As mentioned in the thread ‘Thermodynamics’ Ice Dragon won’t Import Bookmarks. I used the standard method of importing and it only gave me the Bookmarks from ‘A’ to ‘H’, nothing beyond H.
I then saved Bookmarks and also Cookies from IE8 into separate folders on Desktop. Using the Bookmarks, click Import Export, I select ‘Import from HTML’. An MS Windows window opens with ‘Import Bookmarks File’ description at top. I tracked down the new Bookmarks Folder on Desktop, but the window shows it at top for ‘Look in’. Below that in the larger window it says Favorites with a yellow star next to it. Clicked on that and it opens and shows all individual Favorites Bookmarks Files inside Favorites Folder.
The only available command keys are Open or Cancel at the bottom, and File Name pane at bottom remains empty. I tried using Open but there’s no way to put the whole folder in the Name window next to it.
It’s not Importing the Folder and gives no option for that. Also I don’t want to Open file, I want to Import Folder. I’ve got 4.28Mb and 17,000 files in that folder for Bookmarks/Favorites from 20 years of Internet Explorer, sure won’t import them one by one!
Hi JimmieD,
After exporting your bookmarks/favourites from IE, make IceDragon your default browser before importing.
If it is already your default browser, set another browser as default and the reset IceDragon as default again.
After import set default browser to your preference.
During the import function from IceDragon Show All Bookmarks, Import/Backup, Import from HTML the open function is the function required to import.
From within there this will import and not actually open.
Bookmarks may need rearranging so check for them in other bookmark folders after import.
AFAIK there is no limit.
I think that won’t work here. I did as you say finally clicked ‘Open’ and there was nothing displayed anywhere indicating any progress at transferring or importing IE Favorites HTML folder from anywhere to anywhere. All I saw was the window with the Favorites displayed as a folder, or expanded as files, with choice to ‘Open’. Nothing in the box next to ‘Open’ that would get transferred. It would not import the entire Bookmarks Folder on Desktop as near as I could tell, only individual bookmark files from within Bookmarks HTML Folder, one at a time. No matter what I clicked I couldn’t get it to put the whole folder in the window next to Open.
As mentioned, with over 49Mb total, compressed to 10Mb, and 17,000 files in that Bookmarks folder I can’t import them one at a time in HTML.
I also tried to write in the name of the folder in the ‘Open’ window but all I got was ‘File not Found’. Have 3 different Folders that I saved the Bookmarks to but got ‘File no Found’ whatever I clicked on. I made no mistakes writing the name, tried it 3 different times. I’m able to ‘Copy’ that folder on Desktop but have no idea where I should Paste in Ice Dragon. Afraid to try to just drop in in the menu for Internet Explorer Bookmarks [the A through H I imported] that shows up when I click Bookmarks, don’t know what would happen??
In addition I ended up with 2 copies of the Internet Explorer Bookmarks from A-H so I tried to delete one copy from the Bookmarks window. Won’t complete the delete, stalls out, says something about a program being busy.
Export the entire Favourites folder from IE to a location you can find, unticking feeds and cookies.
This should produce one HTML document containing all your bookmarks. Do not Zip or compress this document, now within import from IceDragon navigate to that file and click on it that should automatically fill the file name window, then click open to import.
If your bookmarks are in individual folders in IE, it should keep these individual folders after import.
If the above doesn’t happen, resetting IceDragon to default could alter file associations so IceDragon will see the file properly.
It can not import a compressed/Zipped folders.
17,000 files is a lot of bookmarks, this is probably including cookies which could be causing some issues?
When I tried to reply a couple of minutes ago the whole Ice Dragon browser locked up solid and even my separate Outlook Express email locked up. Couldn’t even access Windows Task Manager. Used Ctrl/Alt/Del a couple of times and Task manager window showed up but filled with forum text. Clicked on it and it went full sized and I was able to end task for Ice Dragon which also ended Email! Then when opening CID again the window displayed a browser message, ‘Sorry we can’t find any information on your last sessions’ or history or tabs or something like that. This occurred after I tried to get Bookmarks ‘Show All Bookmarks’.
