XP>MacBook: Firefox bookmark's order disarranged

March 26, 2007 6:27 PM

I just bought a MacBook Pro after my dead Toshiba. Interesting. Different. I installed Firefox and moved my bookmarks from my XP computer. But now they're all screwed up on the Mac! They had been ordered alphabetically with the folders full of links on top, but now the folders are on the bottom (having ordered them alphabetically on the Mac). XP keeps folders together and Mac doesn't, it seems (this seems also to be the case in the "Finder"). Let me know if I'm missing something.... Please float my folders....
posted by rumbles to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Tried the "File>Export Bookmarks" (with the reverse Import) commands? I get the feeling that you didn't "move" the bookmarks as Firefox intended, so you should try that first if you haven't.

Otherwise, Google Browser Sync will keep everything the same between the two computers. You can just uninstall after syncing once, if you prefer.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:42 PM on March 26, 2007

Yep, I exported the bookmarks and imported the exported file into Firefox on the Mac, so as far as I can tell they were moved appropriately....
posted by rumbles at 6:45 PM on March 26, 2007

Did you try going to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks and click the column heading there to sort? Or control-click -> Sort by Name?
posted by jbiz at 6:55 PM on March 26, 2007

Clicking in Organize Bookmarks WILL NOT sort your bookmarks in the bookmarks menu.

However, there are a bunch of extensions out there that will (look in the add-ons site, I can't recommend any personally).
posted by anaelith at 7:22 PM on March 26, 2007

Foxmarks is another top-notch way to keep your bookmarks sync'd.
posted by chairface at 9:00 PM on March 26, 2007

I second Foxmarks. It works amazingly well. I sync bookmarks between four machines with three operating systems between them and they are all identical now.
posted by smallerdemon at 9:20 PM on March 26, 2007

Thanks for the responses so far. However, it's not the syncing of bookmarks, but what seems to be the odd habit of the MacBook to mix up folders and files-not-in-folders. In windows, folders often float to the top (alphabetically at least).
posted by rumbles at 11:25 PM on March 26, 2007

Folders are indeed sorted differently on the two systems. When you sort by name in the Mac Finder, for example, folders are listed in alphabetical order like everything else. (You can float them to the top by sorting by "kind" instead.)

I think there's a workaround for Firefox. In the Bookmarks Manager, set the View to "Unsorted." Then select in the left column the folder you want to sort, so you see its contents listed to the right. Right-click on any item in the right and select Sort By Name. This should sort the bookmarks with the folders floated to the top.
posted by richsim at 12:23 AM on March 27, 2007