Exporting and importing Chrome bookmarks
About this article
This article provides instructions for exporting and importing your Google Chrome bookmarks. It is intended for WSU students and employees in the eWarrior Digital Life and Learning Program who are scheduled to exchange their laptops in summer 2014. The names of the folders and the volume name of drive used in the instructions correspond to those used on the laptops involved in the exchange. However, the same basic steps still apply to personally-owned computers.
Why export your Chrome bookmarks?
Chrome allows you to bookmark any website you visit, saving that site's unique address or URL to a personalized list. Later, instead of searching for the site or entering its address manually, you can simply select it from your bookmark list. You can manage your bookmark list by renaming links, organizing them into folders, and deleting them. Building a list of bookmarks is a great way to create a personal learning environment, customized to meet your needs. By default, Chrome saves your bookmark list locally on your device's hard drive. If something happens to your hard drive or you move to a new device, you don't want to have to build your bookmark list again from scratch. You need to know how to export your list, back it up, and import it to another device.
Using Chrome with a Google Account
If you have a Google account and sign in when using Chrome, anything you bookmark will be saved in the cloud. When you receive a new or re-imaged laptop, you can install Chrome, login to your Google Account, and all of your old bookmarks will be there. You do not need to export and import your bookmarks manually.
Exporting
- Open Chrome
- In the top right, click the Customize and Control Menu (Fig. 1) vertical ellipsis in red and blue boxes.
- Select Bookmarks and then choose the Bookmark Manager
- Choose the second vertical ellipsis (just below the Control Menu vertical ellipsis)
- Click the "Organize" option from the menu.
- Select Export bookmarks
Chrome will export your bookmarks as an HTML file, which you can then import into another browser or your Chrome browser on a new device. You will need to copy this file to your backup location when you switch devices.
Importing
- Open Chrome
- In the top right, click the Customize and Control Menu (Fig. 1, first vertical ellipsis)
- Select Bookmark and choose the Bookmark Manager option (second vertical ellipsis just below Control Menu)
- In the manager, click the "Organize" menu.
- Select Import bookmarks