Transferring Safari Favorites between Macs doesn't work the same old way

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Transferring Safari Favorites between Macs doesn't work the same old way

I'm trying to get a new Mac mini M1 set up to at least resemble my previous Macs, but the accepted ways of moving bookmarks, for one example, won't work for me. I have a 2014 MBAir running Big Sur to draw from, and I've tried using the "sneaker net" approach, which is: copy the Safari prefs from the MBA onto a flash drive, then plug the flash drive into the M1 and drag the prefs into its Preferences folder. It seems as if it should work, but it doesn't. Even after restarting, I'm still stuck with the same old Apple Favourites: iCloud, Yahoo, Bing, LinkedIn, Yelp-most of which I don't use. What am I doing-or not doing-wrong? I'd rather not go through the process of picking and reconstructing my entire list of bookmarks.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Mar 23, 2022 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Erica_S1

Community Specialist

Mar 24, 2022 10:27 AM in response to Birck Cox

Hi there Birck Cox,

You can use iCloud to keep your Safari bookmarks up to date between your MacBook Air and new Mac mini.

The details below have more information:

Note: Safari uses iCloud to keep your bookmarks the same on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac computers that have Safari turned on in iCloud preferences. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then make sure Safari is turned on. With iCloud, your bookmarks and Reading List are archived automatically, and you can restore them from an earlier version at any time.

This can be found in Bookmark webpages that you want to revisit in Safari on Mac.

If you encounter an issue, this page can help: If your iCloud or Safari bookmarks aren’t syncing

We hope this helps.

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Answer 2

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

196 points

Mar 24, 2022 3:39 PM in response to Erica_S1

Thanks for that. I managed to solve my immediate problem using a thumb drive, AFTER I figured out that Safari has its own set of prefs in the ~/Library, and one of them is called, fittingly enough, "Bookmarks". But I need to learn to use iCloud, and your suggestion that I learn how to sync all my bookmarks via iCloud is a good place to start. I seem to recall that, in years past, like the 1990's, syncing the bookmarks between Macs would take care of itself. No futzing around required of the user. Ah, such were the joys!

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Transferring Safari Favorites between Macs doesn't work the same old way

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