Two iMacs. One (2017 - Big Sur) has the Safari bookmarks I want - the other (an OLD iMac - 2011, but still good - High Sierra and not updatable to Big Sur) has a bunch of outdated ones.
I don't want to merge them, so I am worried about using iCloud.
Can I copy from the new to the old and overwrite them to end up with the same? How, precisely?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 11.2
Nicfarrow,
If you're not using iCloud on either Mac to sync your bookmarks, then changing them on one device should not affect the other devices. On both Macs go to the Apple Menu ( ) > System Preferences > Apple ID. Are you signed in? When you select iCloud from the side bar, does Safari have a check mark next to it? If so, then iCloud is being use to sync your bookmarks and that's why the changes were reflected on both devices.
As far as restoring the new bookmarks, do you have a time machine backup of your new Mac? If so, they you may be able to restore with time machine. Check out Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac.
Take Care!
Hi Nicfarrow,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. We can definitely understand only wanting to sync over bookmarks that you use in Safari. Do you need to have the outdated ones on the old Mac? If not, you can delete them. Once they are deleted you can use iCloud and sync your bookmarks without them syncing across all of your devices.
Delete a bookmark in Safari on Mac
Hope that helps!
With iCloud temporarily turned off on High Sierra and Big Sur, and Safari quit, change directory into the /Users/yourname/Library/Safari folder, and then launch Time Machine from the /Applications folder. Go back in the timeline prior to your whacking the Bookmarks.plist file on both Macs, select that file, and click Restore. Do this on both Macs to undo the current mess.
Now, on the High Sierra Mac, rename Bookmarks.plist to Bookmarks.plist.old, and manually drop the Big Sur Bookmarks.plist that you put on a USB stick into that High Sierra Safari folder. Then you should be able to select Safari in the iCloud preferences on both Macs to keep the respective Bookmarks.plist synchronized via iCloud.
Eric,
Finally had time to try that. Sorry to say, it is now a total disaster. All Safari Bookmarks are virtually unrecognizable on both devices. There are only about two remaining folders and then a slew of mixed bookmarks in the side bar. Favorites are virtually decimated. Having deleted the bookmarks on the old iMac, I expected the new one to be unchanged and the old one to reflect the new one. They are the same - just totally screwed up and with maybe 80 or 90% missing, or so it appears.
Now, on the old one, I exported the Safari bookmarks onto my desktop in case of problems, but I did not do the same on the new one, thinking that that one would just set things straight.
I need to fix this NOW. Is there a Safari bookmarks P-list or something I can access in this new one to restore things for now?
Right now, I will try to reimport the folder I have on the old iMac desktop to get the old one back in shape, but I really need all the bookmarks and, for example, updated passwords of this one. (Come to think of it, this one remembered THIS password.)
(One reason I have not been synching Safari on iCloud is because of strange experiences ten years back.)
Many thanks, VikingOSX! I did have the Time Machine backup on the newer machine. This has cleared up the main problem and saved by butt, big time! I was also able to take the same plist to my MacBookAir and that is now the same. Now the plunge into synching with iCloud. Easily done, but a bit worrying for me. I will be sure to keep that plist in the USB flash in case.
But there is one more problem I noticed afterwards. My iPhone 7 (14.4.2) was connected to iCloud and went haywire, too. Just a few of my 4G provider's bookmarks remaining. I unsynched it from iCloud when things went weird. Should I just reconnect it to iCloud once the others are all synched?
Once your two Macs are in synchronized with the Bookmarks.plist, only connect the Big Sur Mac to iCloud and see if it will synchronize your Big Sur bookmarks to the iPhone updating the bookmarks on the iPhone. That way, worst case scenario, you are not risking all three devices if the synchronization goes to ****. It shouldn't, but just in case…
Sorry for EXTREMELY slow response - I am teaching uni classes online, which is full of pitfalls for a non-techie at home when things go wrong. Thanks for this advice. Hooooowever, it did not work and both the iPhone and iMac went berserk once again, with bookmarks in one long jumbled list on the iMac and the Favorites unrecognizable. However, due to your plan, not all was lost and I was able to use said plist to restore sanity to the essential iMac.
I am sort of rebuilding the most important bookmarks to my iPhone as needed. Not such a big loss, since I only access a few on the iPhone.
I am afraid I have never had luck with iCloud (You would not belieeeeve!) and learned to avoid it.
Being up to my neck in work (better than having none) I will be relatively content to leave things as they are for now, the disaster being no longer an issue.
sharing Safari bookmarks