Back to the problem: nothing seems to work too well in Ice Dragon so far, glitches & stumbles & hiccups galore. I have copied my entire IE8 Favorites into a single html file and put that folder on Desktop. I don’t know what is meant by "…unticking feeds and cookies’. I did nothing to zip or compress files unless that’s done automatically by Windows or Internet Explorer?
I used the Bookmarks Manager thing that opens to ‘Library’ and then clicked Import-Export to try and copy that HTML file into Bookmarks, using ‘Import Bookmarks using html.’ but the software will not copy the folder. It opens a popup window that has a pane at the top titled ‘Look in’ and there it shows the folder named Favorites 3, with icon of a folder already showing opened. The larger window below has a yellow star and says Favorites, which isn’t the name of the folder/file on desktop.
I am unable to get the whole folder down into the pane at bottom that says ‘File name’ with Open next to it. Whether I single left click at top pane, or below, it won’t transfer that file name. If I right click top pane it responds with ‘What’s this’ message there. If I double click the star-Favorites it opens the whole folder into individual bookmarks. I don’t know if it’s zipped, but may be compressed, don’t know.
I will try resetting Dragon to default if I can figure out how to do that. My only other option now seems to be uninstall, maybe reinstall…?
By the way, I notice when moving between pages here in this forum, the progress window down in lower left keeps displaying ‘Transferring data from Google Analytics’ several times until page loads. GOOGLE ANALYTICS!!!??!!! WHAT?
Hi JimmieD,
The problem might be due to the sheer amount of bookmarks you have, I am not certain sorry nothing has worked.
Sorry I mistook when you said “over 49Mb total, compressed to 10Mb” that you was manually Zipping or compressing into a folder, my mistake.
Make certain that they have not imported and hiding somewhere in the bookmarks menu.
“Google Analytics” Is used to analyse traffic for one reason or another and is not necessarily sinister or bad.
It’s been very frustrating here! Just tried to delete the new bookmark.html file from Desktop, for some reason it’s impossible, tried 3 or 4 times, renamed and moved it instead! Nothing working right!
Went back to Export a new html bookmark file to desktop, only selecting Favorites from the 3 choices of Favorites, Cookies and Passwords. A popup said that Export was unsuccessful, twice in a row. It seems that one has to also select to Export Cookies along with Favorites because Windows wrote Cookies to some favorites files. Search revealed where all of these various failures have been stored on my computer, have to clean them up before I go any further.
Next I’ll try to export the whole batch as Favorites, Cookies and Passwords but to the default destination in Owners Documents instead of to Desktop. Maybe that will help the Import process to work better. If that doesn’t work then uninstall CID and reinstall.
I remember that I had tried Firefox about a year ago and I was able to import the whole batch of Favorites so that suggests that file size isn’t too big, hopefully? Maybe? Pray a lot…
I really appreciate your help, Capt, and hopefully my next reports will be SUCCESS but we shall see?
May have just gotten a clue. When searching out all the files with the name bookmark on my C drive it showed the several attempts I’ve made, and all of those Exports and Saves were done from Internet Explorer. However looking at Properties of all these files it calls them Ice Dragon HTML files, not Internet Explorer!
Just might be that the problem is in settings for Default Browser? I’ll make IE8 the Default before I try to Export again and see if that changes how the files are handled.
The default browser setting does not affect the bookmarks export or import.
To export bookmarks from Internet Explorer you have to launch the browser and click the “Favorites” button in the toolbar (in IE 8, the button is located on the left side of the browser window). Clicking the “Favorites” button should open a drop down menu and the “Add to Favorites” option should be available. Click the arrow next to this button to open another menu and choose “Import and Export”. Now follow the wizard and export your bookmarks as an HTML file to a location of your choosing.
Launch Comodo IceDragon and import the resulting file.
Thanks for the help, guys. Default setting had no effect.
Tried for the rest of the night last night until 3 AM to import Bookmarks, total failure. Now I can’t even save IE8 Favorites to a text file, damaged the copy of Favorites I already had. IE8 won’t properly export, CID won’t properly import, nothing but trouble.
