Guides · Bookmarks

Move your bookmarks out of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge

Updated 12 October 2026 · 7 min read

Your browser's bookmarks may hold years of collected links, yet they often live in only one place. This guide explains how to get a copy out of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, what that copy contains, and how to bring it into a bookmark manager that doesn't depend on any one browser.

Why keep your bookmarks outside one browser

  • You may not use the same browser for ever. People switch for speed, privacy or a new computer, and bookmarks tied to one browser must be moved each time.
  • Browser sync only works inside one family. Use Safari at home and Edge at work, and neither sees the other's bookmarks.
  • Some computers aren't yours. On a work laptop or a shared PC you may not want to sign in to your personal browser account.
  • Accidents happen. A reset profile or a sync conflict can take a collection with it; a file you exported yourself can't be overwritten by sync.

Before you start

Export on a computer: the steps below are for the desktop versions, where the export options are. If you use several browsers, export from each.

Save the file somewhere you will find it, such as your Documents folder, and give it a name with the browser and the date, for example chrome-bookmarks-2026-10-12.html.

Exporting from each browser

Google Chrome

  1. Click the More menu (three dots) in the top-right corner.
  2. Choose Bookmarks and lists › Bookmark manager.
  3. In the Bookmark manager, click the More menu (three dots) at the top of the page and choose Export bookmarks.
  4. Choose where to save the file. Chrome saves an HTML file.

Google's own instructions are on the Chrome Help page about importing and exporting bookmarks.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox offers two kinds of file.

HTML export, for moving bookmarks to another program:

  1. Open the menu (three lines) and choose Bookmarks › Manage bookmarks. This opens the Library window.
  2. In the Library toolbar, click Import and Backup and choose Export Bookmarks to HTML…
  3. Choose where to save the file. Firefox suggests the name bookmarks.html.

JSON backup, Firefox's own backup format:

  1. In the same Library window, click Import and Backup and choose Backup…
  2. Save the .json file it creates.

Firefox also makes automatic backups, available under Import and Backup › Restore; restoring one replaces your current Firefox bookmarks rather than adding to them. Mozilla explains both options in Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file and Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

Apple Safari (Mac)

The menu depends on your version of macOS. On recent versions:

  1. In Safari, choose File › Export Browsing Data to File from the menu bar.
  2. Select Bookmarks. If you use Safari profiles, you can pick a profile or all of them; Apple notes that bookmarks are shared across profiles.
  3. Click Download (or Export), give the file a name and save it.
  4. Safari saves a .zip file. Double-click it to unzip it; the bookmarks are in an HTML file inside.

On older versions of Safari, the command is File › Export › Bookmarks, which saves a file called Safari Bookmarks.html directly. Apple's guide is Export Safari data to another browser on Mac. If you sync Safari through iCloud, your Mac holds the same bookmarks as your iPhone and iPad, so exporting on the Mac is the simplest way to get them all.

Microsoft Edge

Edge calls bookmarks "favorites".

  1. Click Settings and more (three dots) in the top-right corner and choose Favorites.
  2. In the favorites panel, click More options (three dots) and choose Export favorites.
  3. Choose where to save the file. Edge saves an HTML file.

If your menu looks different, type edge://favorites into the address bar and look for the export option there. Microsoft's guide to managing favorites in Edge shows where the favorites menu is.

What the exported file contains

Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox's HTML export all produce the same kind of file, often called the Netscape bookmark format after the browser that introduced it in the 1990s. Every major browser can read it.

It is an ordinary web page: double-click it and it opens as a list of links, indented by folder. It holds:

  • the web address and title of each bookmark;
  • the folders and their order;
  • usually the date each bookmark was added, and sometimes a small site icon.

It does not contain your passwords, history, open tabs or cookies. Even so, treat it as personal: a list of the sites you use says a lot about you, and links can include account details in the address. Apple warns that Safari's export is not encrypted. Don't leave the file in a shared folder.

Firefox's JSON backup holds the same bookmarks plus extra information Firefox uses internally. It is meant mainly for restoring into Firefox.

Importing into TheyreMine

TheyreMine is a free web app that keeps your bookmarks in your account, so you can reach them from any browser on any device once you sign in. It accepts two file types: Netscape HTML, from any of the browsers above, and Firefox's JSON backup.

  1. Create a free account, or sign in.
  2. On your bookmarks, open Page ▾ › Import bookmarks.
  3. Click Choose file and select your .html or .json file. If Safari gave you a .zip, unzip it first and choose the HTML file inside.
  4. Choose whether to add the bookmarks to the current page or a new page.
  5. Click Import. Folders and bookmarks are created for you.
Import into a new page the first time. Your existing bookmarks stay untouched, and if the result isn't what you wanted you can tidy it up or delete the whole page and start again.

Two things are worth knowing in advance. Only valid web addresses are imported, so entries that aren't ordinary links may be left out. And folders nested inside other folders are flattened to the top level: a folder three levels deep becomes a folder of its own on the page. The full steps are in the import section of the help page.

Checking the result

Before you rely on the new copy, check it:

  • Compare the folders. Open the exported file next to the imported page; the same folders should be there, flattened.
  • Search for a few links you know well. Include one from a deep folder, and use the Filter box.
  • Open a handful. Make sure they lead where you expect.
  • Look for anything missing. Bookmarklets (small scripts saved as bookmarks) and links to files on your own computer aren't ordinary web addresses and may not come across.

Tidying up afterwards

An import is a good moment for a clear-out. Browsers add folders of their own, such as "Bookmarks bar" or "Other bookmarks", and flattening may leave many small ones.

  • Merge small folders into a few larger ones based on what you use them for. In TheyreMine you can drag bookmarks from one folder into another.
  • Remove duplicates. If you imported from more than one browser, the same sites will appear twice. Type a site's name into the filter to see every copy together.
  • Delete what you no longer need.
  • Group a site's pages together. If you have five links to the same site, keep one as the main entry and turn the rest into sub-bookmarks beneath it.

Tidying one folder a day is easier than an afternoon of sorting.

Keeping a backup

However you store your bookmarks, keep at least one copy you control:

  • Keep the exported files from each browser, dated, in a folder you back up.
  • Export again from time to time, for example every few months, and before you reset a browser, change computer or uninstall anything.
  • Keep more than one generation. If a newer file turns out to be incomplete, the older one is still there.
  • Store copies somewhere private. An encrypted disk or a password-protected cloud folder is better than a USB stick left in a drawer.

With a recent export in a safe place and your links in one account you can reach from anywhere, changing browser stops being a worry.