Synchronise firefox bookmarks.

October 27, 2005 3:43 PM

Help me synchronize bookmarks with firefox.

Help! Right At work I cant install firefox so I run it off a Flash drive. Is ther any way to synchronise the bookmarks on this pendrive with the bookmarks on my home computer.

Ive got sites on my home computers bookmarks that arent on my pendrives and vice versa. Id like to be able to come home from work. Synchronise and then have all my bookmarks on both instals.

Can this be done?

posted by gergtreble to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I think you'll have to start with something like a master bookmarks file. Bring your bookmarks home from work and import them into your home Firefox's bookmarks and then cut out the ones that are duplicates. After that, just be sure to always bring the bookmarks file with you and overwrite the old one. Other than that (tedious) process, I'm not sure there is anything you can do to sync two separate bookmark files.

Another solution: online bookmarks services like del.icio.us, Yahoo! Web 2.0, Furl, etc.
posted by panoptican at 3:59 PM on October 27, 2005

Response by poster: Hmm...

That was prcicely the kind of time consuming activity i was trying to avoid. Ive now got 2 sets of different bookmarks that I use reularly.

Might check out these online bookmarks though, can I just import my firefox ones into them?
posted by gergtreble at 4:02 PM on October 27, 2005

The Bookmarks Synchronizer Firefox extension lets you store your bookmarks via FTP or WebDav. Seems like that would be a good fix for you (though why not just use del.icio.us?).
posted by wheat at 4:44 PM on October 27, 2005

del.icio.us used to be able to but the feature is disabled at the moment. I'm not sure about Furl or Yahoo. I would doubt it though. Two other things that you may want to explore: Sync2It and the Bookmarks Synchronizer Firefox extension.
posted by panoptican at 4:47 PM on October 27, 2005

Response by poster: when you say "allows you to store bookmarks by FTP" what do you mean by that?

Will I have to put my bookmarks on my webspace?
posted by gergtreble at 6:47 PM on October 27, 2005

gergtreble: "when you say "allows you to store bookmarks by FTP" what do you mean by that?

Will I have to put my bookmarks on my webspace?"

You have to set an ftp site and put the xml file generated by Bookmarks Synchronizer in it. Bookmarks Synchronizer take of that too !
posted by zouhair at 7:40 PM on October 27, 2005

I use bookmarks sync, I love it. Also, you have the option of combining two different sets of bookmarks into one all-powerful bookmark file.
posted by nevercalm at 12:09 AM on October 28, 2005

I had the same problem but have moved from using Bookmarks Synchonizer to del.icio.us recently. The latter has the advantage of being accessible from anywhere (without having to specify an FTP path or have a connection open). I also find the tag-based approach better for organising bookmarks than a folder system where everything can have one position only. Del.ico.us can make it faster and more accurate to classify a URLwhen others have already done so. Finally the "popular" URLS on del.ico.us provide a very good method of discovering interesting material.
posted by rongorongo at 2:40 AM on October 28, 2005

Yeah. If you have web hosting anywhere that allows FTP access, Bookmarks Synchronizer will upload an XML file of your bookmarks to the directory you specify on that host. You can set it to synchronize your bookmarks file on startup (so that you're in sync if you're using it one more than one install of Firefox) and shutdown (so that any new bookmarks you added during your browsing session get merged back into the master file). Simple and effective.

As to bookmarks "on [your] webspace": yes and no. You don't have to put them in your public web space (i.e. in public_html or whatever). You can put them in your home directory (i.e. not accessible to the public). That's where I put mine. So they're private and accessible only via FTP.
posted by wheat at 4:11 AM on October 28, 2005