Can anyone help me with my Firefox Bookmarks?
Hello, there’s a problem with my Internet Explorer Favorites and my Firefox Bookmarks and I would appreciate it very much if somebody could help me fix the mess I created.
I have used Internet explorer for 15 years and I ended up with several hundred Favorites (all contained in about 50 folders, each bearing its own name).
I switched to Firefox about 3 years ago. I used Firefox for a while to be sure I liked it then I deleted Internet Explorer “after first making a copy of my I.E. Favorites”, which I saved in a new folder that I named ‘AAA IE Favorites’.
I should have known better, of course, but I placed that folder in my Firefox Bookmarks, hoping my old I.E. Favorites would combine with my Firefox Bookmarks, the idea being that I would end up with just one set of bookmarks. Well! In Firefox, now, when I click to access my Bookmarks, I have a long column of folders and the one at the top is, of course, the ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder.
(This may have started, I believe, because I was not sure at the time my Favorites and Bookmarks were synchronizing properly – but I’m really not sure).
Now, when I rest my mouse pointer on the ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder, all 50-odd yellow folders contained in it open alphabetically in a new column to the left.
For some unfathomable reason, ever since I added that folder to Firefox, I have placed all my new Bookmarks in the folders contained in my ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder. As a result, there are many more Bookmarks saved under the ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder than in the original Bookmarks column that Firefox started with.
My question is this: In Firefox, with my set-up as described, what would be the easiest way to combine everything so I end up with JUST ONE SET of Bookmarks? I would dearly love ending up with a Bookmarks file that would be absolutely stock and proper for Firefox, or, in other words, just like it should be.
Thank you very much for any help.
Chosen solution
Ah, now I see more clearly what you are doing from the screenshot, and I assume that you have the same folders in Firefox bookmarks as you have in your old IE ones, but there are additional bookmarks in the IE folders that you want to move into the Firefox folders? If that is correct, you will need to drag the bookmarks individually out of the IE folders and drop them into the Firefox ones - if it's easier, you could (right click) cut and paste them instead. Once the IE folders are empty, you can right click to delete them, so you will eventually be left with just the FF ones containing all your bookmarks.
(If you drag the folders from IE to FF, you will end up with folders within folders - they won't automatically merge as I think you were hoping).
It might be easier to work in the sidebar (button in the 3-bar menu, or press Ctrl + B) rather than 'Show All Bookmarks,' but that's for you to experiment.
Good luck!
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Hi, I suggest you open your ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder, and drag each of your 50 folders into Firefox bookmarks, then when it is empty, right click and delete the folder. (A bit laborious, but it shouldn't take that long once you get into the swing of it!)
More about bookmarks - Bookmarks in Firefox.
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Thank you for your quick answer, Scribe. As a test before proceeding with the lot, I picked folder XYZ with four bookmarks in it from within my ‘AAA IE Favorites’ folder and I dragged it to the same-name folder in my other bookmarks. I then opened folder XYZ and saw the whole yellow XYZ folder inside it. No merging or combining of the two sets of bookmarks had occurred.
To confirm: Should I drag each whole yellow folder into Firefox bookmarks or each of the bookmarks inside of it?
Also: Is there a particular place in my Firefox Bookmarks section where I should drop my folders, a place that would automatically merge added bookmarks to existing ones?
I know it will take some time to move my fifty folders but that’s fine. My main problem, however, is to find out how to get all bookmarks in my Firefox bookmarks section to combine completely.
Thank you very much for your help.
P.S. I attach a view of my folders.
Suluhisho teule
Ah, now I see more clearly what you are doing from the screenshot, and I assume that you have the same folders in Firefox bookmarks as you have in your old IE ones, but there are additional bookmarks in the IE folders that you want to move into the Firefox folders? If that is correct, you will need to drag the bookmarks individually out of the IE folders and drop them into the Firefox ones - if it's easier, you could (right click) cut and paste them instead. Once the IE folders are empty, you can right click to delete them, so you will eventually be left with just the FF ones containing all your bookmarks.
(If you drag the folders from IE to FF, you will end up with folders within folders - they won't automatically merge as I think you were hoping).
It might be easier to work in the sidebar (button in the 3-bar menu, or press Ctrl + B) rather than 'Show All Bookmarks,' but that's for you to experiment.
Good luck!
It might be a good idea to create a JSON and an HTML backup so you can undo changes by restoring a backup if you do not like the result or something else goes wrong.
Did you originally imported the IE Favorites via an HTML backup?
A cut and paste (Library or sidebar) is usually safer then dragging bookmarks and folders, especially if more then a few bookmarks are involved.
Thank you Scribe, you've been a real help. I've already begun implementing your suggestions. This will take me a few days but, at least, my Firefox will end up properly configured. Thanks Cor-El for chiming in too.
THANK YOU SO MUCH !