in that making a profile in the older version then importing my bookmarks. I never made profiles in Firefox before but since my original laptop crashed and spent a week with a loaner laptop that I could not try to download an older version on. I had a lot of bookmarks saved up by the time my new laptop was ready. Someone told me about the profile sync option to bring my bookmarks over so I created the profile and sync.

On my new laptop I tried to sync and was on the same version, the latest supported 58.0.2 and it would not work. Eventually I had time to try and install the older firefox version and did. The only issue was my bookmarks not saving. I have disconnected and deleted my firefox user when this was all going on and every time I attempted a book mark it would not happen. Once I uninstalled the old version and downloaded the latest version all the bookmarks I had tried to add in the older versions were all on the latest. So something else has to be the issue.

I am confused about what the problem is or problems are.

(1) Firefox 38 does display bookmarks in the usual places, or add any new bookmarks, but it lights the star icon in the toolbar to show it knows a site is bookmarked.

Or is it that Firefox 38 displays old bookmarks, but new ones you add are not visible -- please check whether they are on the Other Bookmarks list, previously called the Unsorted Bookmarks list. When you click the star, you can see and change the folder.

Could be an issue with a corrupted database, or an add-on compatibility problem.

(2) You created bookmarks on Firefox on one system, and now you need to add them to your old Firefox.

I don't know if Sync is a good tool for this. Do you have a physical copy of the Firefox data on your loaner? In particular, any files from the bookmarkbackups folder, or a backup/export that you made to transfer your bookmarks over?

I think to clear any confusion lets get away from any Sync issues. That was mainly to state one of the ways I tried to troubleshoot this.

My issues is that when I select the star to bookmark a site it does not display in any folder within Bookmarks. Unsupported, Other, or when selecting Show All Bookmarks. Also if I try to drag the bookmark to my Bookmark Toolbar it will not show. If I revisit the site it will show that it is a Bookmarked site with the Star. There is no indication though elsewhere that it is saved.

When I have uninstalled Firefox 38 and go back to the latest version 58.0.2 all the bookmarks I saved in Firefox 38 are in version 58.0.2 Bookmarks. So the issue is rather than saving or being displayed in Firefox 38 they are all going to version 58.0.2. All I need is Bookmarks to be displayed in Firefox 38 when saved and to show up in the proper area.

Newer versions of Firefox changed the format of some settings file. If you were sharing the same settings folder (profile folder) between Firefox 58 and Firefox 38, it's possible Firefox 38 cannot handle those files. Actually, I'm surprised it works at all (i.e., users usually report they lose all their history because older versions of Firefox treat the Places database -- where history and bookmarks are stored -- as corrupted and unusable).

Now, it seems the problem is that the bookmarks system is not working normally in Firefox 38. Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

Does the star get highlighted?

If the star gets highlighted if you click the star once then click the star another time to open the "Edit this Bookmark" dialog. In that dialog you can see on the Folder line in what folder the bookmark is located. You can click the arrow at the far right of the folder line to open the full tree list and drag the scroll bar down until you see what folder is selected.