r/firefox • u/twyyliiight • 1d ago
Discussion It's almost 2025 and bookmarks are still such a hassle
So I jumped ship from Chrome after over a decade of use. I remember using Firefox a bit as a kid and decided to go back to my roots. And hey, I actually like it. It even has some UI features that Chrome did worse imo.
But why on Earth is it so difficult to properly sync my bookmarks?
I'm on the app and have it connected to my laptop. Cool. Easy process. But when I make changes to my bookmarks on PC there's a lag on the app.
That isn't too big a deal, but it also never updates the changing position of the bookmarks. Like ever. New ones just go to the top. I've done a resync. Turned bookmark off and on. Nothing. They don't even have the decency to let you manually move the position yourself.
People have been complaining about this for 5+ years and all anyone does is slap a developer link to make the team aware. And don't get me wrong, that's at least something. But it's just crazy to me that such a basic feature is so broken still.
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u/FuriousRageSE 1d ago
Floccus and sync to something like github or a nextcloud instance works fine for me.
Just add the profile on the next browser and it'll sync the bookmarks. Browsers independant.
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u/twyyliiight 1d ago
I'll give that a try later!
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u/OfAnOldRepublic 1d ago
+1 for Floccus
One tip, before you start your profile on a second browser, do a bookmark import from the first. That'll keep everything in the same order, and the initial sync with floccus will take no time at all.
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
I ended up getting Raindrop and just deleting everything off Firefox completely. Now it's only for browsing.
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u/nickjedl 1d ago
While we're talking about bookmarks, can someone tell me why the "default" bookmarks you get with a fresh install keep getting synced to my Mozilla account every time I sign into a new browser?
If the only bookmarks are the factory ones, don't sync them at all!!!
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u/VidarrKerr 1d ago
I have a profile that is over 10 years old, it has all those duplicates I never deleted. It is like 50 copies of each. It is just another example of how bookmark tech is ancient.
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u/Stencil2 1d ago
Try raindrop.io.
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u/art-solopov Dev on Linux 1d ago
I tried it, didn't like it. I find it a hassle to go to an app whenever you want to find a bookmarked site, as opposed to just searching it from the address bar.
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u/mamigove 1d ago
tools -> Sync now and a firefox account you will have no problem.
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u/mamigove 1d ago
Changes to the list of items to sync will be reflected across all your connected devices.
Bookmarks
History
Open tabs
Passwords
Payment methods
Add-ons
Settings
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u/TheBestPassenger 1d ago
Well, Firefox is not a leader of the browsers market and that happens for some reasons.
One of the reasons might be that Firefox sync is not very reliable. That's why I manually make my profile backup and don't use Mozilla account. If I desperately needed a good sync, I would go for Vivaldi or (if possible) for Safari - these two are reasonable choice between reliableness and privacy.
The best sync is in Chrome and Edge... but in terms of privacy these two are the worst.
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u/DolanDuck5 - 22h ago
who even uses bookmarks on mobile frequently? theyre totally not convenient
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u/twyyliiight 22h ago
Someone who isn't on a computer all day. Uhmmm???
And they should be convenient. That's the entire problem. We're not living in the stone age.
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u/DolanDuck5 - 22h ago
cant you just use the search bar? it autocompletes bookmarks. and pin the most important ones to the homepage
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u/twyyliiight 22h ago
So I'm just not allowed to browse easily? I have to know the name of everything I want to find?
How about not making excuses for trash outdated features that should be easily accessible?
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u/mikaelish_ 6h ago
Sync bookmarks with Firefox account and no hassle at all.
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
Beep boop
You sound like a bot
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u/mikaelish_ 5h ago
Allright
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
If there was no hassle I wouldn't have made this post. Nor would I have said I tried resyncing.
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u/aws-ome 1d ago
Export, then import. It's not rocket science. Also, look into solutions like LinkDing to get away from the bookmark hassle.
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u/twyyliiight 1d ago
Letting me simply move the position of my bookmarks is much less of a hassle than your 'solution', but here we are.
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u/art-solopov Dev on Linux 1d ago
The problem with third-party bookmark managers is that they don't integrate with the address bar.
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u/79215185-1feb-44c6 1d ago
Bookmarks have worked literally the same way for the past 15 years. How about not using Chrome?
Also third-party Bookmark Managers have existed for literally 20 years now.
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u/VidarrKerr 1d ago
Dude, that is why it sucks. By now, bookmark syncing should be state of the art. You know, like so good, there is nothing left to improve. Instead, we are using bookmark technology from 1990s.
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u/stevo887 1d ago
What tech hasn’t evolved in 15 years? And we certainly haven’t been trying to sync them to mobile for 20 years.
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u/TheThingCreator 1d ago edited 5h ago
One of the many many reasons I made a bookmark manager.
EDIT: Fuck me right?
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u/shinra_7 15h ago
Heads up it's $5 a month. Saved you a click.
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u/TheThingCreator 11h ago
Is that a big deal?
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
Raindrop is completely free
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u/TheThingCreator 5h ago
Ya for just holding bookmarks. Raindrop doesn’t have sync, which is one of the main topics of this post. They also appear to have no interest in solving that.
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
If you use the browser extension it syncs everything. Like instantly.
It's not like this is a Firefox issue. I tried 3 browsers and it's a fucking mess everywhere.
It shouldn't be. But I'm done trying to solve their problems. This works fine.
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u/TheThingCreator 5h ago
It will load your bookmarks without a real sync. It does not sync instantly. If I add a bookmark on one browser, and then open another its not there instantly like you claim. I have to refresh, which is not what sync is.
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
I ported all my bookmarks over from Firefox. Now whenever I add something on Firefox the extension scoops it up into Raindrop and it's on the app.
Never said anything about using multiple browsers. Couldn't pay me enough to deal with that mess.
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u/TheThingCreator 5h ago
Ya that’s not what sync is. But Ya that’s the life of a web developer often, I’m constantly in one browser or another and I like to know that no matter what, all instances of my bookmarks are like mirror copies. I also like end-to-end encryption because I hate the idea of storing my bookmarks to be accessible on someone’s system, another feature raindrop does not have and appears to have no interest in.
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u/twyyliiight 5h ago
It's syncing from the browser extension to the app. I don't care how you want to nitpick it. That's literally what it is.
9/10 times everything you do on the internet is on someone else's system. Just like pretty much everything you do in life is on the government's watch. That's just the world we live in.
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u/twyyliiight 1d ago
I'll look into this too Bookmarks we're even more broken on Brave for me so this could work.!
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u/WetBootyCrumbs 1d ago
My two major complaints with Firefox (Android) right now seem so minuscule in comparison to some of it's major issues, but seriously it's like... How was this missed or not added at this point??
1) Not being able to see/delete individual cookie/site data.... why do I need an extension for that? Why can I delete ALL, but not individual? It's already a feature in the desktop version. Let me see the data being stored on MY device!
2) What you're describing with the bookmarks. Why do I need my PC to organize my bookmarks? I'm no software designer, but this can't be THAT crazy of a feature to design. Also, I really can't stand the different bookmark folders that can't be edited or deleted. I honestly just want "Mobile" and "Desktop". That's it. So I guess more personalization of bookmarks would be nice. Similar to Vivaldi.