Export Chrome Bookmarks to HTML and Check the Copy Before Moving
By ON Lab · Sources checked November 6, 2026
On a computer where the bookmarks you want are still available, open More → Bookmarks and lists → Bookmark Manager. Open the manager’s own menu and choose Export Bookmarks. Chrome saves bookmarks as an HTML file. Keep that file before attempting the move.
Check the source before exporting
Our suggested preparation is to open Bookmark Manager and confirm that a few links and folders you recognize are present. Choose a recent bookmark as well as an older one. If this computer already shows an empty or incomplete collection, exporting it does not establish a way to recover the missing links.
For example, if you are moving work references to another laptop, check a current project folder and one older reference folder. Write down their names so that you can compare the destination later. This is an editorial checking method, not a claim that a few examples prove a large collection is complete.
Save the HTML export
Google’s export procedure uses the menu at the top of Bookmark Manager, followed by Export Bookmarks. Save the resulting HTML file somewhere you can find again.
As an editorial precaution, give the copy a descriptive name with a date and keep it unchanged while checking the transfer. Make a separate working copy if you intend to edit it. Keep control of the file: saved links can reveal private projects or internal website addresses, so do not upload it to a public troubleshooting post just to show that export worked.
Import the saved file on the destination
Google documents More → Bookmarks and lists → Import bookmarks and settings. Choose the file, open it and finish with Done. Then open Bookmark Manager to locate the imported links.
Check the destination before relying on it
Compare the folder names and representative links you noted on the source. Open a few expected references and compare their addresses. A page that no longer exists is a different result from a bookmark that was not transferred.
If something is missing, preserve the source and the untouched HTML file while recording the difference. This guide does not ask you to delete either collection, reset cloud synchronization, or replace Chrome profile files. An export is not a diagnosis of why synchronization failed.
If you only need a recently closed page rather than a saved bookmark collection, use the separate closed-tab and History checks.
Scope: desktop bookmark HTML export and import, checked against Google’s guidance. This is not a complete browser-profile migration, a deleted-bookmark recovery procedure, or a guarantee that every entry in a very large collection was exported.