How to Recover Safari Bookmarks with iCloud
There are a number of steps you can try to restore your lost Safari bookmarks. We list them below:
Restart Safari and/or your device and see if the bookmarks reappear. If they don’t, continue on. Go to icloud. com and log in with your credentials. Open the drop-down menu next to your name in the top-right corner and choose Account Settings. Scroll to the Advanced section and select Restore Bookmarks. Choose the bookmarks you want to restore, then select Done. Restart Safari if needed, then check to see if your bookmarks are back.
How to Restore Safari Bookmarks with Time Machine
Another common method of restoring Safari’s bookmarks utilizes Time Machine. This built-in backup feature comes with all Mac computers and lets you automatically back up all of your files to an external hard drive. You can use those backups to restore your missing Safari bookmarks and more.
Connect your Time Machine backup drive to your Mac and turn it on. Then turn on your Mac. Open Utilities > Applications > Migration Assistant. Select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. Then select Continue. Select your Time Machine backup, then press Continue. If you’re asked to choose from a list of backups organized by date and time, choose one and select Continue. Select the files you want to transfer, then hit Continue to begin the process. Once the transfer finishes, restart your computer and log in. The transfer process could take several hours to finish depending on the amount of information you’re restoring.
Why Did Your Bookmarks Disappear?
One possible reason is a corrupted preference file, or .plist file, that Safari refused to load when it launched. Preference files store rules that tell your apps how they should work. They can become corrupted or broken over time thanks to app crashes, sudden power outages, hard drive corruption, and more.
Problems with .plist files are one of the Mac’s Achilles’ heels. They seem to be a weak point in how applications are structured. Thankfully, they’re easily replaced, causing at most a bit of inconvenience.
