how do I delete my iCloud bookmarks and upload a new bookmark file

see I never heard of the "delete from ipad" thing. Does the ipad need to be plugged into your mac in order to do that? That sounds like something that might work and I definitely did not try. I'll try both these suggestions and let you know although I have already tried the suggestion that you just made Peter. Thank you both for your input. I'll let you know what happens.

That option doesn't appear on a mac. I have the latest software. I had iCloud Safari on and I turned it off and nothing. There is no option to click on anything. Seems very weird that they would have that for a pc and not a mac. Now my old bookmarks are back. So they are in the cloud. But why, once I clear them with Safari Praire Fire on my mac do they not come back, even if my mac is synching to iCloud, AND they are still on my other devices. I'm totally at a loss with all of this. Spent days on bookmarks.

Goombot,

If you follow Jerome's instructions on you Mac you will risk losing all your bookmarks forever. That does not matter for users of multiple macs but since your bookmarks data on your Mac is ok you will first want to save a copy if it.

In my blog post http://macandiostipscom.ipage.com/Mac_and_iOS_Tips/Mac_Tips_%26_Tricks/Entries/2 012/1/22_Tips_on_How_to_Delete_Duplicate_Safari_Bookmarks_from_iCloud.html

the instructions will guide you through how to first create a good bookmarks set (steps 5-10). Those are the only steps that require a software such as Prairiefire. You can skip these steps since the bookmarks are fine and you've only got one Mac.

The following steps make sure you save that data to a safe location and the erase your bookmarks by deleting the bookmarks.plist file. This is much quicker than the steps in Jerome's post above (which also would work though).

Goombot, I see that you remain frustrated why the bookmarks appear ok on your Mac while the duplicates "come back" on your iOS devices. It's presumably from when you turn syncing back on. Note that you are asked to Merge or Cancel. To turn in syncing one must automatically merge the bookmarks in iCloud with those locally stored on the device. Note that this leaves users with both sets of bookmarks. I think that is causing some of your confusion since you probably expect that turning on syncing would make all devices and macs to become identical clones when it comes to bookmarks. Therefore it's important that the bookmarks are cleared locally.

I hate to be repetitive but I re-started this thread because I wanted to know if my blog post has failed for anyone who has followed it exactly. May I ask if you did that (because deleting local bookmarks were part of step 4)?

Good luck

Peter

I've had this problem since the shift from MobileMe to iCloud.

I had around 20.000 duplicates and I tried countless times to follow one tutorial after another with no luck.

To day I decided should be the day I came clean of these duplicates.

I tried the tutorial from Peter Berglund once more a few times without luck.

Searching the web from different ways to do this, I came across a programs called "BookMacster".

I though I'd give it a try.

What I did was keeping iCloud safari sync turned off on all my idevices. (2 iPhones and a iPad mini). But turned on, on my iMac.

On my iMac I ran BookMacster. It's pretty straight forward. Manually select all the duplicates and delete them.

The programs seems to stall on the computer, but just give it some time and it will come around.

After this, I used the Export setting in the program, to kinda export what changes I made to my bookmarks (delete the duplicates).

The I just watched as it synced with the bookmarks in safari.

I gave it like 45 min to make sure everything was synced to iCloud.

Then I turned back iCloud sync on all devices. After a while I checked my iPhone, only to get really frustrated. All the duplicates had synced back on. I checked the bookmarks on my iMac, and they still looked as they should without duplicates.

I the decided to just wait it out. And that payed off.

Right now one my iPhone 5 still has the duplicates, so I imagine that it's just a matter of time before that also syncs.

If this fails tomorrow, I'll check back here. But for now, this seems to have fixed my problem running for almost 2 years now... As you can imagine, I'm a happy camper :)

For the sake of transparency, I want to declare that I am the developer of Safari Prairiefire, an app that is also mentioned in my discussed blog post as one way delete duplicate bookmarks.

I also assume that Kramme is Jerome Krinock who develops another good product, BookMacster, which he also mentions above.

Both apps will scan and remove duplicates from Safari's bookmarks file. The discussion in this thread is how to make those changes upload to iCloud.

Peter

Just to clarify, I'm not Jerome Krinock. I'm a regular user who has bought Peter Berglunds software in one of my many attempts to rid myself of duplicate bookmarks.

Tonight I tried BookMacster to se if that could solve my problem.

