Hello,
I have a pretty extensive collection of bookmarks/favorites that have accumulated for 20 plus years organized in folders with nested sub-folders and saved in .html format. I have been reading that bitwarden does have a favorites function available, but as I have many hundreds in my collection, I would like to know if it is possible to import my entire collection to bitwarden all at one time? It would be far too tedious to enter them all one at a time.
If yes, great! Where can I learn how? If not, are there any other suggestions of a good, free bookmark manager that would have what I need? Also, I need something that would be easily accessible from any device.
Are all of these bookmarks for webpages where you log in into an online account or “member area”, or are most (or all) of them just for websites that you visit without logging in?
It can probably be done, but not in a straightforward way. You would have to use some kind of script, or make deft use of the “search & replace” function in a text editor, to transform your HTML file into a properly formatted CSV file, then import it in the Web Vault.
It might be worth checking if you can import your HTML bookmark file into Excel in such a way that each URL appears in a separate row; if so, it make make the conditioning procedure a little bit easier.
So if I understand correctly, the HTML file would be problematic but if it were a CSV file that could be imported directly into my vault? I’m pretty sure I can export a CSV file of my bookmarks from the browser (I could be mistaken however). If I can, it sounds like that avenue might be worth investigating. Thanks for the ideas!
A CSV can be imported, but not “directly”. You would first have to “condition” the CSV file, which would mainly require you to add a set of empty columns (some of the added columns may also need to be edited to set appropriate default values), and then set the column titles in the first row to have values that are expected by Bitwarden:
Well, it turns out Chrome will only export bookmarks in HTML format. Given the degree of difficulty it looks like it will take to make it work, I am wondering if it might be better to leave Bitwarden alone and seek out a dedicated bookmark manager.
It does worry me I might create a confusing mess anyway, with my sprawling bookmark collection and my equally sprawling password collection trying to live together there’s bound to be trouble.
So… any suggestions for a bookmark manager then? Something as effective as Bitwarden with passwords? Allowing for folders and subfolders, standalone apps, browser extensions, web interface, syncing across all types of devices? Thank you again for all the helpful advice.
Hello again, I’m back here at the Bitwarden community for the first time in 7 months, this time about a different matter. But I noticed this thread was asking me if my question had been answered… and if so asking me to highlight the answer as it might benefit others.
Well, for me I guess the answer was yes and no. Yes, it can be done. But no, it did not sound to me like Bitwarden was the right choice to employ as a bookmark manager. That conclusion I explained in more detail in my last post.
Admittedly, I never pursued actually trying to make it work. So it’s possible Bitwarden may work great as a bookmark manager. But the level of difficulty to do so sounded like a monumental effort and truth be told, I just wanted a dedicated bookmark manager that would simply work – without any monumental effort on my part. Simply import my bookmarks and press “go”. Mind you, I have yet to find anything to fit that role. As life tends to do, my attention was dragged in a number of directions around 7 months ago and the bookmark issue fell to the periphery, where it presently remains. I still would love to find the bookmark manager I seek if anyone happens to have found something that does what I described in my last post. Cheers,
Hello again. Bitwarden is optimized as a password manager, not a bookmark manager.
I have no personal experience with third-party bookmark management utilities, but Raindrop.io seems to be a popular option. There are plenty of alternatives that have been reviewed on the web. Why not try a few and report back which one you ended up choosing?