Uninstalled, reinstalled, same ■■■■, only imports Favorites beginning with letter A through letter H, nothing else.
Using both browser’s built in Wizards yesterday ■■■■■■■ up all my Cookies in both browsers, plus I don’t have my Favorites/Bookmarks, worse off than when I started!
I’ve done Virus Scans, Defragged etc. and my computer is very light on installed programs, nothing else is running except Java and Flash.
All I know for sure is this browser refuses to work right! Didn’t have this problem when I installed Firefox [around version 5 or 6].
Can’t figure out anything else I can do to make something work.
Searching other forums I find that I can copy the IE8 Favorites folder to paste to another location anywhere. Left click Start in XP-Pro to explore I see IE’s Favorites file listed. When accessing Ice Dragon and related files I can’t find Bookmarks, that I could Paste the copied Favorites into it.
I clicked Bookmarks in CID and tried to Paste the copied Favorites into the listing for IE Favorites but nothing happened, still shows same partial file.
Importing bookmarks cannot be done by copying the files/folders from one browser to another because they are saved in different formats. Importing data should be performed exclusively through the built-in functionality.
Our tests concluded that the size or number of bookmarks is not the source of the problem.
Are the bookmarks from the subfolders imported properly?
How are your bookmarks arranged in Internet Explorer?
Could you add screenshots of the favorites menu from IE and the imported bookmarks in IceDragon?
Bookmarks are supposed to be exported in HTML (.htm, .html) format not as a text (.txt) file.
Did you try to export the bookmarks from IE according to the steps I suggested in my previous reply?
What happens when you try to export bookmarks from Internet Explorer?
Have you tried importing your bookmarks in the latest version of Mozilla Firefox?
“Importing bookmarks cannot be done by copying the files/folders from one browser to another because they are saved in different formats. Importing data should be performed exclusively through the built-in functionality.”
Yes, ‘Importing data should be performed through the built-in functionality’, however I had exhausted all the normal options which were not working. Actually bookmarks/favorites can be imported in a different format but the formatting remains after they’re imported. You cannot click on files, hold down mouse button and arrange them when that is done. However when clicking on those text file links they correctly open that desired page in CID.
Interesting that your tests showed that size is not the source of the problem. I’ve posted in the Bug report section of forum describing how a friend is having the identical problem, but for him it will only import A through L Bookmarks, where on mine it will only import A through H Bookmarks, and my file size is larger than his.
“Are the bookmarks from the subfolders imported properly?”
Yes, Favorites folders and sub-folders are imported properly, as a function of the Installer program for Ice Dragon browser. Also the correct import/export wizards were used for subsequent tries when that failed and those also failed, with all attempts resulting in only A - H titled files imported.
“How are your bookmarks arranged in Internet Explorer?”
In IE the Favorites are saved in the order of saving, then when browser is closed the software automatically arranges them to alphabetical order. At later browser session you may rearrange them in any chosen order and once you do this all are saved in the order they’re saved and are no longer automatically sorted to alphabet upon closing but you may still re-arrange to preference.
In IE6-8 you click to ‘Add to Favorites’ and then you may also create sub-folders, or even sub-sub-folders etc. and add anywhere you want with a couple of clicks, plus titling the folders & sub-folders.
“Could you add screenshots of the favorites menu from IE and the imported bookmarks in IceDragon?”
I can try to post some kind of screenshots, however it’s difficult due to security considerations on contents, and don’t know how successful I’ll be. I can only show a small portion of IE Favorites because I have 17,000 research files there.
“Bookmarks are supposed to be exported in HTML (.htm, .html) format not as a text (.txt) file.”
Yes, understood regarding HTML format. All previous Import/Export was attempted as HTML or HTM files. Finally tried to save contents of Favorites [IE bookmarks] to Windows Wordpad, then import that text file into Ice Dragon. I was able to do so but functionality of this separate folder was lost, however links will open after some effort. It’s very cumbersome as when clicking on Bookmark drop-down’s title for that folder it opens a new page with contents in alphabetical order and it’s impossible to rearrange order of those saved files. They’re displayed in alphabetical order, not the preferred order I had them arranged into. They are at least there in the CID browser and accessible to click on and open desired page, but not user friendly.
