How to Back Up Favorites

Posted on October 6th, 2009 by Marck

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Favorites and Bookmarks make it very convenient for many users to save direct links to useful and often-visited sites on their browsers. Backing up these important pieces of data is an important part of best practices, computer security, and convenience. Here are the steps you need to back up favorites and bookmarks on your preferred Internet browser.

Why Back Up Favorites and Bookmarks?

Both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox save a history of the addresses and URLs you enter on your address bar. By default, both browsers detect the first few letters you enter into the address or search bar to recognize the site you want to go to, and gives a list of recommended sites based on your search history. While this feature is convenient for some users, some may want a quick one-click solution to access favorite and most-accessed sites. Here’s where Favorites and Bookmarks come in.

If you need to use a public or shared computer, you may not be able to memorize the complete URL for certain sites you want or need to access. A copy of your site bookmarks can help you access sites with very long addresses, like documents, archives from blog entries, or photo indices. A backup of bookmarks is also very useful if you need to reinstall your browser, or if you’re moving data from an old computer into a new one.

Backing Up Favorites in Internet Explorer

To back up your Favorites folder in Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

If you need to export Favorites to a removable drive (like a USB flash disk or a card in a memory card reader), insert the storage medium into a port or slot in your computer.
Launch Windows Explorer.
If you’re using Windows XP, navigate to the Documents and Settings folder in the root directory, and select Favorites in the particular user folder. The same directory exists in Windows Vista, although it is found under the “Users” directory folder in the root directory.
Copy the entire folder to the removable storage medium, or to a backup directory on your hard drive.

Backing Up Bookmarks in Mozilla Firefox

To back up your Bookmarks directory in Mozilla Firefox, follow these steps:

If you need to export the Bookmarks directory to a removable drive, insert the drive on a vacant USB port or card reader slot.
Launch Mozilla Firefox.
Click on the Bookmarks menu on the menu bar, and click Organize Bookmarks.
Click Import and Backup on the dialog box, and select Backup.
Give a unique file name for the backup file, and click OK.
Copy the backup file to the removable medium.

Making a backup of your bookmarks and favorites can help you manage your Internet use better and make accessing long URLs easier, regardless of what computer you are using.