How to import your Chrome bookmarks into Moodmarks

Chrome is where most of us have been saving links the longest: a bookmarks bar full of folders nobody opens. The good news is that Chrome bookmarks were always a file, and moving them to Moodmarks takes about five minutes.

What you need

• Moodmarks on your iPhone.
• Chrome on a computer. Chrome for iPhone can't export bookmarks, so this part happens on desktop.

Step 1: export from Chrome

1. Open Chrome on your computer and type chrome://bookmarks in the address bar. You can also get there from the Bookmarks menu → Bookmark manager.
2. Click the ⋮ menu at the top right of the bookmark manager.
3. Choose Export bookmarks and save the file.

Chrome writes a standard HTML bookmarks file, the same format every browser has used to trade bookmarks for decades.

If you use Chrome on more than one computer, make sure sync has caught up before exporting, so the file has everything.

Step 2: get the file onto your iPhone

AirDrop, an email to yourself, or iCloud Drive. Any route works as long as the file ends up where the Files app can see it.

Step 3: import into Moodmarks

1. Open Moodmarks. On the main screen, where all your boards are, tap the ⋯ menu at the top.
2. Choose Import / Export Bookmarks.
3. Under Duplicate Links, pick what happens to links you already have: Skip, Merge or Create Copy.
4. Tap Choose a Bookmarks File and pick the file you exported.

When it finishes, the summary shows what was Processed, Skipped and Failed.

How your folders arrive

Moodmarks creates one board for each main folder in the file, with the same name. Links inside subfolders go into the board of the folder above them, so nothing gets lost. Any loose link that wasn't in a folder lands in a board called Imported.

From folders to projects

Chrome folders are usually organized by topic, or not at all. Moodmarks works better when a board is a project: the trip, the redesign, the thesis. After the import, give each board a quick pass and keep what you actually recognize. The same keep, file, or let go sort we suggest for organizing Safari bookmarks works here too.

And from now on, you don't need exports. In Chrome for iPhone, the share button sends any page straight to a Moodmarks board. We walk through it in how to save links on your iPhone.