“Did you try to export the bookmarks from IE according to the steps I suggested in my previous reply?”
Yes, that didn’t work either.
“What happens when you try to export bookmarks from Internet Explorer?”[/li]
Ice Dragon receives exported file, lists it as a new separate folder in Bookmarks drop-down, titled ‘From Internet Explorer’ and that folder cannot be merged with Ice Dragon default bookmarks folder. Each subsequent attempt to import, export, or save as HTML creates a new sub-folder as described, all titled ‘From Internet Explorer’. I now have 3 in the drop-down, plus the saved Text file I forced into CID browser which has a text file title. When exporting from IE it will only export A through H titled files and folders, same as the CID Installer imported.
“Have you tried importing your bookmarks in the latest version of Mozilla Firefox?”
No, I don’t have that browser installed. I think I had version 6 or 7 Firefox installed, a year or two ago, no problem importing except that it created a new sub-folder same as CID which is cumbersome to access.
“Could you add screenshots of the[tr][td][/td][/tr] favorites menu from IE and the imported bookmarks in IceDragon?”
On second thought I’m not quite sure what you are asking for? Are you asking for a picture of the drop-down window opened in Internet Explorer 8 Favorites showing entire contents, and for Ice Dragon Bookmarks showing entire contents?
Or for a shot of the first level drop-down in CID, with headings displayed and the same for IE 8, without second level contents displayed?
Showing contents is a problem due to reference to personal medical info listed, plus some highly volatile political references info, plus some personal religious/spiritual perspective, belief and viewpoint that some folks just can’t seem to tolerate…
CID Bookmarks drop-down displays per normal fashion with sub-folders list below in window, first showing the last addition of a forced text file [Cut & Paste] as:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/owner/Favorites/
And then below that 3 entries of Imported IE Favorites as:
‘From Internet Explorer’ with the yellow Folder symbol next to it.
By the way: just discovered that if one clicks Bookmarks, then left clicks on the drop-down title for a sub-Folder such as ‘From Internet Explorer’ and right click Copy to grab the title only, it copies the entire Folder contents as well, which are then displayed when you Paste! So a quick way to copy Bookmarks or Favorites but all is displayed as text when you Paste. Regardless of format, it does grab all the info.
Well some additional very unpleasant information added to the continuing overall unhappiness:
I accessed my Favorites folder from Internet Explorer this morning. I now find that the Favorites [Bookmarks] folder for 22 years of research which was 49.8 Mb and 17,000+ files yesterday morning is now 43.5Mb and 11,001 files!
That means that in all this screwing around trying to get Comodo Ice Dragon to Import Favorites I LOST 6,000+ Favorites/Bookmarks!
That leaves the only option of a System Restore and hope for the best. NOT HAPPY!
I am sorry to hear about this and hope that you are able to recover your data.
An advice for doing this is to find one of the HTML files you previously exported from IE and import them back. Try looking in the Recycle Bin if you have already deleted them (provided you didn’t use Shift+Delete).
Before proceeding with any restore attempts it would be best that you backup your data to another location (preferably somewhere other than your system).
Your description of the file structure and import results was acurate enough to make my request unnecessary.
I wanted to see exactly how the bookmark structure looks like so I could try to reproduce the scenario. I was able to import over 20000 files from IE 8 to IceDragon without any problem.
There are two things you could try to import the data from IE.
One is to structure the Favorites contents in IE in such a way that you can export them piece by piece. For example, if the bookmarks from A to H are exported properly then you can export bookmarks from I to M separately and then import into IceDragon. Bookmarks can be then reorganized inside IceDragon.
Another method I can suggest is that you use a third browser (Google Chrome for example). You could import your favorites from IE into Chrome then import them from Chrome into IceDragon. This could also reveal if there is a problem with IE or IceDragon.