Import Safari Bookmarks

Export from Safari on a Mac. There is no way to do it from an iPhone.

Export from Safari

  1. Open Safari on a Mac.

  2. Choose File → Export → Bookmarks from the menu bar.

  3. Save the file, which Safari names Safari Bookmarks.html.

What survives the move

Read off the importer rather than promised in general. The export is Netscape HTML.

  • Folder tree, at any depth
  • Titles and URLs
  • Reading List, as its own folder
  • Saved dates — Safari frequently omits ADD_DATE entirely
  • Offline Reading List copies, which are stored outside the bookmarks

Clean it before you import it

A migration is the one moment when tidying costs nothing — you are touching every link anyway. Run the file through the bookmark cleaner to collapse the duplicates and find the folders holding nothing, or the converter if you want to look at the whole library in a spreadsheet first. Both run entirely in your browser; the file is never uploaded.

Import into Inspistor

  1. Open Settings → Data Transfer in the dashboard.

  2. Drop the file in. Netscape HTML is detected from the contents, not the file name.

  3. Read the preview before committing. You are told how many links, categories and tags were found before anything is written.

Bring your Safari library across

Folder structure at any depth, tags where the export carries them, and a searchable archived copy of every page taken on the way in.

Open the importer

Frequently asked questions

How do I export bookmarks from Safari?

Open Safari on a Mac. Choose File → Export → Bookmarks from the menu bar. Save the file, which Safari names Safari Bookmarks.html.

What do I lose importing from Safari?

Saved dates — Safari frequently omits ADD_DATE entirely. Offline Reading List copies, which are stored outside the bookmarks. Everything else — folder tree, at any depth, titles and urls, reading list, as its own folder — comes across.

Is there anything to watch out for?

Safari often writes no date on any bookmark. Nothing is lost that you had, but it means date-based sorting will not work on the imported library, and a deduplicating tool cannot tell which copy of a duplicate is the older one — it falls back to the first it encounters. If you are merging Safari with another browser, import the other one first so its dated entries win.