If you browse the internet regularly, you may be someone who tends to create lots of bookmarks. You see a site you like and don’t want to forget how you got there, so it’s quite easy to bookmark it for when you want to come back to it later.
Some of us, including myself, can even go bookmark crazy. Creating so many that you lose track of them and by the time you go back to them they are out of date or no longer valid. The good thing is that they are very easy to delete.
I’m Eric, a software engineer, and tech enthusiast. Even though I’ve been around computers and software for many years, I am constantly learning new things and trying to find easier ways to do things.
If you find that you have too many favorites and want to try cleaning them up by deleting some of them or you just want to remove ones that you don’t use anymore, keep reading and we will discuss some of the best methods for removing them.
Contents
What is a Bookmark?
This may be common knowledge for many but if you are unsure what a bookmark is, no worries, we are here to learn, so let’s first explain what they are just to make sure we are on the same page.
A bookmark, also known as a favorite in some browsers, is a saved or recorded link to the web address of a particular web page usually on the internet, but it can also be a link to a local page on your computer or network.
They make it easy for you to return to a particular website without the need to search for or type in the web address. Your browser saves each web address with a name and all you need to do is click on that name to navigate to that page.
Most browsers have a bookmark menu where you can see a list of the ones you have and you can easily click on them. Your browser can store many of them and you can edit, arrange, move into folders and remove any if you wish.
Bookmarks make it easy for us to quickly navigate sites that we often use or forget their addresses. Without them, we might spend a good amount of time trying to get back to a specific location on the internet.
Back-Up First
If you’re planning on doing some house cleaning and deleting a large number of bookmarks, You should first back them up so if you delete something by mistake or find that you later need one that you thought you didn’t, you can retrieve it.
If you are already familiar with exporting your bookmarks to an HTML file, you already know how to do this, but I will include this in the steps below just to make sure.
Steps to Delete Bookmarks
If you need to clean up your list of favorites or just have some you want to get rid of, it is quite simple and I will show you how here. Keep in mind that there are different browsers that you can use on your Mac and each one may have a slightly different method for deleting bookmarks.
I will go through the steps with some of the most popular browsers here, but other browsers that I have not listed will have steps similar to these.
Safari
Step 1: If you don’t already have it open, click on the Safari icon to start it up.
Step 2: Export your current bookmarks by selecting the File menu and then Export Bookmarks. By default, it will save them in a file called Safari Bookmarks.html.
Step 3: Click on the sidebar button at the top left of the Safari browser.
Step 4: With the sidebar open, click on the bookmark icon to see the list of them.
Step 5: Control+click or right-click on the bookmark to bring up the context menu and then select Delete to remove it.
This will remove the bookmark. You can repeat this process to remove any others that you would like to get rid of.
Chrome
Step 1: Click on the Chrome icon to start up Chrome.
Step 2: Click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of Chrome to open the menu.
Step 3: On the menu select Bookmarks and then Bookmark Manager to bring up the Bookmark Manager window.
Step 4: To export the current bookmarks click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the Bookmark Manager and click on Export Bookmarks.
Step 5: In the Bookmark manager, find the one that you wish to delete. It could be in one of the folders. Right-click or control-click on it and select Delete.
Your bookmark should now be deleted. Repeat this process for any others you wish to delete.
Firefox
Step 1: Open your Firefox browser.
Step 2: Click on the 3 small bars in the upper right corner of the screen.
Step 3: Click on Bookmarks and then find Manage Bookmarks near the end of the drop-down.
Step 4: You can back up your current bookmarks by clicking on the small drop-down in the top middle of the Manage Bookmarks window. You can then select ether Backup or Export Bookmarks to HTML.
Export – Saves the bookmarks in HTML format.
Step 5: Follow the prompts to save the backup file to your computer.
Step 6: In the Manage Bookmarks window, find the folder that contains the ones you wish to delete. Right-click or control-click on it and select Remove Bookmark.
Your Firefox bookmark should now be deleted. Repeat the same process to remove others from Firefox.
Other Browsers
Other compatible Mac browsers will have similar steps for removing their bookmarks. You should be able to determine how to remove them by looking around the applications for similar functions such as backing up, exporting, removing, or deleting them.
Safari, Chrome, and Firefox are definitely not the only browsers that you can use with Mac. If you are interested in checking out other browsers that work well, take a look at this article to see more.
Final Words
Keeping your list of bookmarks clean and up to date is important for any browser. Cleaning them up requires deleting and removing old and outdated ones. We hope that the steps above have helped you to be able to remove all of your unwanted bookmarks.
As usual, please let us know if you have any questions or comments!
