How to transfer bookmarks from Safari to Chrome (Mac and iPhone)

Updated 18 October 2026

The reliable way is a file: in Safari choose File > Export Browsing Data to File, tick Bookmarks, unzip the download and import the Bookmarks.html inside it into Chrome. Chrome can also read Safari directly, but only once macOS lets it into Safari’s files, which is why Safari is often missing from Chrome’s import list.

Method 1: export a file from Safari

1. In Safari 18 or later, choose File > Export Browsing Data to File. Tick Bookmarks (and anything else you want to move), click Download and save.
2. Safari saves a .zip file. Double-click it in Finder. Inside is Bookmarks.html, plus files such as Passwords.csv if you ticked them.
3. In Chrome, open the Bookmark Manager with Cmd+Option+B, click the three-dot menu at the top right of the page and choose Import bookmarks. Pick Bookmarks.html.

Safari 17 and earlier have a simpler menu: File > Export > Bookmarks saves one file called Safari Bookmarks.html, which imports the same way.

Method 2: import straight from Safari

In Chrome, click the three-dot menu > Bookmarks and lists > Import bookmarks and settings, choose Safari under From and click Import. Two limits apply:

• Safari may not be in the list. Chrome only offers Safari when it can read Safari’s bookmarks file, and since macOS Mojave that folder is closed to apps without Full Disk Access (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access). Method 1 needs no such permission.
• Bookmarks only. Chrome’s Safari importer skips history and passwords, and every bookmark gets today’s date as its date added, because Safari’s file stores none.

Where Safari’s bookmarks end up

After a direct import into a Chrome whose bookmarks bar already has bookmarks, everything sits in a folder called Imported From Safari at the end of the bar:

A file import lands in a folder called Imported (or on the bar, if it was empty), with your Safari folders and the Reading List inside. Either way the Reading List arrives as ordinary bookmarks, and Chrome’s own reading list stays empty. To rebuild your Favorites bar, open the Bookmark Manager and drag those bookmarks onto Bookmarks bar.

From an iPhone or iPad

Chrome on iPhone can’t import files, but Safari on recent versions of iOS can export them. Open Settings > Apps > Safari, tap Export below History and Website Data, choose Bookmarks and tap Save to Downloads. Move the zip to a computer, unzip it and import Bookmarks.html into Chrome there. If Chrome on the computer and on the phone use the same Google Account, the bookmarks sync across. And if your Mac syncs Safari through iCloud, the iPhone’s bookmarks are already on the Mac, so one export from the Mac covers both.

Passwords and history

To move passwords, tick Passwords in Safari’s export, import Passwords.csv in Chrome from Google Password Manager > Settings > Import passwords, then delete the CSV. Chrome on a computer has no way to read Safari’s history.

Common problems

• Everything twice: Chrome doesn’t skip duplicates, so a second import, or using both methods, gives you two copies, the second in Imported (1) or Imported From Safari (1). Delete the extra folder, or clean an export with our duplicate bookmark finder.
• Can’t see the folder: on a full bookmarks bar it hides under the » button at the right. The Bookmark Manager lists it at the end of Bookmarks bar; Google’s help also says to check Other bookmarks.
• It spread to your other devices: when Chrome saves bookmarks in your Google Account, the import goes there and syncs, so a cleanup on one computer reaches the rest too.

Miss Safari’s start page with your Favorites on it? Stackboard puts your bookmarks on Chrome’s new tab page as a board, and one click copies the bookmarks bar, imported folder included, into a space with one stack per folder.