How to Import Safari and Chrome Bookmarks on a Mac

You already saved those links.

They're in Safari or Chrome, sitting in folders you stopped opening months ago. Articles, docs, videos, tools you meant to come back to.

Do not re-save them one by one. You'll quit after twenty, and the rest stay buried in the browser.

Import the file. Then keep capturing new pages with a shortcut.

Why import the pile

Browser bookmarks are a stack of "I'll need this later" pages. Some are still useful. Some aren't. You find out once you can search them and see a preview, not a truncated title.

Re-saving by hand is how you keep the ones you remember and lose the GitHub repo you bookmarked last fall.

Import brings your existing bookmarks over. They stay usable. You can file them later. You don't have to start from an empty library.

That's why I built StowLink. I already had years of bookmarks on my Mac. I was not going to copy URLs one at a time.

Export bookmarks from Safari

Safari writes bookmarks to an HTML file.

On a Mac, open Safari and look for Export Bookmarks. It is often under Bookmarks, or under File > Export. Newer Safari builds may say Export Browsing Data to File. If that is what you see, export bookmarks and use the HTML file you get. If Safari gives you a zip, open it and grab the bookmarks HTML inside.

Save it somewhere obvious, like Downloads. Older Safari versions name the file Safari Bookmarks.html.

You don't need to clean folders first.

Export bookmarks from Chrome

In Chrome, open the bookmarks manager. That's Bookmarks > Bookmark manager, or chrome://bookmarks in the address bar.

Open the menu in that window and choose Export. Chrome writes a bookmarks.html file.

Same idea. Export what you have. Don't reorganize in Chrome just to make the file "ready."

Firefox and Edge can export a bookmarks HTML file too. StowLink imports those browsers as well.

Open StowLink and import the file

Download StowLink if you don't have it yet. It runs on macOS 14 or later, and it does not need a StowLink account.

Open the app and import the HTML file you just saved. You can also import directly from Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge on this Mac if you'd rather skip the export.

Folders come with the links. After that, you can search, add notes, and move things around without going back to the browser's bookmark manager.

Import does not use your 10 free saves

StowLink lets you try the app without a license. You get 10 free new saves. Those are links you capture with the shortcut, the share sheet, or paste.

Import does not spend those 10.

The bookmarks you bring over stay usable. You can open them, search them, and keep them. The free count is for what you save next, not for what you already had in Safari or Chrome.

After 10 new saves, a one-time $29 license lets you keep saving on up to two Macs. No subscription.

Then keep capturing with the shortcut

Once the old bookmarks are in, stop using the browser star for new pages.

Copy a URL. Save it with StowLink's global shortcut, even when the app isn't open. File it when you have a second.

The pile is already in your library. New links should take seconds.

If you want a native bookmark manager for Mac, see how StowLink works. Pricing is a one-time purchase.

Your links, neatly stowed.