Favourites in different browsers and devices
Like most people using Microsoft products, my internet browser situation has become complicated using three devices – my desktop, my laptop and my smartphone. It got to the point where I had to put together my own “noddy guide” to manage my internet favourites among these three devices. What complicated things even further, was the fact that I started using the badly performing Internet Explorer less and started using Chrome more. This meant I had to synchronize my favourites between browsers as well.
Disclaimer!
Before continuing, I must mention a disclaimer. I do not use any “cloud” software to manage my pictures, videos, e-mails, documents or favourites. And yes – the Cloud is secure, I know. I also acknowledge that there simply must be software that will boast complete synchronization of favourites among devices and browsers, without using the Cloud.
Smartphone favourites
Synchronizing and managing Internet favourites on the Galaxy Note smartphone is a lengthy discussion for another day. Suffice to say that IE at least has an easy-to-use import and export function and I could export favourites to my smartphone as an html file, which I used as a source of bookmarks when using the phone.
Edge: the new playground
I have now arrived in the Windows 10 playground and have started using Edge, which is a much better performing browser, albeit with some growing pains. Surprisingly, the Edge installation does not automatically import your IE favourites (unless I missed that step). Edge will allow you to do a manual import from IE using the “Favourites Settings” in the browser menu. There, I also found an option to import from Chrome. That should sort you out in terms of continuing your life with your IE favourites.
No export from Edge
When it comes to exporting, there is nothing on the Edge browser menu to help with that. Microsoft is obviously more confident with Edge and assumes that no one will ever need to switch to another browser. This does not help me with my smartphone. How do I get my Edge favourites across and synchronize them between the three devices?
Workaround
So far, the only way I can see of getting hold of my Edge favourites is to dig into my files via “C-drive” and locate them in some obscure app folder called MicrosoftEdge/User/Default/Favorites/Links. Unfortunately, I cannot export this folder as an html file, which does me no good when using my smartphone. Chrome offers an export to an html file, but alas, Chrome now does not recognize Edge as a browser to import from. A straight copy from the Edge favourites directory is therefore the only option, which I now do as part of synchronizing other documents between my desktop and my smartphone.
Ready to subscribe!
Maybe this mess will persuade me to subscribe to some service in the Cloud where synchronization challenges will become a thing of the past. I refuse to install additional software (such as tidyfavorites) to accomplish these simple tasks that could be done before by selecting a menu entry in a browser. Meanwhile I’m looking forward to the day when operating systems, smartphone platforms and internet browsers do not force users into these awkward situations where things cannot work across boundaries.
