How to Export Chrome Bookmarks (and What to Do Next)

Exporting your Chrome bookmarks takes about fifteen seconds. Most people export because they are moving to a new machine, switching browsers, or finally admitting that a decade of saved links has become unusable. This guide covers the export itself, where Chrome puts the file, what is inside it, and how to get it somewhere useful without carrying every dead link along with it.

Export Chrome bookmarks in four clicks

The steps are identical on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. You need Chrome on a desktop. If you are on a phone, see the mobile section.

1. Open the Bookmark Manager. Press Ctrl + Shift + O on Windows and Linux, or Cmd + Option + B on macOS. Without shortcuts: the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome → Bookmarks and lists → Bookmark manager.
2. Open the manager's own menu. Click the three-dot button at the top right of the bookmark manager page. This is the step everyone misses: it is a second three-dot menu, below Chrome's own, and the export option is not in the other one.
3. Choose Export bookmarks.
4. Pick a location and save. Chrome suggests the filename bookmarks_YYYY_MM_DD.html.

Nothing in Chrome changes when you export. An export is a copy, so you can do it as often as you want.

Where Chrome saved the file

Chrome writes wherever the save dialog pointed, and it pre-fills your Downloads folder:

• Windows: C:\Users\<your name>\Downloads
• macOS: ~/Downloads (Finder → Go → Downloads)
• Linux: ~/Downloads
• ChromeOS: the Downloads folder in the Files app

If you clicked through the dialog without reading it, open Downloads and sort by date. The filename starts with bookmarks_. The file is a one-time snapshot: bookmarks you add tomorrow will not appear in it.

What is actually inside the file

The file is a Netscape bookmark file, a format from 1994 that every browser still reads, and that format decides what will and will not survive the trip. Open it in a text editor and you will see nested <DL> and <DT> tags, one <A> per bookmark, your folders as headings, and an ADD_DATE Unix timestamp on every entry.

What travels, and what does not:

• Kept: every URL, its title, the full folder structure, and the date you saved it.
• Kept, and it bloats the file: a base64-encoded favicon on most links. This is why a few thousand bookmarks can produce a file of several megabytes.
• Lost: tags, notes, and anything you added in an extension rather than in Chrome itself. Chrome has no native concept of them, so there is nowhere in the format to put them.
• Not checked: whether any of those links still work. The export copies what Chrome stored without visiting any of the links.

A bookmark list that has been going for a few years is typically full of dead domains, duplicates from bookmarking the same article twice, and links to services that have shut down entirely.

Open the file and see what you actually have

You can double-click the file and Chrome will render it as a bare list of links. That is readable, but past a few hundred entries you have no structure and no way to search.

Before you import it anywhere, open it in our free Bookmarks HTML Viewer. Drop in the file you just exported and it shows you the folder structure, exact and near-duplicates, links to services that no longer exist, insecure HTTP links, your top domains, and empty folders. From there you can export a cleaned bookmarks.html, CSV or JSON. It runs entirely in your browser, so the file is never uploaded anywhere.

Import the file somewhere else

Every major browser reads the same format, so one export covers all of them.

• Chrome on another computer: Bookmark manager → three-dot menu → Import bookmarks.
• Firefox: Bookmarks → Manage bookmarks → Import and Backup → Import Bookmarks from HTML.
• Microsoft Edge: Settings → Import browser data → Import from file.
• Safari: File → Import From → Bookmarks HTML File.
• A bookmark manager: most accept the same file. Linkflare imports it directly, keeps your folder structure as collections, and reads the ADD_DATE timestamps so your library is not all dated today.

Importing adds; it does not replace. Import the same file twice and you get two copies of everything, usually in a folder named after the import date, which is a common way a bookmark list becomes unmanageable. Check the file before you import it.

Moving to a new computer

If both machines run Chrome and use the same Google account, you do not need a file at all: sign in on the new machine, turn on sync, and the bookmarks arrive on their own and keep updating from then on.

Export to HTML instead when sync will not help: a different browser on the other end, a work account you are about to lose access to, a machine you are handing back, or a genuine backup you want sitting in a folder rather than in someone else's cloud.

Exporting from Chrome on Android or iPhone

You cannot. Chrome's mobile apps have no Bookmark Manager and no export option, and no reputable app can add one, because the data sits inside Chrome's own storage. The way around it is sync: sign in to Chrome on a desktop with the same Google account, wait for your bookmarks to appear, and export from there. If you have no desktop machine at all, sign in to Chrome on any computer you can borrow, export, then sign out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Chrome save the exported bookmarks file?

Wherever you point the save dialog. Chrome pre-fills your Downloads folder and the name bookmarks_YYYY_MM_DD.html. If you clicked straight through, look in Downloads and sort by date.

Can I export Chrome bookmarks on Android or iPhone?

No. The Bookmark Manager is desktop-only. Sync to a computer signed in with the same Google account and export from there.

What is actually inside the exported HTML file?

A Netscape-format bookmark file: nested DL/DT tags, one A tag per bookmark, your folders as headings, an ADD_DATE timestamp on every entry, and usually a base64 favicon per link. Any browser or text editor can open it.

How do I import the file into another browser?

Firefox: Import and Backup → Import Bookmarks from HTML. Edge: Import browser data → Import from file. Safari: File → Import From → Bookmarks HTML File. Chrome: Bookmark manager → three-dot menu → Import bookmarks.

How do I move my bookmarks to another computer?

Same Google account and same browser: turn on Chrome sync and skip the file entirely. Anything else: export, move the file, import.

Does exporting remove or change my bookmarks in Chrome?

No. It writes a copy and leaves Chrome untouched. Exporting before an OS reinstall or a laptop handover is a sensible habit.

Can I export only one bookmark folder?

Not from Chrome: it is all or nothing. Export everything, then open the file in a viewer and filter down to the folder you want before importing it elsewhere.

After the export

The file you just exported is a record of everything you ever meant to come back to. If you would rather it became something you actually use, searchable and deduplicated, readable on every device and with the dead links gone, that is what Linkflare does with it. Drop the same file in and it keeps your folders as collections, preserves the dates, and makes the whole thing searchable by full text rather than by remembering which folder you filed it under.

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