Restore book marks and browsing history Safari

Question

Restore book marks and browsing history Safari

I had to do a clean install to upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur (Catalina had put 3 HD partitions on the machine) and Time Machine had an error and would not back up.

I am trying to build up the machine again from manual back ups and old Time Machine backups so couldn't use Migration Assistant. I can't find the bookmarks or the browsing history in the Time Machine files - it seems that Catalina had also split the Library file and I copied the one without these.

Searches don't work. I've unhidden the files and can't find them. Where exactly are they in Catalina? I don't use the iCloud. Any ideas anyone?

MacBook

Posted on Feb 6, 2021 8:32 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 6, 2021 11:36 AM in response to steve626

Thanks for taking the time to answer but I have a couple of problems with this.

there is no option to show the library as on yours
Using Time Machine the restore option is greyed out for the user file

It's possible the reason I could not back up using Time Machine is because there is corruption and the information simply isn't there.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

208,373 points

Feb 6, 2021 10:46 AM in response to lizfromtadley

By default the library is invisible. While in your User folder go to the View ➙ Show View Options menu.

Then in the View Options make sure this checkbox is checked:

To restore the bookmarks you need to enter Time Machine, go back in time to a date just prior to this problem and go to the /User/username/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist file. select to and restore it.

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Answer 3

Feb 6, 2021 8:59 AM in response to lizfromtadley

Safari keeps bookmarks and Reading list data in the /User/username/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist file. Safari browsing history is stored within Sqlite3 databases named History.*, also in the same location.

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Answer 4

Feb 6, 2021 10:19 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks but there is no Library file in the username folder. I've tried to unhide them just in case but nothing. All I have is

Desktop

Documents

Movies

Music

Pictures

Public

I tried searching for .plist in that folder and it returned nothing

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Answer 5

Feb 6, 2021 1:21 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for your help. Just for your information I managed it by using Go to on the computer and search for bookmarks.plist in the back up. I copied it from the backup, pasted it in the computer Safari folder and it asked If I wanted to replace and I said yes. It seems to have worked.

I do appreciate you taking the time to answer me and am impressed with your knowledge.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

208,373 points

Feb 6, 2021 1:32 PM in response to lizfromtadley

I make it a point to go in about every other week and make a fresh copy of the bookmark.plist file.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

208,373 points

Feb 6, 2021 11:44 AM in response to lizfromtadley

You have to be in your Home folder which will look like this:

only with your user name on the Home folder.

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Answer 8

steve626

Level 6

10,355 points

Feb 6, 2021 10:52 AM in response to lizfromtadley

You can download Find Any File and it can search for hidden files. It can find files that Spotlight does not find because Spotlight only searches in certain places.

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Answer 9

Feb 6, 2021 11:47 AM in response to Old Toad

But I'm trying to find the file in the back up - the new one, created yesterday after the clean install will be empty.

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Restore book marks and browsing history Safari

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