Exporting and Importing Hookmark’s Bookmarks

Hookmark’s enables you to Export and Import Hookmark’s bookmarks. These commands are in

a. The Advanced sub-menu of the Gear menu; and are repeated in
b. the File menu of Hookmark’s menubar. The File menu is only available if you are running Hookmark in Foreground mode, which as of Hookmark Version 6.13 is the default. (You can toggle between the foreground and background modes in the General Settings.

Why export and import Hookmark’s bookmark database

The export and import commands are provided for the follow purposes

1. as one of several alternative means of backing up and restoring Hookmark links. For more information see this web page. See also instructions on migrating Hookmark between Macs.
2. to recover from a corrupted database. In the unlikely event that Hookmark data become corrupted, you can import previously exported links. This process may detect and remove inconsistent data.
3. to compact Hookmark’s database. When you export Hookmark links, Hookmark does not include links to files that are not currently mounted / reachable. This effectively purges links to files that have been deleted or are on media that you no longer use. However, this leads to the following caution.

The process: before during and after exporting and importing your bookmarks

1. Ensure that all mobile /removable directories, to which you have links that you wish to preserve, are connected at the time of both exporting and importing. That includes version control system folders, shared folders (Dropbox folders, etc.), and removable media (external drives, disk images, etc.) Hookmark will not recreate links to files that are not reachable at time of export/import.
2. Please also ensure that Spotlight is indexing the folder containing files to which hook://file/ links point. Otherwise, Hookmark will may not be able to reach the files in non-indexed locations, and will not reconstitute hook://file URLs to them per the previous point.
3. Disable Hookmark’s sync on all your Macs. Instructions are here..
4. Force quit Hookmark Pal on all your mobile devices.
5. Delete Hookmark’s sync folder.
6. Quit Hookmark on all your Macs.
7. Make sure the sync folder has not reappeared, if so delete it again.
8. Launch Hookmark for Mac on one of your Macs.
9. From one of Hookmark’s Gear buttons, Export your Hookmark database. Follow the dialog box’s instructions.
10. Quit and relaunch that instance of Hookmark for Mac.
11. From one of Hookmark’s Gear buttons, import that database. Follow the dialog box’s instructions.
12. Re-enable sync if you are using Hookmark Pal or have multiple Macs.

NB, it is safe to import the same exported database file of Hookmark on multiple Macs.

What this does not do

This process does not export Hookmark’s settings. It also does not touch .hookmark files you may have scattered across your Macs.

See also

See also the backup and restore instructions.

Keep in mind, also, that Hookmark maintains backup copies of your Hookmark database in your ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.cogsciapps.hook/ folder. Instead of export-import, you can recover from one of these backups.