Ever since I first got a phone capable of browsing the world wide web, I’ve always thought there was something lacking from the experience. Typing on a number pad, viewing websites on phone screens with strange resolutions, no Flash support. Over the last few years many of these problems have been addressed. Most phones now have full keyboards, mobile websites have set standards that most mobile devices follow, some phones even support Flash these days! (Not my iPhone, of course ಠ_ಠ ) With all these improvements, it is only natural, I suppose, that our home internet begins merging with our mobile internet. To truly make the transition from laptop, to phone, to work computer seamless, Firefox creator, Mozilla, has made Firefox Home. Have you ever looked something up online before leaving your house, and then not being able to find it again? That will not be an issue if you have Firefox Home as it syncs your browser at home, with the one in your phone. Now when you leave the house, the tabs you had open on your PC are still open on your phone. Something you bookmarked at work is now easily accessible at home. I imagine the benefits of this integration are already clear to you, so let’s move on to how to get it done:

 

Installing and Configuring Firefox Home

You will need to be using Firefox on the computers you want to sync with Firefox Home. I hope this was obvious. If it wasn’t, Click Here, for the download. If Firefox wasn’t your default browser, you might want to import your bookmarks. Luckily I’ve recently wrote a tutorial for that too: Import your bookmarks into firefox

Now that you’ve got Firefox installed, you need to get the Firefox Home app for your phone. I have an iPhone so that’s what I’ll use for these instructions.

Start by going to the app store on your phone, and downloading Firefox Home. You can find it easily by typing firefox into the search. Allow the app to install. Once you start the app, you will be asked if you already have a sync account, or if you’d like to receive instructions on creating one. You can forgo the the instructions, since I will be outlining them here.

 

At this point, put your phone aside and open Firefox on your computer. Click the Tools menu from the Menu bar and select “options” at the very bottom of the menu.

 

Select the “Sync” tab at the top of the options window, then click on “Set Up Firefox Sync”. Click OK.

At the next prompt, click the “Create a New Account” button.

Enter your account details on this next page. Note the options button on the bottom left. Clicking here will allow you to choose what is shared between devices with Firefox Home. By default everything is shared, feel free to customize this to your needs. Once you have filled out all the fields, click Next.

Firefox will create a unique code for you to sync to other computers. Save this code somewhere safe. You will also have the option to print the code. Once you have saved your encryption code, click Next.

Next you will be asked to fill out a Re-Captcha to verify you are human. Type in the text, and click Next.

So far so good, you’ve finished creating your account. Now to set it up on your devices.

When you click finish you will be taken back to the sync tab in the options menu. There will now be an option to “add a device”. This is the next step.

The next screen will ask you to enter a code that the device provides. Take out your phone and start up the Firefox Home app. Select the “I have a sync account” option and your phone will provide a 12 character code split into 3 lines. Type this code into the computer and click next.


That’s it! Your phone is now synced with your computer browser. You can add multiple devices to Firefox home (such as your iPhone and iPad) or multiple computer (such as your home and work computer). Enjoy your cross-platform browsing!


 

Select your Browser:

Mozilla Firefox 7

(skip to Chrome 14 or Internet Explorer 9)

Exporting and Backing Up Your Bookmarks

 

Begin by starting Firefox. Once it has opened, find the “Bookmarks” tab in the menu bar located on the top left of the screen.

Select “Show All Bookmarks” from the drop-down menu that appears.

This will open a new “Library” window. Look for the “Import & Backup” menu towards the top. Click on “Export HTML…”

This will allow you to choose a name and location for your backup file. For this tutorial, we will leave the default name “bookmarks” and save it on the desktop. Feel free to rename the file and save it where you see fit.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully backed up your bookmarks. Keep this file somewhere safe and you will be able to restore your bookmarks on this or any other computer. I save the file on a USB Flash Drive that I keep on my keychain, so I’m never without my bookmarks. Another great way to save the file is to email yourself, saving the bookmark file as an attachment. That way your file is safely stored in your email indefinitely (just make sure not to delete that email!). So how do you actually use this file to import your bookmarks? Funny you should ask…

Importing Your Bookmarks

So you’ve created a backup of your bookmarks, and now you need to Import them. There are plenty of reasons you may need to. Maybe you’ve bought a brand new computer or reformatted your old one. Maybe your old internet browser sucks and you downloaded a new one (I’m looking at you Internet Explorer  ಠ_ಠ). Or maybe you just need to access your bookmarks from the office or from a friends house. This is how you do it:

 

Open up Firefox, and click on “Show All Bookmarks” in the Bookmarks menu, just as you did to export your bookmarks in the first place.

This time we will be looking for the “Import HTML…” button, under the “Import and Backup” menu.

