Switching bookmark managers always stalls on the same fear: what about my existing library? Years of saved links, tags, and folders feel like an anchor chaining you to whatever tool you picked in 2019.
The good news: bookmarks are one of the most portable data types on the internet. Every major service and every browser exports to a standard file, and a good importer reads those files in one pass. This guide walks through getting your links out of Pocket, Raindrop, Instapaper, and every major browser — and into a local library on your Mac.
The examples use Bookmarker (a local-first Mac app — the import target this guide exists for), but the export half applies to any migration.
The Shape of Every Migration
Every bookmark migration is the same three steps:
- Export from the old tool — you'll get a CSV or HTML file
- Import that file into the new tool
- Verify the counts look right, then keep the export file as a backup
In Bookmarker, step 2 is one dialog: File → Import (or the Import button in Settings → Data) lists the sources by name — Raindrop, Pocket, browser bookmarks, a Bookmarker export, or a folder of images or PDFs. You can also just drag the export file into the app window — it recognizes CSV, HTML, JSON, and ZIP files and routes them to the right importer automatically.
Now, per source.
From Pocket (Yes, Even Now)
Pocket shut down in July 2025, and Mozilla's export window has closed — if you didn't download your data before the deadline, it's gone, and no tool can recover it.
But a lot of people did export in that final window and have a part_000000.csv (or a ZIP containing it) sitting in Downloads ever since, unopened. If that's you, your library isn't lost at all:
- Find your Pocket export — a CSV with columns like
title,url,time_added,tags,status - Drag it into Bookmarker (or File → Import → Pocket)
- Done. Titles, URLs, and tags come across; each link gets fresh metadata and a cover image fetched on save
Two years of "read laters" become a searchable local library — one that can't be shut down out from under you again.
From Raindrop.io
Raindrop has clean export, though full backups are a Pro feature:
- In Raindrop, go to Settings → Backups
- Click to create a new backup, then download it as CSV
- Drag the CSV into Bookmarker
This is the richest import path. Raindrop's CSV carries your folder structure, tags, notes, excerpts, and cover images — Bookmarker maps folders to collections, keeps tags and notes, and downloads every cover image to your disk so the library is fully offline, not a wall of hotlinks that rot when remote servers move.
If you're weighing the switch itself, we compared the two head-to-head in Bookmarker vs Raindrop.
From Your Browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Arc)
All browsers export the same format — Netscape bookmark HTML, a standard that has outlived every bookmarking startup:
Chrome (and Brave, Edge, Vivaldi — same flow): Bookmarks Manager (⌥⌘B) → ⋮ menu → Export bookmarks
Safari: File → Export → Bookmarks…
Firefox: Bookmarks → Manage Bookmarks → Import and Backup → Export Bookmarks to HTML…
Then drag the HTML file into Bookmarker. Folders become collections; every link gets real metadata, a cover, and a reading view fetched on import — which is a quiet upgrade, since browser bookmarks store nothing but a title and a URL.
A shortcut worth knowing: for the links that matter right now — your open tabs — you can skip the export file entirely. Bookmarker imports open tabs directly from Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, and Vivaldi (Import → Browser tabs, pick the ones you want). It's the fastest way to finally close those 40 tabs without losing them.
From Instapaper, Pinboard, and Everything Else
Most other services export CSV or HTML too. Bookmarker's drop router recognizes the common formats and tells you when a file needs a different path; generic CSV mapping is on the roadmap. The reliable universal fallback: many services can export Netscape HTML directly, and almost anything can be converted to it. Worst case, export whatever the service offers today — the lesson of Pocket is to get your data out while the export button still exists.
Images and PDFs Too
A bookmark library on a Mac doesn't have to stop at URLs. Bookmarker also imports:
- A folder of images — screenshots, design references, moodboard material — into a visual grid with AI descriptions and search
- A folder of PDFs — papers, manuals, receipts — each with extracted text so full-text search covers their contents
Point Import at the folder (or drag it in) and the whole thing lands in one pass.
After the Import: Three Checks
- Counts. The import report shows how many links were found, added, and updated. Skim your collections; spot-check a few links.
- Re-import is safe. Imports are idempotent — matched by URL, so running the same file twice doesn't create duplicates, and re-importing a newer export merges tags instead of overwriting them. If an import gets interrupted, just run it again.
- Keep the export file. Archive it with your backups. Export files are the insurance policy of this whole ecosystem.
Then spend ten minutes on structure — a handful of collections, not fifty. Our organizing system covers the setup that actually sticks.
Why Move to a Local App at All
Because this article shouldn't need to exist twice. Every migration described above was forced or motivated by the same event: a service changing, charging, or dying. Move your library to a local app once, and the treadmill ends — the data is a file on your Mac, in your backups, readable by you forever. The full argument is in why your bookmarks shouldn't live on someone else's server; the comparison shopping is in best bookmark manager for Mac.
FAQ
Can I still get my bookmarks out of Pocket?
No — Mozilla's export deadline passed in late 2025 and the data was deleted. But if you exported at the time, that CSV file is still fully importable. Check Downloads, old backups, and email attachments; searching your Mac for part_000000 finds many a forgotten Pocket export.
Will my folder structure survive the import?
From Raindrop and browser HTML, yes — folders become collections. From Pocket, there were never folders, only tags, and those come across. Nested hierarchies get flattened sensibly rather than dropped.
What happens to my tags if I import twice?
They merge. Bookmarker's importers upsert by URL: an existing link is updated, and its tag set becomes the union of old and new. Nothing is duplicated and no tag is lost — safe to re-run, safe to import overlapping exports from two services.
Do I need to be online during the import?
For the file parse, no. For the enrichment — fetching metadata, covers, and reading views for each link — yes, once. After that the library, including images and article text, is fully offline.
