They are still greyed out after you've navigated to several pages?

Always grey, nothing changes unfortunately. Its not even available as an option in the right click menus either.

First, try to reset Firefox. Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings. This simple step will eliminate many Firefox problems with only one click.

A few other basic trouble shooting things you can try is this: Run all Windows Updates, install all needed service packs, etc.

Update your graphics driver (Firefox uses your graphics card for some rendering, and an out of date graphics card driver can cause problems. Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

Update all your plugins (Flash, Java, etc.): http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/.

Download and Install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, run a full Scan. http://www.malwarebytes.org/. This helps check that there are no viruses on your computer causing issues. You can uninstall this program after you clean off any infections.

I figured if I was going to go that far and reset everything, why take the chance? So I uninstalled FF and blew out the remaining folders and reinstalled it from scratch. The buttons now work but what a pain. So much for all the stored passwords etc. :-(

You could have backed up your profile folder. If you did, Recover important data from an old profile can help :)

Didn't exactly back up the profile but I did move the main Mozilla Firefox folder and the app data folder to another location. :-) I'll go hunting for the old data now. Thanks for the tip! (Its been a LONG day but thankfully I wasn't a total moron today LOL)

When a support helper posts a hyperlink to a Knowledge Base article it helps to read that support article.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems#w_what-does-the-reset-feature-do

 
What does the reset feature do?


All of your Firefox settings and personal information is stored in your profile folder. The reset feature works by creating a new profile folder for you while saving your:

    Bookmarks
    Browsing history
    Passwords
    Cookies
    Web form auto-fill information  

If you have the old App Data Folder, you can just go there, Read the Recover important information link, and copy the data from there to your new profile.

Thanks, I did read it, but I figured there was something amiss someplace in one of the folders that the update process wasn't dealing with correctly. I couldn't see any setting that might have been forcing the bar to grey them off so replacing the whole thing from scratch was the ultimate test. I do have some strange things running on my box (like old Stardock desktop customization, which occasionally causes grief in some apps).

Replacing the whole installation proved out there was no other interference from background apps. Stardock does allow itself to be disabled on specific apps but that didn't work. I was at a loss other than going forth from zero.

Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

You can try to check and repair the places database with this extension:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/