Homepage, Browser and Bookmarks

[jparker402]

Posting here because not sure where on the forum to go.

Am getting sick of my 2015 Macbook Air not loading anything but the "cover page" of MSN.com (my homepage on Safari) and going to some other homepage (no idea what yet). Got to wondering this morning what consequences a move might have on other parts of my computer use. Have catalogued a number of sites in Bookmarks that I would be very unhappy to loose. "Googled" the question if bookmarks were tied to the browser or the home page. Did not get an answer, or at least one that I could understand. Perhaps the question is too basic. But at any rate, if I dump MSN.com, do I loose my bookmarks? If that is a possibility, how do I keep them short of a paper printout of all of them? Thanks, and Happy New Year!

 

[Jessica Lares]

Bookmarks are tied to the browser, you won't lose them changing your homepage. To give you some peace of mind, you export them via File > Export Bookmarks and then import them back under Import From > Bookmarks HTML File. Both are at the bottom before Print.

I was just looking at it and they're doing something weird where after I go to msn.com, it takes me to g00/?i10c.ua=4&i10c.encReferrer=&i10c.dv=22 on the same domain. I don't know if that's what's happening to you, it's still otherwise showing me the page...

I'd try deleting the data Safari has stored for it before dumping it, here's Apple's support page on doing that (the third point - Remove stored cookies and data):

Manage cookies and website data in Safari on Mac

In Safari on your Mac, clear cookies and website data for some or all websites. Control which cookies and website data you allow.

support.apple.com

Single out just msn.com first and see if that works. If not, then click Remove All. You will have to login to everything again and things might be a little slow because the cache has to be rebuilt.

 

[jparker402]

Thanks, Jessica. But I guess I don't know how to make the saving bookmarks work. Thought I followed your instructions, but ended up with a window saying this:

 

[Jessica Lares]

That is strange... Should just be a file browser window that's saving the file as "Safari Bookmarks".

Alternatively, Safari does an automatic backup on its own as AutomaticBookmarksBackup.html. If you go to the Finder menu, then Go > Go to Folder, navigate to ~/Library/Safari and copy that file to your Desktop. Do a Quick Look of it just to make sure it has all your stuff before anything else.

 

[jparker402]

Thank you, Jessica. I got there, though not quite on the road map you laid out. I did not copy it to my desktop, but did look at it to say that it appeared to have everything. Didn't copy it yet because not sure from what you said that I need to. If it is a backup, do I need to copy it? Or do I wait to do that after something happens that I need to? Like what could happen?

 

[Jessica Lares]

It's a backup file. It's the same one you'd get if you did it through Safari yourself.

Just managing the website data isn't going to do anything to your bookmarks though. So go ahead with the next step.

If that doesn't work, then make the copy then and there before you try something else. It's then that you can end up with bookmarks being duplicated and reset.

 

[frou]

Alternatively, Safari does an automatic backup on its own as AutomaticBookmarksBackup.html. If you go to the Finder menu, then Go > Go to Folder, navigate to ~/Library/Safari

At least on my Macs, this file doesn't exist any more. I used to grab it as part of my backup script. There's a Bookmarks.plist but it's a binary file so not quite as useful.

 

[Jessica Lares]

At least on my Macs, this file doesn't exist any more. I used to grab it as part of my backup script. There's a Bookmarks.plist but it's a binary file so not quite as useful.

Really, hmm. Mine regenerated again on the 28th of this last month... Not sure what's going on there. I'm on the latest 10.15.3.

Had a look at my Bookmarks.plist and it's XML...

 

[frou]

Had a look at my Bookmarks.plist and it's XML...

When I look at it using QuickLook, it seems to be converted to XML on the fly, but on disk it isn't. I'm just going to hope that some future Safari update kicks mine into gear to start writing the HTML file again.

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a 2018 Mini running Mojave.
I just tried connecting to "msn.com" using Safari and it popped right up.

Have you tried using another browser?
You might give Microsoft's new "Edge" browser a try.

Personal experience:
I have no "home page".
NOTHING AT ALL.

When I launch Safari, it opens with "an empty [white] page".
I then can either select from a bookmark, or type in a URL.

Think of your browser page as "an empty canvas", waiting for YOU to "paint it".
If you need to write something down on a piece of paper, would you use one that is already full of writing?
Or... an empty page?