Try these troubleshooting steps if Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac won’t remember added bookmarks, so you can save and revisit your favorite websites.
Sometimes, trying to bookmark a website will instantly freeze Safari, displaying a rainbow or beach ball. Other times, the usual “Add to Bookmarks” and “Add Bookmark to” options are nowhere to be seen in the share menu. Some people say they can update the URL for an existing bookmark, but not create new bookmarks.
If you’re facing these and other problems when trying to save a website as a bookmark, our troubleshooting solutions right ahead may help you fix them.
Common solutions
Let’s start with the basic troubleshooting tips:
- Quit Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and reopen it.
- Restart your device and try adding the bookmark again.
- Update to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Uninstall or turn off extensions
If bookmarks started failing to save after you’ve installed a new browser extension, disable or delete it and restart the device.
iPhone and iPad:
- Navigate to Settings > Apps > Safari > Extensions.
- Tap an extension under the ‘Allow these extensions’ heading.
- Turn off the switch labeled ‘Allow Extension.’ If you’ve multiple Safari profiles, turn off the extension for each of them.
Mac:
- Open Safari and click Safari > Settings in the menu.
- Select the Extensions tab.
- Untick the box before an extension to disable it or click the Uninstall button to delete it.
If Safari bookmarks don’t sync across devices
If you’ve saved a bookmark on your iPhone but it doesn’t appear on your other devices, there may be a hiccup with iCloud sync. Follow these steps to turn on Safari sync on all your devices.
- Open Settings (iPhone, iPad) or System Settings (Mac) and select your Apple account at the top.
- Click iCloud, then select See All.
- Turn on the switch next to Safari.
- Wait until Safari syncs bookmarks and other data with iCloud, which can take anywhere between a few seconds and a couple of minutes. If the sync fails, sign out of your Apple account and sign back in.
Mac-specific solutions
If the bookmark syncing issue is isolated to Safari on your Mac, try the fixes below.
Give read and write permission to Safari’s system folder
If Safari isn’t allowed to write data to its folder, bookmarks may fail to sync. Maybe you or someone with access to your computer unknowingly made the change, and here’s how to revert it (for company-issued computers, contact your IT department):
1) Click an empty spot on the desktop to activate the Finder.
2) Click the Go menu while holding the Option key to show the hidden Library option, then select it.
3) Right-click the Safari folder in the Finder window and choose the Get Info option in the menu.
4) Click your macOS user account in the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom of the Get Info window and set access privileges to Read & Write as shown in the screenshot below.
5) Quit Safari and restart your Mac.
Delete Safari Bookmarks.plist file
Removing the current Bookmarks.plist file can also resolve the bookmark syncing issue. Don’t worry, Safari will automatically recreate this file on the next launch.
1) Follow the previous steps to open the hidden Library folder.
2) Open the Safari folder and drag the Bookmarks.plist file from there to another folder, such as Downloads.
3) Open Safari. If you don’t see your favorites and bookmarks, wait until Safari loads them back from iCloud. When done, Safari will create a new Bookmarks.plist file that will show up in the Library > Safari folder.
4) Try bookmarking a new website to confirm that it now works.
If Safari didn’t sync your bookmarks from iCloud, simply delete the newly created Bookmarks.plist file and drag the original from the Downloads folder back to the Library > Safari folder. Quit and reopen Safari for the changes to take effect.
If nothing helps
If none of the above solutions work, consider these thermonuclear options.
Reinstall macOS
Log in to another user account on your Mac or boot into Safe Mode. If saving Safari bookmarks works here, then you know that the issue isn’t with Safari. Switch back to your standard account and try deleting any recently installed Mac apps. If that doesn’t help, reinstall macOS without losing your personal data.
Reset settings or erase your iPhone or iPad
If the problem only happens in Safari on your iPhone or iPad, try resetting all settings. If that doesn’t solve the problem, consider erasing your device and setting it up again from a saved backup.
Which of the aforementioned solutions worked for you? Share in the comments below.