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  • Synchronize Firefox bookmarks with an iPhone or iPod Touch on Windows

    Posted on December 28th, 2009 Shawn 30 comments

    So, what’s up guys? I, like many others just got an iPod Touch for Christmas. I, being a Firefox user, wanted to have my bookmarks synchronized from Firefox automatically when I sync my iPod. After doing some searching, I came to the discovery that the old methods did not work at all because they happened to be incompatible with Firefox 3.0, even after circumventing the compatibility check. After a while of googling, I came to an epiphany. I already use the plugin Xmarks to keep my bookmarks backed up and synchronized between my computers, so why not take it a step further and have it synchronize to one of the iTunes-compatible bookmark platforms. So, after this sudden realization, I gave it a try and it worked! So now: I am going to teach you how to do this. It’s quite simple if you know a little about how XMarks works.

    A quick overview of Xmarks.

    Ok, so XMarks, before it does the actual synchronization of the bookmarks, takes a look at all of your bookmarks, most importantly the date the page was marked. After it looks at that, it takes a look at what’s on the XMarks server and compares the two. If there is something on the server that was added since the last synchronization that is not on the computer, it goes ahead and copies it over to the computer. The same applies to something new on the computer.

    Getting this whole thing to work.

    So now we have somewhat of an understanding of this, let’s get started. First, you will need to have an account at Xmarks. Even if you have one, I recommend that that we start fresh with a brand new account. Tip! If you have already created an account using a Gmail.com email as your email address, you do not need to create a whole new email address. You can just add a + and then something like Xmarks to the email, so you will get something like this: myemailhere+Xmarks@gmail.com. Any emails sent to this address will still end up in your original inbox. To register, go here. Once you have created an account, I SERIOUSLY recommend that you back up your Firefox bookmarks, just in case something goes wrong and all of your bookmarks get deleted. Here are the instructions:

    Backing up your bookmarks:

    1: Open up your bookmark manager in Firefox.

    2. Click the import and backup button on the toolbar on the top of the window. Click backup.

    3. Navigate to your desktop if you have to. Save this file. Feel free to change the name of the file if you want, but it does not make any difference to Firefox what the name is.

    Now that that is done, the process of setting up Xmarks begins.

    Installing Xmarks for Internet Explorer

    Yes, I said it, Internet Explorer. Even though IE sucks in my opinion, it is still vital to this quest. Internet Explorer is the only way we can get this to work between Firefox, Xmarks, Internet Explorer and iTunes. Here are the steps:

    1. Download Xmarks for IE

    2. Run through the installation of Xmarks just like you would with any other installation

    3. A setup window will pop up (sorry, I could not get any pictures for this as I could not get the setup wizard to run again). The wizard will ask you for your credentials to Xmarks. It will also ask you how you want to synchronize the bookmarks for the first time. I recommend the option that merges your bookmarks, especially if you did not create a new account.

    4. After the wizard is complete, the initial synchronization should run and a page in IE should show up telling you the process was a success

    Installing Xmarks for Firefox

    The process for Firefox is somewhat the same as IE, except it does not install as an application.

    1. Install the Xmarks addon for Firefox

    2. Restart your browser (Don’t worry, this page should return on the restart)

    3. You should get a pop up with the setup wizard for Xmarks. If not, open up your addons (it should be in tools) and find Xmarks then click Options.

    4. Once you have logged in you will be asked if you want to synchronize your passwords along with your bookmarks. This does not affect how bookmarks will be sent to your iPod or iPhone.

    You can click this to make it larger

    5. Again, choose to merge data on the server

    6. Choose to start with data on the server

    7. Click next to begin the sync process

    8. Right click the Xmarks taskbar icon and click synchronize now to get your bookmarks in to IE

    Getting the bookmarks on the iPod or iPhone

    The final process of this whole song and dance is to get your bookmarks on to your iPod or iPhone.

