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

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,072 points

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 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,136 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 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 4

steve626

Level 6

13,635 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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