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Importing and organizing bookmarks from a HTML backup

earstothedrum
earstothedrum
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Hi I have a new MacBook Air M1 chip computer. I exported all of my bookmarks on my old Macbook Pro to an HTML file and then transferred the HTML into my new computer. I researched and followed the instructions for importing the HTML. That went fine - to a point. Now all of my old bookmarks appear as one big group in the OTHER BOOKMARKS category. When I open BOOKMARKS>MANAGE BOOKMARKS they don't even appear. When I open BOOKMARKS and scroll down to OTHER BOOKMARKS they are all there. Here's the problem - in my old computer they were organized into folders but now they are not. Since they don't even appear in the manager I can't even begin to follow the instructions for organizing them. Also, I now have duplicate folders for all of the following : Other Bookmarks / Mozilla Firefox / Recent Tags / Bookmarks Toolbar. AND, Again, these duplicates do not appear when I open the Manager so I can't begin to delete any of them. Please help Daniel

Hi I have a new MacBook Air M1 chip computer. I exported all of my bookmarks on my old Macbook Pro to an HTML file and then transferred the HTML into my new computer. I researched and followed the instructions for importing the HTML. That went fine - to a point. Now all of my old bookmarks appear as one big group in the OTHER BOOKMARKS category. When I open BOOKMARKS>MANAGE BOOKMARKS they don't even appear. When I open BOOKMARKS and scroll down to OTHER BOOKMARKS they are all there. Here's the problem - in my old computer they were organized into folders but now they are not. Since they don't even appear in the manager I can't even begin to follow the instructions for organizing them. Also, I now have duplicate folders for all of the following : Other Bookmarks / Mozilla Firefox / Recent Tags / Bookmarks Toolbar. AND, Again, these duplicates do not appear when I open the Manager so I can't begin to delete any of them. Please help Daniel

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Hi Daniel, that's definitely not normal.

Do you have the "Default Bookmark Folder" extension installed? Unfortunately, during an import, it dutifully moves every single bookmark to your default folder instead of following the structure of the imported file. You need to disable that extension during either Import or Restore operations. You can enable/disable extensions on the Add-ons page (Command+Shift+A), Extensions panel.

Regarding deleting the disorganized stuff:

In the Library window, the left column lets you switch between the three root folders: Bookmarks Toolbar, Bookmarks Menu, and Other Bookmarks. By default, Other Bookmarks is shown first, so after cleaning that one, switch to Bookmarks Menu and see whether you can clean up the other stuff from there.

If you decide that it's hopeless:

You could check whether Firefox made a backup before your import. This article has the steps for checking the Restore menu: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer. Restoring a backup hopefully will clean up the mess.

If that doesn't work, you can manually delete the database file which stores bookmarks and history. The steps for that are in the following article: Fix "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message.