    1. Plug your iDevice in to your computer

    2. Locate your iDevice in the devices list in iTunes

    3. Click the info button on the iPod device management

    4. Scroll down to Web Browser, check the box next to “Sync bookmarks with” and make sure Internet Explorer is selected

    5. Sync your iPod or iPhone and you are done!

    Well. That’s it! I don’t know what else to say, other than thanks for reading… So thanks for reading!

    EDIT: I should have put something like this in here already but this method works across all Xmarks compatible browsers. This post has been tailored to the Internet Explorer installation, but if you happen to be on a mac, then you can download Xmarks for Safari in place of IE. The process is pretty similar to the IE installation.
    12/30 1:25pm Eastern

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    11 responses to “Synchronize Firefox bookmarks with an iPhone or iPod Touch on Windows” RSS icon

    • The same can be done on a Mac using XMarks for Safari and iTunes. I have been doing this since it became available for Safari.
      You can also access all of your bookmarks from the X Marks mobile site on the iPhone.

    • Congrats on getting on LifeHacker dude!
      Nice article. Unfortunately I don’t use FireFox, and Opera Sync take care of those things for me. And I don’t have an iTouch.

    • Garrick :
      The same can be done on a Mac using XMarks for Safari and iTunes. I have been doing this since it became available for Safari.
      You can also access all of your bookmarks from the X Marks mobile site on the iPhone.

      I do the same but use MobileMe to wirelessly sync them.

    • The last time I installed the separate xmarks for internet explorer, I got a bunch of dupes in my firefox. If this is been fixed then this would be awesome.

    • @Johnny I did happen to find some duplicated folders. But I think that was when I screwed up while experimenting to find the best method. Luckily it only did a few folders. If you were to do this and found that it duplicated some of your entries, just restore from your backup. When backups are restored in firefox, it overwrites everything and only includes the bookmarks in the backup. Xmarks will think the duplicates were deleted and then remove them off the server on the next sync.

    • Am i imagining things or….

      If you only use firefox, then when after months of not opening up internet explorer, foxmarks (xmarks) will not have recently ran on IE…. so the bookmarks synced to your iphone will be outdated… which means you have to open up IE and sync xmarks each time before syncing your iphone.

      with that said, from what ive seen in 30 minutes of googling, your solution is by far the most intuitive and uptodate. its definetly what i would have done.

      and good how-to. nice work.

    • @paul
      Hey Paul
      The Xmarks tool for IE actually operates independent from IE, but uses the windows/IE favorite framework. you do not have to even touch IE, as you can modify its favorites in windows explorer.

    • @Shawn

      @Shawn

      Shawn :
      @paul
      Hey Paul
      The Xmarks tool for IE actually operates independent from IE, but uses the windows/IE favorite framework. you do not have to even touch IE, as you can modify its favorites in windows explorer.

      Ya!!!

      I realized it about an hour later but i couldnt find the thread to correct myself. Your solution is about as awesome as anything else ive seen. and it seems to work pretty good.

    • So what im confused about is this, why do i have to log in to this server? Wouldnt it be easier to have an offline program that does this? Maybe i dont fully understand but im not going to sign up for a site that stores my personal browsing habits online, that seems like phishing to me. You can say all you want that you trust them , but i dont trust anyone on the net so why do you? Thats not to mention the possible security vulnerabilities that youre leaving yourself open to, In windows atleast.

    • @marcus
      ah, the ever faithful “security risk”.
      Ok, I am going to get a few things straight.
      1) XMarks does not necessarily store your personal browsing habits, just your bookmarks. No history is contained.
      2) No personally identifiable information will be collected from these bookmarks, so it can’t be traced back to you
      3) You log in so your bookmarks can be easily found in the synchronization process.
      4) It is your choice for who you trust on the Internet. I can’t make that choice for you

      In my opinion, Xmarks is great. They do not take your bookmarks, and then spam you with whats in the bookmarks. A lot of my firends use Xmarks, and they love it as much as I do.

    • Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I only wish more people would be this clear with their explanations on how to accomplish a given task. Just got an iPhone, and was dreading inputting my bookmarks manually (and I hate IE), so this was stellar.
      Allan

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