What Gets Exported When You Export Chrome Bookmarks

Chrome's bookmark export creates an HTML file using a format that dates back to early Netscape. Every major browser can read it, which makes it the universal transfer format for bookmarks. But the file does not contain everything Chrome knows about your bookmarks. Understanding what is in the file and what is left out helps you decide whether an export is enough for your needs.

If you need the export steps themselves, the export guide walks through the process.

What the file contains

The HTML export includes four pieces of data for each bookmark:

• URL - the full address of the bookmarked page
• Title - the name you see in Bookmark Manager (either manually set or the page title Chrome captured)
• Folder structure - your entire folder hierarchy, preserved as nested HTML lists
• Add date - the date and time each bookmark was originally created

That is it. Four data points per bookmark, plus the folder tree that organizes them.

What the file looks like inside

Open the export file in a text editor and you will see a structure like this:

<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<TITLE>Bookmarks</TITLE>
<H1>Bookmarks</H1>
<DL><p>
    <DT><H3 ADD_DATE="1709251200" LAST_MODIFIED="1711929600">Bookmarks bar</H3>
    <DL><p>
        <DT><A HREF="https://example.com" ADD_DATE="1709251200">Example Site</A>
        <DT><H3 ADD_DATE="1710460800">Work</H3>
        <DL><p>
            <DT><A HREF="https://docs.google.com" ADD_DATE="1710460800">Google Docs</A>
        </DL><p>
    </DL><p>
</DL><p>

The key elements:

• <DT><H3> tags represent folders. Each folder starts a new nested <DL> (definition list).
• <DT><A> tags represent individual bookmarks. The HREF attribute is the URL, and the text inside is the title.
• ADD_DATE values are Unix timestamps (seconds since January 1, 1970). For example, 1709251200 is February 29, 2024.
• LAST_MODIFIED on folders tracks when the folder's contents last changed.

The top-level folders are "Bookmarks bar," "Other bookmarks," and sometimes "Mobile bookmarks" if you have ever synced with a phone.

Decoding the ADD_DATE values

The timestamps are standard Unix epoch values in seconds. To convert one:

• On macOS/Linux: Open Terminal and run date -d @1709251200 (Linux) or date -r 1709251200 (macOS)
• Online: Search "Unix timestamp converter" and paste the number
• Quick math: Divide by 86400 to get the number of days since January 1, 1970

Most people never need to decode these manually. But if you are merging bookmark files or troubleshooting an import, knowing the format helps you tell which version of a bookmark is newer.

What the file does NOT contain

This is where most people are surprised. The export leaves out:

• Favicons. The small icons next to each bookmark are not in the file. Chrome reloads them from each website after an import.
• Visit count and last visited date. Chrome tracks how often you visit bookmarked pages, but that data stays in the browser's history database, not the bookmark file.
• Custom sort order within folders. If you have manually arranged bookmarks within a folder, the export may not preserve that exact order. Re-imported bookmarks appear in the order they are listed in the HTML.
• Tags or labels. Chrome does not natively support bookmark tags, but some extensions add them. Extension metadata is not included in the export.
• Separator lines. If you use bookmark separators (created by some extensions), they are not part of the standard export format.
• Descriptions or notes. Some older browsers stored notes with bookmarks. Chrome does not export this field even if the data exists internally.

What changes in a round trip

If you export your bookmarks and then import them back, the result is not identical to what you started with. Here is what shifts:

1. An "Imported" folder appears on the bookmarks bar. Chrome always creates this folder during import. If your bar already had bookmarks, the Imported folder contains the imported bar bookmarks and other bookmarks as subfolders. If your bar was empty, bar bookmarks go directly onto the bar, and only the other bookmarks end up inside the Imported folder.
2. Duplicates appear. Chrome does not check for existing bookmarks during import. Every bookmark in the file gets added, even if an identical one already exists.
3. Favicons are gone until revisited. They will reload as you visit each site, but your bookmarks bar will look blank for a while.
4. Folder modification dates may reset. The LAST_MODIFIED values on folders do not always survive the round trip intact.

The bookmark URLs, titles, and basic folder hierarchy survive cleanly. The metadata around them does not.

Is an HTML export a reliable backup?

For a single point-in-time snapshot, yes. The export captures every bookmark URL and its location in your folder structure. That is enough to rebuild your library if something goes wrong.

Where it falls short is as an ongoing backup strategy. The file is static the moment you save it. Any bookmarks you add after the export are not protected. And there is no versioning, so you only have whatever you last remembered to save.

For a deeper comparison of backup methods, the backup guide covers the tradeoffs between manual exports, Chrome Sync, and automated options.

Keeping more than a snapshot

If you want backups that stay current without manual exports, TrueBookmark keeps versioned copies of your bookmark library automatically. Every change is captured, so you can restore to any previous state rather than relying on a single HTML file that may be weeks or months old.