Something changed in Win 7 a few months ago.

In IE:
File > Import/Export - Export to HTML file

then in Firefox:
Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks -> Import & Backup - Import HTML... = From HTML file

I'm lost! I opened IE and went to tools, file, but didn't see anything about import/export. Where is it? Thanks!

In IE you need to go to the File menu to Export the IE favorites as posted above and not the Tools menu.

In IE:

• File > Import/Export - Export to HTML file

In Firefox you can find the Import menu entry in the Bookmarks Manager (Library)

• Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Import Bookmarks from HTML
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_bookmarks

Well.......found all the stuff in Firefox........but I'll be damned if I can find "file" anywhere in IE. WHERE is the file menu?????? Thanks

If there aren't any menus visible in IE then try to hold down the alt key or right-click the top bar to see if that shows a menu bar or a drop down menu list.
I'm on Linux and don't know the specific details.

In order to see the menu bar in IE, right click on the toolbar at the top of the page and you will see a selection of toolbars to choose from. Tick the box next to 'Menu Bar' and you will then see the menu bar. File, on the menu bar, is at the left hand side. If you click on it, you can scro;; down to 'import and export'. Follow the on screen instructions and save your favourites to an htm file. It is easy enough to import your favoutites from the saved htm file.

It does work. I've just done it.

Thanks to the-edmeister

John C

Hi, I've just switched over to Firefox (was IE but XP is 2002 and cannot update) but am having the same problem not being able to transfer all my bookmarks. Sadly 'exporting' from IE and importing the htm has not solved the problem. Rather than a certain no. of bookmarks (folders or not) in alphabetical order, I now only have only folders, and still only some of them, starting with A down to about L; the same ones I had before.

  I'd tried putting the single bookmarks into a folder in the imported folder in Firefox in case that made things starting with M etc appear at the bottom of the list but sadly that didn't happen. :( I know my favourites are more than 1MB and fear it is something to do with size/organisation of information in part of the transfer mechanism that just lops the info off at a certain point? It reminds me of trying to transfer folders containing lots of files onto USB drives - if there's not double the folder size available it sometimes claims there's not enough space for any of it.
    This is very frustrating because in other ways I'm  very happy with this new browser.
  Please does anyone have any more ideas how to solve this?

Do you see them all if you open the HTML file in Firefox via Firefox > New File or File > Open File ?

How to place all the favorites in the bookmark.htm created by exporting from IE into a folder in FF called Internet Explorer?

Pl note that importing from IE via History>Library>Import & Backup in FF does not import all the favorites.

Hi gspal

Did you create an HTML backup of the bookmarks in IE and verified that all bookmarks are in the File by opening the HTML file in a Firefox tab (Firefox > New Tab > Open File)?

Yes, cor-el, I created an HTML backup of the bookmarks in IE6 which is names as bookmark.htm. However, only some folders got imported. I quit using IE6 that is integrated with Windows XP Professional SP2 many years ago for FF. Though for online payment of utility bills I yet need to use IE. I have not upgraded IE either as it interferes with some of the softwares in medical transcription that I do from home, especially QuickLook drug finder. I am based in India and currently on auto updated FF version 17.

Hi cor-el, Thanks for your very quick response, I've looked at the htm version of my favourites file in response to your very good question, and no, it's not complete at all. I guess I should try making an htm file by some other means that is complete and then import that?

As a matter of interest, I found that Google Chrome's spontaneous import of the same favourites file was even less complete than FireFox's (only one url per folder and not all the folders). Chrome also ran incredibly slowly in general that there's no way I could use it.

You may have bookmarks with an exceptionally long name or URL that isn't working properly or they may contain non-Unicode characters.

@cor-el, I did not have this problem when I was using FF version 16. The problem cropped up only when I had had my C:/Drive formatted last week and reinstalled the latest version of FF from Mozilla's site and the version was 17. I have been using FF for many years right and never had this problem before.

IE uses a file structure on the hard drive to store each folder and favorite as a file, just like you store files and this seems to causing problems at times with importing the IE favorites if there is too many nesting of folders. Most of the time it should work if the favorites in IE are exported to an HTML file and that file is imported in Firefox, but there can always be favorites that give problems and in that case you need to inspect and edit the HTML file to remove offending favorites. You can usually see where the importing has stopped and use that as a guidance.

Thanks cor-el. It is too much of a bother right now to edit any problematic favorites (quite a big list) which, otherwise, were working just a week back. If only FF could make a provision to copy and paste my Favorites from IE directory into Bookmarks folder-Internet Explorer. Anyhow, I am giving up attempting to import favorites into FF. I would rather prefer to go to start>favorites and then click on the site I want to open which opens in another tab in FF as FF is my default browser. Thanks again for all your help.

Cor-el - you clearly know a great deal about computers and I respect that....I know nothing. I don't know the difference between a toolbar and a menubar, so I accept that part of the problem is mine. However, I, too, cannot transfer my bookmarks (or 'Favorites') from Internet Explorer to Firefox, which I installed just today. First I followed the standard Firefox instructions as soon as the programme had finished downloading, but it didn't work. Then I used the instructions on this discussion site (which I had looked up via Internet Explorer before even trying to transfer to Mozilla, as I anticipated there would be a problem). As per these instructions, I made a copy of my Favorites in the computer's 'Documents' folder, and they are all there, albeit in a slightly different sequence to the layout of my 'Favorites' dropdown listing when I use Internet Explorer. Nothing I do, though, will move more than about half of the addresses into Firefox. I have tried the 'Library' method and that didn't work either - I just ended up with two copies of the original addresses which transferred the first time. Some of the folders have been transferred but have no contents; others have not been transferred at all - crucially ALL my email accounts - I have about five under different names for different purposes, and cannot get any of them with Mozilla. I am tempted to go back to Internet Explorer, for all that it keeps breaking down - at least I know how to use the bits of it that I want to use, which I can't even learn with Mozilla. It's like telling someone to learn French but not giving them a dictionary. Yours frustratedly, Dawn.

I found an easier solution. It requires getting Google Chrome. I imported my favorites from IE8 to Chrome, then from Chrome to Firefox. They are all there in a new folder called 'From Google Chrome. Then I just dragged them into the folders I wanted them in.