Importing Chrome bookmarks

TabOasis imports the HTML file Chrome (and Edge, and Firefox) produces when you export your bookmarks. It reads the file you give it; it never reads your live browser bookmarks.

Getting the file

The dialog lists these steps itself:

1. Open Chrome and go to Bookmarks Manager (Ctrl + Shift + O)
2. Click the three dots menu in the top right
3. Select “Export bookmarks”
4. Save the HTML file and upload it here

Importing it

1. Open the gear → Data Management → Import Chrome Bookmarks.
2. Select File and pick the .html you just saved. TabOasis parses it and tells you how many bookmarks it found, in how many folders.
3. Tick the folders you want. Every folder starts ticked; Select all and Select none are above the list, and each row shows its own count.
4. Choose Import to column: an existing column, or + Create new column, which makes one called Imported Bookmarks.
5. Press Import n Bookmarks.

What survives, and what does not

In the file	What becomes of it
Title	kept as the card title
URL	kept
Original date added	kept as the card’s created date, so Oldest sorting still means something
Folder name	written into the card’s description as Imported from: folder
The folder structure itself	flattened by default; ask the dialog to create folders and each Chrome folder becomes one TabOasis folder in the chosen column

By default everything you selected lands as loose bookmark cards at the root of the one column you chose, and nested folders are flattened, so a folder three levels deep is just another name in the list. Ask the dialog to create folders and you get one TabOasis folder per Chrome folder you ticked instead, still in that one column and still one level deep.

Two smaller consequences of that flattening:

• Two folders with the same name merge. “Work” under Bookmarks Bar and “Work” under Other Bookmarks appear as one row, with their counts added together.
• Bookmarks sitting loose at the top of the file are grouped under Bookmarks Bar; anything in a folder with no name is grouped under Unfiled.

What is skipped

Only http:// and https:// links are imported. Bookmarklets, chrome:// pages, file:// links and separators are dropped silently, and are not included in the count on the button.

Import adds; it does not replace

This import only ever adds cards. It will not remove or overwrite anything already on the board. Running it twice does not give you two copies either: a bookmark whose URL is already on the board is skipped, unless you tick the option to import duplicates anyway. That is the opposite of the JSON Import, which replaces the profile’s contents wholesale.

Large exports take a moment; the button reads Importing… while it works.