How to Save and Restore Your Bookmarks

Modified on Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 2:51 PM

There are several different ways to save your Favorites/Bookmarks for each Web Browser. This is guide, you'll learn how to export your bookmarks to a file, then import them into a new computer.


Google Chrome


Mozilla Firefox


Microsoft Edge


Internet Explorer





Google Chrome


First, you will need to open the Bookmarks manager. 


You can do this easily by pressing the "Ctrl + Shift + O" keys together on your keyboard.


Alternatively, press the three dots on the upper right corner of your browser. 


Menu:



The Bookmarks manager:


Once you open the Bookmarks manager, you should see a screen similar to this. There will be a button that once again has three dots, to the far right of the bar that says "Search bookmarks". Click on it to bring up a menu.



This will show a list that gives you various options, but the ones we want are the "import bookmarks" and "export bookmarks" options. Select these and you will be able to save your bookmarks to a file. Keep this file on your Desktop, or move it onto a USB Drive when you are ready to import it on a new computer. 








Mozilla Firefox



Firefox is similar to Google Chrome, but it can be a little tricky if you don't know where to look. First, find the menu button with three lines stacked on top of each other. It kind of looks like a hamburger.


Once you click on that, it'll show a bunch of options. The one we are looking for is the Library option. After clicking that, you should see "Bookmarks" listed. Select that. Finally at the bottom, click on "show all bookmarks".







Once you click on "Show all Bookmarks" a new window will open. From here, select Import and Backup then select Import/Export Bookmarks to HTML depending on what you would like to do.









Microsoft Edge


With Edge, some computers have the newer version that looks like this: 




Other computers may have the older version that looks similar to the old Internet Explorer Icon:



This is the old version of Edge and needs to be updated. If you open up the browser, you will be greeted by a page that says "Introducing the new Microsoft Edge". It is recommended you use the new version instead of the old one. 



To install new version from old



Navigate to this webpage: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge


Select  "Download" and install the program. This should replace the old edge browser and automatically migrate your old Favorites.






To export/import your bookmarks from Edge:



Click the 3 dots on the top right of the browser under the "X" button. Select "Favorites". Then select "Manage Favorites". 





This will bring you to the following page. Again, select the 3 dots and select either Import or Export based on what you want to do. Save the file in your Documents.




Internet Explorer



To backup your bookmarks in Internet Explorer, select the star in the top right of the window. 





Select the upside down triangle next to the "Add to favorites" button, then select "Import and export..." Once you do this, you will see another window pop up.




Select "Export to a file", check the"Favorites" box, hit next a few times, then save the file.









Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select at least one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article