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Export and import bookmarks toolbar

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

Matthew Montagu-Pollock
Matthew Montagu-Pollock
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I have reinstalled Windows 10 in a new computer, installed a fresh copy of Firefox, and successfully imported my bookmarks from the original computer. But I cannot discover how to export and import my bookmarks toolbar. Another user has attempted to answer the question, but the description is very ambiguous and I can't understand it: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1266729. The following "official" page also does not deal with the issue: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_and_rearranging_bookmarks_-_Firefox. I would have expected that there would be an "Import or Export Bookmarks Toolbar" facility somewhere, maybe under Menu | Bookmarks | Bookmarks Toolbar - but no luck. Could an explanation be provided?

I have reinstalled Windows 10 in a new computer, installed a fresh copy of Firefox, and successfully imported my bookmarks from the original computer. But I cannot discover how to export and import my bookmarks toolbar. Another user has attempted to answer the question, but the description is very ambiguous and I can't understand it: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1266729. The following "official" page also does not deal with the issue: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_and_rearranging_bookmarks_-_Firefox. I would have expected that there would be an "Import or Export Bookmarks Toolbar" facility somewhere, maybe under Menu | Bookmarks | Bookmarks Toolbar - but no luck. Could an explanation be provided?

All Replies (2)

Matthew Montagu-Pollock
Matthew Montagu-Pollock Question owner
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This was the previous answer - and what I found difficult to follow about it.

"You can copy/paste the entire bookmarks toolbar at once. Here's how:

1) Click on the "Show Sidebars" button on the top left. It looks like a book, or an HTML page split into two frames, whatever.

2) Expand the "Bookmarks Toolbar" dropdown. On my pc It's a folder with a big star on it. I suppose because it's important. Who knows.

3) The set of bookmarks and folders that dropped down when you expanded the folder should be the same as your old firefox bookmarks toolbar. Highlight them all by left clicking on the first one, holding down shift, and clicking on the last one. This does not work on my computer. The result is simply to activate the target of the first toolbar bookmark, but I cannot simultaneously highlight all the bookmarks in the toolbar dropdown

4) Once these are highlighted, just drag and drop them to your bookmarks toolbar. How? I am trying to import the bookmarks toolbar to a new PC. Am I to import them across the aether? Firefox should really explain this on their FAQ / instructions for importing bookmarks. Such an obviously common issue, and would save people lots of time.

cor-el
cor-el
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You can only select multiple bookmarks in the Bookmarks Manager (Library) and in the sidebar (Ctrl+_B), but you would have to create an HTML backup and edit this file to only keep the bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar folder (i.e edit the HTML file) as it isn't possible to create a backup of only the Bookmarks Toolbar. What would work is to copy selected bookmarks to the clipboard and paste this in an HTML capable editor (flavor text/html). Then you should be able to import this HTML file, but you likely will have to move those bookmarks from the Bookmarks Menu folder to the Bookmarks Toolbar folder.