Clicking on Import will launch the “Import Wizard”. It will ask if you want to import from Internet Explorer, or from an HTML file. In this case, we choose HTML file.

Clicking Next will allow us to navigate to the backup file. Mine is on my desktop, but yours may be on your USB Drive, in your download folder (if you emailed it to yourself and then downloaded it from your email) or anywhere else you might have decided is a good place to keep the file. Simply find the file, select it and click “Open”.

Voilà! Your bookmarks have been imported!


Chrome 14

(back to Firefox 7 or skip to Internet Explorer 9)

Exporting and Backing Up Your Bookmarks

Exporting your bookmarks in Chrome is very similar to exporting bookmarks in Firefox, you just need to know where to find the proper menus and options.
Start by opening Chrome and finding the options button. The options button is a wrench icon, and is located on the top right of the window.

Select “Bookmark manager” from the options menu, and a new tab will open in Chrome.

 

Click on the “Organize” drop down menu, and you will find the familiar “Export bookmarks…” command.

Clicking on Export Bookmarks will open a screen allowing you to choose a destination for you bookmark backup file. Once more, I am saving onto my desktop, but you may save onto a USB Memory Drive or anywhere else you please, just be sure you know where to find the file when you need it.

Click save and that’s it! Your bookmarks are saved for future use. If you skipped the Firefox section, I gave a helpful tip about sending this file to yourself as an email attachment. This way you can access the file anywhere in the world, so long as you have a working internet connection. Personally I save the file to a USB drive. It’s the most convenient thing for me, as I always have my flash drive on hand (it’s on my keyring, so I literally never leave home without it). Plus you can keep all kinds of other useful files on the drive.

Importing Your Bookmarks

Once more open the Bookmark Manager, just as we did to backup the bookmarks.

Click on “Organize” and this time, select “Import bookmarks…”

Navigate to the bookmark backup file, select it, and click “open”.

Well done! You have imported your bookmarks and can now browse the internet unimpeded! (Assuming you aren’t behind a webfilter or in a country that blocks certain internet traffic.)


(back to Firefox 7 or Chrome 14)

Exporting and Backing Up Your Bookmarks


Begin by starting Internet explorer. Look for the Favorites button with a yellow star next to it, towards the top left of the screen.

Clicking on the Favorites button will open the favorites sidebar. At the top of the sidebar you will find the “Add to Favorites…” button, with a small arrow beside it. Click directly on the arrow and a small drop-down menu will appear.

Choose “Import and Export…” from the drop down menu.

A small window will open and give you the option of Importing your bookmarks, or exporting them. Make sure “Export to a file” is selected, and click next.

It will now give you the option to export your cookies and feeds as well as your favorites. For this tutorial we will only select “Favorites”.

Next Internet Explorer will give you the option of selecting which of your bookmarks you want to save. To save them all, we want the top folder, “Favorites”, selected. This is set up for you by default so unless you only want to export part of your favorites, leave it this as is and click “Next >”.

Finally you will be asked where you want to save your backup. For convenience I saved mine to the Desktop, but you may choose to save it elsewhere. Once you selected a place to save the file, click “Export”.

Internet Explorer will now inform you of your resounding success. Nothing left to do but click “Finish” and bask in the warm feeling of accomplishment.

 

Importing Your Bookmarks


If you followed my guide to export your Internet Explorer bookmarks, these first few steps may seem familiar, and they should, because they are exactly the same.

Begin by starting Internet explorer. Look for the Favorites button with a yellow star next to it, towards the top left of the screen.

Clicking on the Favorites button will open the favorites sidebar. At the top of the sidebar you will find the “Add to Favorites…” button, with a small arrow beside it. Click directly on the arrow and a small drop-down menu will appear.

Choose “Import and Export…” from the drop down menu.

A small window will open and give you the option of Importing your bookmarks, or exporting them. This time, make sure “Import from a file” is selected, and click next.

Again Internet Explorer will give you the option of importing your favorites, cookies and feeds. I will only be importing the Favorites, though you may choose to import Feeds and Cookies as well if you feel this is necessary. Click on the squares by the options to check them, and click “Next >” when you are finished.

It will now ask you where the backup file is located. Use the browse button to locate your backup file and click next.

Now you will have the opportunity to choose where in the favorites folder you want your imported bookmarks to appear. For example, if you want to keep the imported favorites in a separate folder called “Imported Bookmarks” you will be able to do that. To have the favorites save to the main favorites list, just leave the top folder selected and click “Import”.

Internet Explorer will let you know that you have successfully imported your bookmarks. The only thing left to do is click “Finish”.

Congratulations, you are now a master at backing up, exporting and importing your bookmarks/favorites.

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