How do I get the history and bookmarks to be functional when my Mac responds with "You don’t have permission to rename the item “places.sqlite” as recommended in Solution 2, Part 2 - Create the database"?
Since installing Firefox 4 on my MacBook OS X version 10.6.7 I've been unable to activate my Bookmarks or history. When logging on Firefox I get an error message "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application." When I follow the direction as stated in "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional, Solution 1: Restart your computer," it doesn't help. When I attempt Solution 2: My computer generates, ""You don’t have permission to rename the item “places.sqlite”
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Start at http://www.mozilla.com and download the latest version. At the completion of the download don't let the setup start Firefox for you, when the setup ends, start Firefox in your normal manner this way you will be less likely to create a new profile. The extra startup pages are temporary -- read them. The next time Firefox comes up you should be back to starting with your normal home page.
Note: Firefox must be down once the install starts. Close Firefox with File>Exit. Then make sure Firefox is not running -- On Windows: check the "Processes" tab in the Windows Task Manager. On Mac: Firefox > Quit then Command+option+Esc, if Firefox running use Force quit
Permission errors on Mac: If you were getting permission errors on a Mac, download the latest Firefox version, then uninstall and reinstall Firefox. Do not remove your profile directories and files as they contain your settings, bookmarks, history, extensions, passwords, and cookies.
in any case once you are on 4.0 you might want to take a look at "(fx4)"
- Fx4: Firefox 4.0 Problems and Orientation (#fx4)
http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/firefox/firefox-problems#fx4
I have never seen that message when editing files in the profile. I have Firefox installed in a subdirectory in my standard account rather than in the Applications directory. It works fine there and I get no hassles from doing anything to it or its profile.
Try to repair the disk permissions:
I had this problem after I installed Firefox 5.0 on my Macbook Pro OS X 10.6.7. The solution given didn't work for me either. I've tried to uninstall and reinstall Firefox, and to repair disk permissions but I still couldn't access my bookmarks.
I read on some forums that the places.sqlite file might have been damaged, as there was a places.sqlite.corrupt in my profile folder, so I deleted the places.sqlite and places.sqlite-journal files, and renamed places.sqlite.corrupt to places.sqlite. And so far it's working fine now.