Microsoft Edge is gaining traction among many users and is currently the second most popular desktop browser after Google Chrome. If you’re increasingly using Microsoft Edge at work or have just switched over from Google Chrome, Firefox, or other browsers, you will want to import all your previous bookmarks (which Microsoft has decided to rename “Favorites” for its Edge browser).
Also, if you’ve decided to discontinue Edge or are switching to a new device, then you will need to export your bookmarks. In this article we’ll show you how to do both — import and export bookmarks in Microsoft Edge.
Also read: How to Open a Magnet Link in Any Browser
Exporting Bookmarks in Microsoft Edge
Open a new Edge browser window and click the three-dot icon at the top right. From a drop-down list of options, you can click the “Favorites” menu followed by the “Manage Favorites” button, which will launch a new page. You can also launch it by typing the following address edge://favorites on the Edge omnibox.
With the Favorites bar page open, click the three-dot menu to select the “Export favorites” option. This will help you save the bookmarks as an HTML file. You will have to enter a name and a storage location for the bookmark file and click on “Save” to store it. This file is easily transferred online.
Also read: 5 Free Ad Blockers That Perform Well on Microsoft Edge
Importing Bookmarks in Microsoft Edge
On an opened Edge browser window, the Edge bookmarks import option can be directly accessed from the three-dot icon followed by the “Favorites” menu. You can also launch it from the Favorites bar page which has been shown to export the bookmarks.
A new pop-up menu will open displaying all the import items including favorites or bookmarks. If you don’t want other items such as cookies, payment info, or search engines, disable them from the import action.
From the “Import from” drop-down menu, choose the last option: “favorites or bookmarks HTML file,” which you had previously exported. This is an easy procedure to help you export your Edge bookmarks from one device to another. You can also import data from Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, although it’s better to import an HTML file for those as well (see next section).
You can see another pop-up window where you have to confirm the selection of importing favorites or bookmarks HTML file.
If you have saved the exported HTML file to a PC location, it’s time to open the file to successfully import the bookmarks.
You will notice a final status message showing, “All done! we’ve brought your data over.”
Importing Google Chrome/Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks into Edge Browser
If you have recently switched to Microsoft Edge from other browsers, you can import the bookmarks from the drop-down menu shown in the above section. If you’re changing devices, it is faster to import the bookmarks HTML file. For creating such an HTML file in Google Chrome, first visit its Bookmark Manager from the “Bookmarks” menu.
You can also visit this page by entering chrome://bookmarks in the Google Chrome Omnibox. From the three-dot menu on the top right, select “Export bookmarks” to proceed. All the Chrome bookmarks will be saved in an HTML format in a PC location of your choice. It can be easily transferred online.
On the Firefox browser, the bookmarks page can be accessed from the “View history, saved bookmarks, and more” option on the top right.
From there, you can go to a “Show all bookmarks” menu which can also be launched using Ctrl + Shift + B to display the Firefox library. Go to “Import and Backup” to access the option “Export Bookmarks to HTML.” This would save the Firefox bookmarks, which can be easily imported into Edge using the methods shown in the previous section.
Sync Your Microsoft Edge Data Across All Your Devices
Just like Google Chrome, the fastest way to transfer data between multiple devices is to use the Sync feature which can be accessed from the Edge “Settings” menu. Go to “Profiles” to sign in to your Microsoft account.
You will see a pop-up menu suggesting the syncing of your profile. Click Sync to proceed. On any Windows device, you don’t even need to log in, as this process occurs in the background.
You will be able to see whether sync is on in the Your Profile window.
You can turn off the sync option anytime you want by signing out for increased privacy.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the location of Edge bookmarks on my PC?
If you want to manually locate and manage your Edge Favorites in Windows 10, it’s a little more complicated than it was in the days of Internet Explorer. It’s no longer (easily) accessible from the File Explorer, but you can find the Favorites file at: “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default”
You can open this file in Notepad or a text editor and edit the bookmarks that way, but it’s not as simple as it used to be sadly.
2. How can I manually back up Edge Favorites?
If you’re the type of person who likes to manually back up their favorites, then you can do so with Edge. Navigate to the User Data folder at “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge” then copy-paste the User Data folder to a location of your choice.
3. My Edge favorites are missing
If your Favorites in Edge go missing for some reason, and you can’t find them when syncing across devices or importing from another browser, then you should make a backup of the User Data folder as per our list tip, delete Edge, reinstall it, then copy-paste the User Data folder back into “C:\Users\ %username% \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge”.
Also read: How to Import/Export Passwords Using Microsoft Edge
Other than Microsoft Edge, we can also show you how to import and export bookmarks in Google Chrome, and also have a handy guide on blocking websites across all the major browser.
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