Safari - hundreds of duplicate bookmarks

Question

Level 1

79 points

Safari - hundreds of duplicate bookmarks

This seems like an old issue, but it only started happening to me with Safari 7.0 and Mavericks.

All of a sudden, I have hundreds, possibly thousands of duplicate bookmarks.

What is worse, the new window layout of Safari makes it impossible to delete. The "old" version showed bookmarks in a regular window. Individual items or groups of items could be selected.

Now, bookmarks are only shown in a sidebar. Only one can be selected at a time. While manually deleting hundreds or thousands or entries one by one seems tedious enough, it also isn't practical. When the bookmark sidebar is open, Safari all but freezes. Everything slows to a crawl, probably because there are so many bookmarks.

I saw some pre-Mavericks advice on resetting bookmarks, but that is a problem for me. I have many folders of bookmarks that I cannot lose.

Is there any way to

1. Clean up the bookmarks without losing them all (where is the bookmark file and can it be opened/edited in another application).

2. Stop this from happening again?

Thanks in advance.

Posted on Oct 30, 2013 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

64,588 points

Sep 21, 2017 2:41 AM in response to alecf9

The data limit should be checked Limits for iCloud Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Bookmarks - Apple Support

And enter in user library macOS Sierra: Library folder

Search Safari folder inside it drag and drop sub folder Bookmarks.plist to the desktop , restart the machine see if it helps .This folder is in Mac OS Sierra , but if OP is using an old version there would be plist related for bookmarks .

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Answer 2

Apr 17, 2017 8:19 PM in response to Joe M21

Oh my god. You guys are gonna love me. I found the solution and it's so simple it hurts.

1) Hit COMMAND-OPTION-B. Don't ask me why. You will now have a nice big window displaying your bookmarks (this is different from what you get when you "Show Bookmarks" from the dropdown menu).

2) CLICK ON THE FIRST BOOKMARK you want to get rid of. Thankfully, this does not open the bookmarked page. In fact, it does nothing. What a good feeling!

3) Now do exactly what you would expect you'd have to do: HOLD DOWN the SHIFT KEY and CLICK ON THE LAST BOOKMARK you want to delete.

DO NOT right click to delete. Go ahead and try it, because you'll want to, but it will just negate everything you've done up to this point. Again, don't ask me why.

Now, since you probably tried right clicking (if not, I admire both your trust in me and your self-control), go through Steps 1-3 again.

4) NOW, go up to the EDIT pulldown menu and hit CUT.

Wait a second. Be patient. Have faith. And... Voila! They're gone.

Enjoy the feeling of success, because these moments are rare and fleeting. You're welcome. Now, let's go solve world hunger!

Your pal,

Mark

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Answer 3

alecf9

Level 1

8 points

Sep 21, 2017 1:05 AM in response to smartymanav

hi, soz still not seen a solution which works. Tried disabling and deleting all bookmarks etc on mobile and desktop, but as soon as turn back on in icloud i get multiple bookmarks, plus ones deleted before.

i assume its the data stored in the 'cloud' which is at fault and nothing we do can alter it.

anyone got Apple to resolve their issues ?

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Answer 4

alecf9

Level 1

8 points

Sep 21, 2017 2:32 AM in response to alecf9

I take it back, so far it does seem to be behaving better after moving all unwanted items to a New Folder, on win10., and deleting. None have reappeared and even see same items now in Safari, IE11 and Chrome. Think will just avoid confusion of Edge until icloud supports it, ta.

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Answer 5

tygb

Level 9

64,588 points

Sep 21, 2017 1:12 AM in response to Joe M21

See this thread Safari bookmarks questions

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Answer 6

Oct 30, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Joe M21

In the Bookmarks side bar, hold down the Shift key while selecting multiple bookmarks the click Delete on your keyboard.

Do you have iCloud enabled?

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Answer 7

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Oct 30, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks for the shift-key tip. I tried that, but the way it works is not typical so I didn't realize how to use it. The first click brings you go the link. The second click (with shift) then highlignts everything from the selected link up (all the way to the top of the sidebar). After that you can shifft-click to fine tune your selection. Looks to me like something is broke - I would be surprised if it was meant to work that way.

