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I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.10 (actually, I've done two fresh installs, hoping that trying again would get this working).

I don't seem to have the ability to add or remove bookmarks from Nautilus. The ones that are there by default (Home, Desktop, Documents, etc.) work fine. I can right click on them and rename them. However, I cannot remove any of them. The option is there "Remove" but disabled/grayed out.

The same is true if I try to add bookmarks. I go to "Files -> Bookmarks", and all the bookmarks show up, but the buttons at the bottom to add, remove, or re-order the bookmarks are simply disabled.

What am I doing wrong?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 27 down vote accepted

Custom bookmarks

To add and remove custom bookmarks, refer to the documentation in Files ▸ Help ▸ Edit folder bookmarks:

Add a bookmark:

  1. Open the folder (or location) that you want to bookmark.

  2. Click the gear button in the toolbar and pick Bookmark this Location.

Delete a bookmark:

  1. Click on Files in the top bar and pick Bookmarks from the app menu.

  2. In the Bookmarks window, select the bookmark you wish to delete and click the - button.

The "gear button" is on the right side of Nautilus:

Bookmark this location - Nautilus - Ubuntu 13.10

It will be grayed out if the location you've opened is already bookmarked.


The bookmarks seen under the "Places" heading are an exception:

Remove grayed out - Places - Nautilus - Ubuntu 13.10

They're not just bookmarks, but XDG user directories with a separate configuration backend, so the Nautilus developers deliberately chose to disable removing them.

The issue of working around this limitation is being discussed in this question.

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I know that, but the bookmark system has issues. I have always used "Ctrl+D" to make bookmarks. Even using the actual button fails. –  Devyn Collier Johnson Oct 21 '13 at 21:03
This doesn't work - that option is also greyed out. Also doesn't help with being upble to remove existing bookmarks. –  Isaac Dontje Lindell Oct 21 '13 at 21:12
@IsaacDontjeLindell I've copied and pasted the documentation for removing bookmarks for you. When trying to add a bookmark, what folder did you open in step one? If it's already in the bookmarks (see Files ▸ Bookmarks) then it should be greyed out because you can't add it twice. –  ændrük Oct 21 '13 at 21:14
@ændrük Okay, that does allow me to create new bookmarks. Thanks. However, opening "Files -> Bookmarks" doesn't allow me to remove anything - all controls are greyed out (I mentioned this in my original question). I want to be able to remove things like Videos and Pictures, etc. –  Isaac Dontje Lindell Oct 21 '13 at 21:22
Ah! I understand. I was conflating the XDG user "places" with the bookmark system. Thank you, that makes much more sense. –  Isaac Dontje Lindell Oct 22 '13 at 17:23

I think I may have stumbled upon a way to add a bookmark for, say, the UbuntuOne folder.

First up, I connected to a SMB server, and I found that I was able to create a bookmark for this connection. This action created the Bookmarks entry in the left pane of Nautilus. Not sure if this is really necessary - it is just what I did.

Then I right-clicked on one of the folders in the Home folder (one I did not want to Bookmark say, Videos), and selected Copy to. This opened up the Select destination window.

I could then right-click on the folder I wanted to Bookmark and add it to the Bookmarks.

After that, I could rename, or remove, the bookmark if I wanted to.

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