Is copying the Bookmarks file enough to back up my bookmarks?

Yes, provided the browser is quit when you copy it and you restore it into the same browser. It is an exact copy. The HTML export is the more portable choice, because any browser can read it and importing it merges rather than replaces.

Where does the exported HTML file go?

Wherever you choose in the save dialog — Chrome suggests the Downloads folder and a name like bookmarks_28_08_26.html. It is a plain file with no dependencies, so it can go anywhere that is itself backed up.

Can I back up bookmarks without a Google account?

Yes. Both methods above are entirely local — the HTML export and the file copy each work with no account and no network. Signing in is only needed for sync, which is a different thing.

How often should I export?

Often enough that losing everything since the last one would not hurt. For most people that is a couple of times a year, and after any large tidy-up — the moment a mistake is most likely, and the moment sync will copy it everywhere fastest.

Guide

Two ways to back up bookmarks on a Mac

The export is three clicks and needs no account: bookmark manager, the three-dot menu inside it, Export bookmarks. You get one HTML file that every browser on every platform can import. The other way is to copy the raw Bookmarks file out of ~/Library — faster, exact, and only readable by the same browser family. Signing in to sync is a third thing, and it is not a backup at all. Which of the three you want depends on what you are protecting against.

Updated 28 August 2026

The HTML export, which every browser can read

Open the bookmark manager with ⌥⌘B.
Click the three-dot menu at the top right of the manager — not the browser’s own menu.
Choose Export bookmarks, and save the HTML file somewhere that is itself backed up.

No account, no sign-in, and no network request. The result is a single file in a format that has not meaningfully changed since Netscape, which is why Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Arc, Firefox and Safari can all read it.

What it keeps: the title, the address, the folder structure and the date each bookmark was added. What it loses: favicons, and any per-bookmark data specific to the browser. For actually restoring bookmarks, none of that matters — it is the export you want in almost every case.

It is also the only sane way to merge two sets, because importing an HTML file adds to what is there rather than replacing it.

Copying the raw Bookmarks file

The other backup is the file itself. It is JSON, it has no extension, and it lives inside your profile folder in Application Support.

cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks \
   ~/Desktop/Bookmarks-backup.json

Copy Chrome’s bookmarks to the Desktop, with Chrome quit.

Quit the browser first. The file is rewritten while the browser runs, and a copy taken mid-write is a copy of half a file. Beyond that it is an ordinary file copy, and it is exact — nothing is translated on the way out.

Restoring means putting it back in the same place with the browser quit. Note that this replaces rather than merges: whatever is in that profile now is gone. If you are combining two Macs, export both to HTML instead.

Beside it you will find Bookmarks.bak. That is the previous version, rewritten every time the browser starts, so it protects you against a crash mid-write and against nothing else. It is not a backup, however much its name suggests otherwise — by the time you notice something is missing it has usually been overwritten twice.

Why signing in to sync is not a backup

Sync keeps your bookmarks the same on every machine you are signed into. That is genuinely useful and it is not the same job as a backup, for one reason: a mirror copies a deletion.

Delete a folder of two hundred links on your laptop and sync will faithfully remove it from your desktop within seconds. There is no version history to go back to, and the local Bookmarks.bak has already moved on. The thing you wanted protection from is exactly the thing sync propagates.

The practical answer is to do both: sync for convenience, and an HTML export somewhere it cannot be reached by the account that syncs. An export you take twice a year is worth more than a sync you trust completely.

Keeping a copy that survives the browser

There is a third thing, which is neither a backup nor sync: a separate library that holds your links independently of the browser that first collected them.

This is what Unbury does, and it is worth being exact about what that is and is not. Unbury reads your browser’s Bookmarks file — it never writes to it — and keeps its own record of each link on your Mac. From then on the two are independent. Tidying a folder in Chrome does not remove anything from Unbury; the record stays, marked as no longer in the browser, and still turns up when you search.

That is a useful side effect, and it is not a backup tool. It does not restore anything into your browser, it does not archive the pages themselves, and it only knows about links that were present the last time you imported. Keep the HTML export as well.

Questions

Is copying the Bookmarks file enough to back up my bookmarks?: Yes, provided the browser is quit when you copy it and you restore it into the same browser. It is an exact copy. The HTML export is the more portable choice, because any browser can read it and importing it merges rather than replaces.
Where does the exported HTML file go?: Wherever you choose in the save dialog — Chrome suggests the Downloads folder and a name like bookmarks_28_08_26.html. It is a plain file with no dependencies, so it can go anywhere that is itself backed up.
Can I back up bookmarks without a Google account?: Yes. Both methods above are entirely local — the HTML export and the file copy each work with no account and no network. Signing in is only needed for sync, which is a different thing.
How often should I export?: Often enough that losing everything since the last one would not hurt. For most people that is a couple of times a year, and after any large tidy-up — the moment a mistake is most likely, and the moment sync will copy it everywhere fastest.