Restore Bookmarks Menu

Question

Restore Bookmarks Menu

Does anyone know how I can restore the special Safari Bookmarks Menu that I accidentally deleted?

Posted on Apr 29, 2017 7:33 PM

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Answer 1

May 2, 2017 5:15 AM in response to Drew Reece

I am using iCloud to synch everything. Trouble started when I was suddenly getting older bookmarks on my MacBook. I run Windows in a VM on my iMac, which I had been working on just prior to the mess. iCloud synch was also set up on Windows, and that is where the "pollution" came from.

Problem is, I never thought to disable iCloud synch on the VM before I cleared out favourites in Windows. The Bookmarks Menu on the Mac side, was damaged by removing that same named folder of Favourites in Windows.

I really don't want to tackle moving a boatload of stuff into a new user at this point. And I do know that would cure this weird little glitch, but I hope it can be fixed in another way. I may try using iCloud.com/Settings/Restore to see if an older archive will fix this mess.

Weirdly, the Bookmarks Menu folder shows up when you hover over the left end of the URL bar, then click and hold that little icon (circle with + inside). So it is gone in most places but not that 1 spot. See screen cap.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Apr 29, 2017 8:17 PM in response to John Paterson1

Do you have a backup you can restore the Bookmarks.plist from?

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist. Enter the backup and restore.

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Answer 3

Apr 29, 2017 8:33 PM in response to Eric Root

That was the first thing I tried, restoring that file from Time Machine. It does not restore the specialized folder unfortunately. I should have mentioned that in my description. Nothing but a generic folder that does not have the same functionality that shows in the drop-down menu.

If I login on another user and open Safari, the special bookmarks menu folder is there. So some other file within the Safari folder must contain the functionality. If all else fails, I could try restoring the whole Safari folder from Time Machine. Thanks for your input

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

May 1, 2017 6:05 PM in response to John Paterson1

Did you quit Safari before you restored it?

Safari can overwrite the preferences if the app is running.

Also did you go back in the Time Machine history to find a version old enough to contain your data? The last version may be too recent to contain the bookmarks. Use the file size as an indicator. If you restore the bookmarks file & it is only a few kb it may be empty but if it is a few hundred kb or so it probably has your bookmark data.

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Answer 5

May 1, 2017 7:11 PM in response to Drew Reece

Yes...quit Safari b4 removing the Safari folder and the preferences files. I had discovered the "broken" Bookmarks Menu immediately and restored the previous version from Time Machine backup of a few days earlier

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Answer 6

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

May 1, 2017 7:58 PM in response to John Paterson1

I guess you have tried going back further in the history?

Safari can also sync bookmarks with iCloud (enabled in System Preferences > iCloud). I would contemplate disabling that to see if a sync is overwriting the content (assuming it is enabled).

Also restore to a different location & inspect the bookmarks file in a text editor. It may look like gibberish but apps like TextMate or BBEdit should manage to parse it correctly.

Keep trying until you have content in the file that looks appropriate.

Beyond that I would copy older bookmark files to /Users/Shared & then create a new user account. Try restoring those files to that new user incase Safari is just trying to ruin your day in your own account 🙂.

You can export via the file menu assuming you can retrieve them.

Sorry, I can't really understand what is happening here.

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Answer 7

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

May 2, 2017 10:35 AM in response to John Paterson1

I wasn't suggesting you move everything to a new user account.

To be clear I was suggesting you move the Bookmarks over & see if Safari bookmarks work when the user is not using iCloud. If that works use the File menu to export them. Then reimport to the other account.

John Paterson1 wrote:

Weirdly, the Bookmarks Menu folder shows up when you hover over the left end of the URL bar, then click and hold that little icon (circle with + inside). So it is gone in most places but not that 1 spot. See screen cap.

Um, do you actually have bookmarks saved into your 'bookmarks menu'? That is just a folder of bookmarks that happens to appear in the actual Bookmarks menu.

Bookmarks > Edit bookmarks will show all folders including the one for the bookmarks menu.

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