Exporting bookmarks

[bobbycheetah]

upgraded to new MAC OS, and want to retrieve my bookmarks from brave browser when I was on previous OS. I have a full backup of the old OS on a time capsule. Trying to find where the bookmarks are located. I’ve tried looking in
/Volumes/Time Capsule/Users//Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser

[LxWulf]

You will find it in the deeper section of the mentioned folder:

(...)/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/User Data/Default/

There will be a file named Bookmarks. There are your bookmarks saved.
It should be possible to copy this file to your (new) device at the same place.

Info
It is recommended to use the export function of Brave Browser circumvent any difficulties which could happen. You will find the function in the Bookmark Manager of Brave Browser.

Settings link: brave://bookmarks/

Then you can click on the right on the three dots and you will see an export function.
The exported file can be then imported in the new installation of Brave Browser.

Settings link: brave://settings/importData.

You just need to select import from Bookmark HTML File from the drop down menu instead of other Browsers or History options.

Greetings
LxWulf

[bobbycheetah]

@LxWulf

brave://bookmarks/

Hi Thank you. I found the Bookmarks file in
/Volumes/Time Capsule/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default

I was hoping to take that file and drop it into place in my new OS’s browser location. Will that interfere with the few bookmarks that I have in place in? Is there a way to do an export on the Bookmarks from my old OS and then import it?

[LxWulf]

You have two possible methods:

Method 01:

You copy over the bookmarks file at the same place you found it on the new machine or installation. In your case, at /Volumes/Time Capsule/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default.

You will lose the already added bookmarks on the new machine or installation.

But if you saved the links somewhere else, or you know it by heart you can add it, obviously again after the replacement. You just need to surf-by again.

---

Method 2:

It is a little complicated, but it’s doable. You need to convert your bookmarks file to an HTML file. You can do this via this website here.
I already set your OS to Mac.

Upload your file there and download it again. No worry, everything is locally. It is also an open source project. So your bookmarks does not get really uploaded anywhere.

When you downloaded the new HTML file, open it with VS Code.

The structure should look like this:

<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<TITLE>Bookmarks</TITLE>
<H1>Bookmarks</H1>
<DL>
<p>                                                                        
<DT>
  <H3 ADD_DATE="1623742059" LAST_MODIFIED="1719720670" PERSONAL_TOOLBAR_FOLDER="true">Bookmarks</H3>
  <DL>
  <p>                                                                        
<DT>
  <H3 ADD_DATE="1706116762" LAST_MODIFIED="1713883610">YourFolderName_01</H3>
  <DL>
    <p>                                                                        
    <dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1706116711">Your Bookmark Text</A>
    <dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1706117960">Your Bookmark Text</A>
    <dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1713879544">Your Bookmark Text</A>
  </dl>
  <p>                                                                       
<dt>
  <h3 add_date="1623742129" last_modified="1701450159">YourFolderName_02</H3>
  <dl>
  <p>                                                                        
<dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1612938988">Your Bookmark Text</A>
<dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1579264471">Your Bookmark Text</A>
<dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1580196537">Your Bookmark Text</A>

Look at the tags h3 for the folder name YourFolderName and the normal entry for a bookmark, the dt and a tag.

Just add your links in the given format and at the right place.

Format:
<dt><a href="https://example-link.com" add_date="1234567890>Your Bookmark Text</A>

After you added your links to the HTML file, you can save it and do the importing procedure as normal with selecting the modified. All your bookmarks should then be in a new folder named imported_bookmarks. Of course, you can now move and change the order as you like in the bookmark manager of brave browser.

---

Tip:
There is a function called Brave Sync. This will sync your bookmarks with every device in the sync chain and by the way also your settings and extensions. Despite the last thing is not supported on phones of course.

Settings link:
brave://settings/braveSync/setup

You get then a sync code which you then need to copy on the same location on another device. Then bookmarks and everything else which is turned on will get synced.

I hope I could help you with this.