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Compare URLs of files & documents on computer, with URLs in browser history (mostly Firefox, but also Safari)?

Is there an app or other way of comparing the urls of pdfs on my computer that have been saved & printed with urls in the browsing history (mostly Firefox but also Safari), to find out if the browsing history has duplicates of urls of files saved on my computer? I'm looking for a means that doesn't involve the downloads manager or downloads folder.


(I’ve also posted this on the Mozilla / Firefox support site.)


Thank you!

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 28, 2014 8:15 AM

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9 replies

Jan 30, 2014 8:44 AM in response to chattphotos

To clarify my question, I'm essentially looking for an integrated duplicate url finder that can find duplicate urls between my desktop computer hard drive and those in my browsing history (mostly Firefox).


There's a lot of things I'd like downloaded but am not sure if I already did.


I'm familiar with duplicate finders for tangible items on a hard drive, and other duplicate finders for browser bookmarks. Of course, I could just download whatever's in question and then run a hard drive duplicate finder from there, but what I'm looking for would avoid that step.

Jan 30, 2014 12:53 PM in response to Susan Swartz1

I don’t understand either, the problem may start with the term “url finder” (or so).

A downloaded file is a name.extension, like name.mp3 or name.pdf.

A URL (URI) is a pointer to a location, usually in the Net, a site, but not necessarily to a name.pdf.

If it points to a such a filename, you want to strip the pointing part and compare the file name part to (a folder on?) your HD? And you want to ignore all URLs without a filename (specific extension) at the end?

The version of the "pointed files" and your files wouldn't matter?


If yes: I don’t know if there would be such a very special tool ready to use, I doubt …

Jan 30, 2014 2:05 PM in response to Susan Swartz1

There's actually a very simple way of doing this provided you haven't deleted your download history in Firefox (don't know much about Safari, sorry).


Go to Tools > Downloads (or press command-J), enter .pdf in the search field and press enter, then go down the list of downloads and look on the right hand side of the results where you'll either see a magnifying glass icon or a reload (retry) icon.


User uploaded file

User uploaded file


If there's a magnifying glass icon next to an entry in the list, click on it and it will take you to that file's location in Finder. If there's a curvy, arrow icon, it means that you've downloaded this file in the past, but it can't be located on your computer for one reason or another. These are the ones you'll want to redownload.


Can't tell you if this method can keep track of files whose names you've changed after they were downloaded.

Feb 9, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Tuttle

Back to the terminology aspect, rather than specifically 'download,' I often (1) use ‘Print’ from the Firefox File menu and print to pdf, or (2) copy the web page (sometimes all of it and other times just parts) and paste it into a text document that I then save. The web page url is included in these text and pdf files. What I want to do is find duplicates of urls in the browsing history that also exist in my text documents and pdf files.

Feb 9, 2014 5:18 PM in response to Susan Swartz1

The more I think about your issue (and I've thought about it a lot), the more of a fool's errand it appears to be.


Here's why: If you do not have a full and complete browsing history to refer to, there is no way to compare pages you've visited to documents you've saved and/or printed from those pages.


Since version 4, Firefox will only retain browsing history until Firefox decides that the compiled history effects its performance. (This has come up innumerable times in the Mozilla forums.) I never delete my browsing history, have been using FF as my default browser since v2 in 2006, and still only have history from early January, 2011. I have no idea how Safari treats history.


The only thing I can think of is that you copy your entire browsing history, such as it is, from Firefox > Show All History, manually enter all of the URLs into a spreadsheet, then compile all of the URLs from your printed and saved PDF documents and manually enter them into a spreadsheet, and somehow, try to determine what duplicates exist. The list will absolutely be incomplete, but if you are on a mission to find a mythical needle in a mythical haystack, I admire that, and all I can do is wish you the very best of luck.


And I do.

Compare URLs of files & documents on computer, with URLs in browser history (mostly Firefox, but also Safari)?

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