It worked, and therefor I found it relevant to share.

I have no idea who the programmer of BookMacster is, I only used the program to see if it could solve my problem.

I'm sure Peters program is just a good, it just didn't solve me problem, thous I needed to try something else.

Last night I decided to give a try to BookMacster (after reading Kramme's post).

So today, after TWO YEARS, I finally got rid of around 16K ghost iCloud entries in my favorites!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing ever worked for me and I've been waiting for this for a long time, Safari 6.1 released yesterday. I held and selected 25,000 bookmarks and deleted them in one shot. A couple of minutes later they were gone on my ipad mini and iphone. First time. Finally fixed.

Kramme Thanks, that is really helpful. I too found BookaMacster having previously been a user of Bookdog. My problem was that I wsn't patient enough to wait. Having gone through most of the steps you outlined. Then, sure enough, suddenly all my iMac bookmarks were there on my iPad without any duplicates. Good stuff chum. :-)

Sorry, but where can I find bookmark synch on iCloud. This function doesn't exist. I have the latestiPad, latest iPhone , qwith all their updates and an iMac 10.8.5.

All the bookmakrs keep coming back. I deleted the list in the library, switched off Safari in iCloud, but there is nothing in iCloud pointing towards bookmarkd. Really need a stepb by step guide for Dummies on that one, please.

Many thanks, Anita

Anita, if you're looking for bookmarks control on http://icloud.com, you are correct that there is none, because Apple has chosen to not provide it. Your bookmarks are in there, but you can't see them.

Regarding the step-by-step procedures for deleting all bookmarks, if you look at the previous pages in this thread, you will see my two posts on June 28, 2013. The first post has a step-by-step procedure for iOS and the second one has a step-by-step procedure for Macs. You need to do these steps on all of your iOS devices and all of your Macs.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "delete the list in library". If you mean that you deleted the file ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist, then that is why your bookmarks keep coming back. Touching that file while iCloud-Safari syncing is on will cause iCloud to become iThunderCloud. Don't touch it.

Thanks Jerome, tried it out. But doesn't work. As soon as I click in Cloud in Safari again, the list re- appears. I need to get rid of the Favourites in iCloud. Also, as I had in the past deleted bookmark.plist, I don't know what this means. what means Thunder Cloud. Am I stuck now with this problem forever. I need to research for a project and want to create new Bookmarks and don't want to have the old ones hanging around. But just before When I deleted them, now some of the useful new ones are gone.

also based on your step by step description, the things you mention don't appear on my screen the same way.

I have an iMac with 10.8.5 a

s mentioned i have deleted all the bookmarks already, but ones I go System Preferences, the to Cloud, the window will have several things ticked on, like Safari too and All the Favourites and Bookmarks are back. Or only a part of it and they are not the right ones. I have some bookmarks here now which I don't want to delete. I need to be able to open iCloud and not having all the stuff re- appear again.

That's why I ask this question. Is there a way to get into the iCloud account and delete the things there?

Many thanks,

Anita

Let's take the simple stuff first. iThunderCloud is a funny name I made up to express what happens when iCloud gets upset and starts uncontrollably raining down bookmarks on you. It's a joke.

Second, on your Mac

• Click in the menu:  > System Preferences.

• Click the iCloud section.

• Switch OFF the checbox for Safari.

• Quit System Preferences.

• Activate Safari.

• Click in the menu: Bookmarks > Edit Show All Bookmarks. A window will open.

• Delete all of the bad, duplicate bookmarks.

• Click in the menu: File > Export bookmarks

• Enter the name and desired location of a temporary file.

Safari will create an html file that will be safe from iCloud.

Before continuing, we need to identify all of the Macs, iOS devices, or Windows PCs you have may ever have been connected to iCloud. Please list those in your next reply.

Hi Jerome,

Thanks for your help. i have an I Mac with 10.8, an iphone 5c and ipad with OS7. they all have been sharing over iCloud and I would like to use it as i need to research online more or less on all 3 devices.

Many thanks,

Anita

OMG, JEROME!!! 🙂🙂🙂IT HAS WORKED!!! 🙂 THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I got rid of all these annoying old bookmarks and now I can create new and import only the few I really need. YOU ARE A GENIUS!!! Apple should pay you!!!

THANKS AGAIN AND BEST WISHES, Anita