Hitting delete is another problem. I tried to delete several bookmarks at once and Safari seemed to hang. After about 10-15 minutes of a frozen app, I force-quit.

I tried one and two bookmarks at a time. It takes about one minute per bookmark before it is deleted and the program becomes responsive again. There has to be a better way - at this rate it would literally take days to clear out the duplicates.

Yes, I do have iCloud enabled, as I have since iCloud began. Checking there, this mess has propogated to my iPad and iPhone.

I assume from your question that iCloud has something to do with the duplications? I see that was an issue for some with older versions. I have since turned off iCloud sync for Safari.

Is there any way to easily modify the bookmark file with a text editing program (Text Wrangler, etc.)? If I can fix the desktop bookmark file manually, how can I sync to the iOS devices without bring back all their duplicates or just having the cycle start all over again?

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Oct 30, 2013 8:13 PM in response to Joe M21

iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Bookmarks

How to Fix Duplicate Bookmarks in iCloud

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Answer 9

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Oct 30, 2013 9:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

LInc,

I read the "Troubleshooting" link prior to posting here. Frankly, it doesn't offer much help. It certainly gives no direction on what causes the problem or how to prevent it from happening again.

The "how to fix" link seems useful. However, it is based around using the "Prariefire" program to eliminate the duplicates. I have no idea if this software will work on Safari 7 and Mavericks.

What I did stumble across is the "Export Bookmarks" itme in the File menu. This allowed me to export bookmarks to the desktop. I was able to open that file with Text Wrangler.

My situation affected several bookmark folders, where one link was duplicated several hundred to several thousand times. Using the text editor I was quickly able to delete these references. The file was easily loaded back into Safari.

I also found that I could quickly delete the affected bookmark folders in Safari. If I tried to delete items in a folder, Safari would hang. Deleting the closed folder was immediate.

Now I have my "fixed" bookmark file loaded back. I am working on getting everything re-synced.

Changes in Mavericks make some of the previous instructions obsolete. It took some doing, but I think everything is in sync now.

Of course, I still have no idea how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again.

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Answer 10

Jan 8, 2014 4:49 PM in response to Joe M21

Just discovered the Bookmarks Side Bar. To get rid of it, go to VIEW and click on HIDE SIDE BAR.

Wish I could help with your duplicates because I have the same problem.

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Answer 11

JG!

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2014 1:01 PM in response to Joe M21

As per usual, Apple offers no solution to this very annoying issue. I found a "how to" on an outside forum that shows a simple 24 step process to delete them from icloud. it's icloud apparently and now i know why my icloud is always full. it fills up with this until you run out of storage then you buy more storage from Apple and so on and so on... Pretty desperate of apple, don'tchathink?

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Answer 12

Apr 29, 2014 2:52 PM in response to JG!

This fixed my problem! The website with the steps is: http://macandiostipscom.ipage.com/Mac_and_iOS_Tips/Mac_Tips_%26_Tricks/Entries/2 013/11/13_Tips_on_How_to_Delete_Duplicate_Safari_Bookmarks_from_iCloud_in_Mac_OS _X_Mavericks.html

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Answer 13

Apr 29, 2014 2:55 PM in response to Joe M21

Take a look at this website; great fix. It worked perfectly for me. I didn't find it myself; some kind soul on these boards led me and boy and I grately as the problem has plagued me since 2008.

http://macandiostipscom.ipage.com/Mac_and_iOS_Tips/Mac_Tips_%26_Tricks/Entries/2 013/11/13_Tips_on_How_to_Delete_Duplicate_Safari_Bookmarks_from_iCloud_in_Mac_OS _X_Mavericks.html

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Answer 14

ezppl

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2014 3:13 AM in response to Joe M21

This is all nonsense. Safari Prairiefire is essentially extortionware. It partially scan your bookmarks, identifies duplicates and broken links, then does nothing other than make a demand for payment for $6.99. Avoid this crap.

Kind regards, Paul.

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Answer 15

MrElvey

Level 1

56 points

Feb 2, 2015 5:43 PM in response to ezppl

I solved the problem for free with xmarks.

https://helpdesk.xmarks.com/?s=duplicate

(Or did it only work because I bought xmarks many years ago in a bundle with lastpass?)

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