Bookmarks not deleting in Safari

Question

Level 1

8 points

Bookmarks not deleting in Safari

When I delete bookmarks in safari and close the application, then reopen it. The bookmarks are all still there.

Yes, I've turned off iCloud safari.
Yes, I've restarted the computer.

Yes, I've turned off all other devices iCloud safari.
Yes, I followed the instruction on the Apple Bookmarks iCloud instruction/troubleshooting page.

It seems to have started back in October when I purchased a new MacBook and restored it using my carbonite account.

Is there anyway to start from scratch in Safari? At this point, I don't care if they all get deleted. I'm not using over half of them anyway.

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, 2 TBT3)

Posted on Jul 11, 2018 4:58 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

685,583 points

Jul 11, 2018 5:26 PM in response to chelee

Might be a corrupt .plist.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit the application.

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. Then go to Safari/Bookmarks.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,583 points

Jul 12, 2018 2:16 PM in response to chelee

Quit Safari. 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/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db and move it to the trash. Reopen Safari and see if that helped.

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Answer 3

chelee Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2018 8:05 PM in response to Eric Root

OK
So, when I moved it to the desktop and opened safari, there were no bookmarks only favorites. I proceeded to create a few, closed safari, reopened it, and they were gone again....zero bookmarks.

I moved the plist back to the safari folder, restarted, and now the original bookmarks are back.

Any other ideas?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,583 points

Jul 12, 2018 8:32 AM in response to chelee

After you moved the .plist to the Desktop, did you restart the computer before reopening Safari? You need to do that to regenerate a new .plist.

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Answer 5

chelee Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 12, 2018 1:24 PM in response to Eric Root

Yes, I restarted it. There was not a new .plist in ~library.safari after I restarted it.

Also, I moved the .plist to the desktop while safari was closed, then I restarted it. Opened safari, no bookmarks at all. Created several new book marks. Closed safari, reopened safari, new bookmarks I had just created were gone.

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