Bookmark syncing

[french frank]

What does anyone use for syncing their bookmarks? LastPass/Xmarks support is being discontinued on May 1st. I think the existing bookmarks remain, but no more syncing thereafter.

[Dave2002]

What does anyone use for syncing their bookmarks? LastPass/Xmarks support is being discontinued on May 1st. I think the existing bookmarks remain, but no more syncing thereafter.

I don't. Should I?

I found out a bit about xmarks -

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xmarks-bookmark-sync/ajpgkpeckebdhofmmjfgcjjiiejpodla?hl=en

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/xmarks-sync/

and seemingly some people might prefer to keep clips - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...fbikjilc?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-keep-chrome-extens/lpcaedmchfhocbbapmcbpinfpgnhiddi?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-google-drive/gmbmikajjgmnabiglmofipeabaddhgne?hl=en

[french frank]

I don't. Should I?

Not if you haven't discovered a need I found it a nuisance to have one set of bookmarks on one machine and different ones on the other.

Thanks for the links. Xmarks - I seem to remember it was called Foxmarks at one time (Mozilla?) - was taken over by LastPass. It isn't even bug-free but I'm used to it.

[Dave2002]

I agree that it could be a nuisance to have different sets of bookmarks, though I didn't use to worry about that too much. I vaguely recall that I had a whole bunch of bookmarks of web sites which were useful, but then for some technical reason they all got lost. Some of them I never found again.

I think it's possible (indeed fairly easy) to create a web page which has all your bookmarks in, and then all that's required is to copy that to each machine - though some might not like that way. Otherwise there might be problems with converting the bookmarks for each different browser. I use multiple browsers and multiple machines, but I gave up worrying about this sort of thing a while back. Perhaps I should revisit it?

If there are sites you really want to know about you could put them into a database, or in a spreadsheet, and then use that to create web pages at will. For example you could categorise the bookmarks, and then filter out the ones you want to use for each application. Really depends on whether you have a few, hundreds or thousands or more whether it's worth the effort.

[french frank]

Well, I'm the only person I know who keeps my bookmarks sidebar open in my browser all the time. I find the Most Visited (10) very useful; and others are filed in relevant folders so are quickly located.

[Anastasius]

If you use iCloud then doesn't Safari keep a common view of bookmarks across machines ?

And if you create an account on Firefox then it also syncs bookmarks across machines.

[french frank]

If you use iCloud then doesn't Safari keep a common view of bookmarks across machines ?

Probably, but I don't use iCloud but prefer BT Cloud, not for storage but as a transit station to transfer files between iMac and MacBook (only I know why that's more convenient )

And if you create an account on Firefox then it also syncs bookmarks across machines.

That, certainly - and I do use Firefox more often than Safari. Thanks for reminding me that I must hurry up and open the account.

[Dave2002]

That, certainly - and I do use Firefox more often than Safari. Thanks for reminding me that I must hurry up and open the account.

I thought I'd read recently that there was an upcoming deadline for ... er ... was it Firefox sync? Maybe April 13th.

Not sure that I'm bothered anyway, as I'm not too desperately keen or concerned to have bookmarks used that way.

[french frank]

I thought I'd read recently that there was an upcoming deadline for ... er ... was it Firefox sync? Maybe April 13th.

No, it looks as if from Firefox 60 (early May 2018) users will be able to 'disable the feature': but "While some users hate the feature, there are also many who find it incredibly useful, and Mozilla has no intention of removing the feature anytime soon from the main Firefox distribution".

Different strokes for different folks. Video/audio editing and downloads hardly feature in my computer usage. I write files and I research information: bookmarks, systematically filed, are important to me.

[french frank]

Snag. In trying to set up a Firefox account I have to give them a smartphone number, but I don't have a smartphone (I tried my old mobile number but they said it's not a valid number). They say they need a 'second device to complete the set-up' but my second device is the MacBook, not a smartphone.

More work needed.

As you were, they have verified my account but I need to sign in from the MacBook to sync that. Easy really

[Dave2002]

Different strokes for different folks. Video/audio editing and downloads hardly feature in my computer usage. I write files and I research information: bookmarks, systematically filed, are important to me.

I use hundreds of external links, but there are so many that I have largely decided not to bother with syncing and managing etc. Plus once I did have them all "managed", but then the external site got wiped out, so I lost all the carefully collected and sorted links. I have other ways. Brain plus notepads also feature.