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Question

In OS 10.6.8 how to reach folder with my Safari bookmarks

Dec 3, 2013 8:09PM PST

A much used folder in my Bookmarks in Safari is missing. I recall having an accident with the mouse while in there and suppose I inadvertently erased.

I have a peripheral back up drive and want to recover the missing folder with Time Machine.

All my amateurish attempts to locate that folder have have failed. Can some kind soul help me?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
bookmark folder restoration
Dec 4, 2013 8:27AM PST

The Bookmark File is stored in the User>Library>Safari folder.
Close Safari.
On the Finder Menu bar, hold down the Option key and click on the GO menu. Choose Library.
Now find the Safari folder
Open it and find the Bookmarks.plist no need to touch it.
Enter Time Machine. Usually in the menubar. (Not Time Machine Preferences)
The screen changes and displays the library page you were on.
Move back in time, using the slider on the right of the screen, until you reach a date where you are sure the missing folder was there.
Select the Bookmark.plist file.
Hit restore.
On completion, close Time Machine and Launch Safari.

Did that work for you?

BTW, did you know that there is a whole CNET Forum dedicated to the Mac and its users?
You'll find it here: http://forums.cnet.com/mac-forums/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

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In OS 10.6.8 how to reach folder with my Safari bookmarks
Dec 4, 2013 11:58AM PST

Thank you!

Most helpful parts were: 1) the path 2) close Safari, 3) find Bookmarks.plist but don't touch it, 4) After using Tim Machine to go back in time, then click on file name Bookmarks.plist and then click restore.

For me, the option key instruction didn't work, just got a message that file couldn't be found, or words to that effect.

Just think how Apple stock would soar if Time Machine worked on restoring hair on scalps!

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Indeed,
Dec 4, 2013 8:53PM PST

Are you saying that holding down the Option key and clicking on the Finder GO menu
did not display the word Library in the list of choices?

Worked for me but try the other two keys, Control or Command, if you are not seeing Library as a choice in the GO menu.

You have to be in the Users > Library (NOT the other Library that you see when you open the hard drive) before you launch Time Machine.

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In OS 10.6.8 how to reach folder with my Safari bookmarks b
Dec 4, 2013 9:48PM PST

I tried both the Option and Control keys and each time got this message:

The folder "Bookmarks.plist" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see its contents.

I suppose this results from our knowing so very little about computers when when the technician from a local computer store came and set up our Mac for us in 2004. I'm guessing that it was set up in such a way that, to the computer, an administrator or some other person has charge of it, not my wife and I.

My (alleged) brain just had fun concocting an imaginary administrator-me confrontation over THAT !

Anyway I'm very pleased to have learned a bit more, and grateful that you and others are willing to help people learn. Thanks again!

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In OS 10.6.8 how to reach folder with my Safari bookmarks by
Dec 4, 2013 9:51PM PST

I should have written "I JUST tried using the Option and Control keys, i.e., after reading your post, mrmacfixit. I had not tried them previously.

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Must be a misunderstanding here.
Dec 5, 2013 9:00AM PST

You are NOT trying to Open the Bookmarks.plist file.
It is NOT a folder!

Please go back and read my first post again because if you are actually trying to open the Bookmarks.plist FILE, then you must have reached the Library.
If you have not been able to reach the Library, try this:
Instead of holding down the Option key when you click the "GO" menu, just left click it once. Keep the mouse where it is and now push the Option key down.
The word LIBRARY will appear in the GO menu for as long as you hold the Option key down.
Click the word LIBRARY.


Once inside the Library, continue reading my post, find the Bookmarks.plist file and use Time Machine to replace that file with one from a date before you noticed you lost your folder.

As an aside, go to the System Preferences and choose Users and Groups or Accounts.
In the left hand pane, you should see something that resembles your name.
Click it once.
Does it say Admin under it? If it does, and it should, then you have permission to mess with stuff.

Keep trying. we can do this.

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Must be a misunderstanding here
Dec 5, 2013 2:39PM PST

Via System Preferences and Accounts I find Administrator under my name.

I wonder whether either of these two have anything to do with why I cannot reach Library within Safari:

1. Our Mac has no folder named User. Mine is named Users. That may be trivial, but I'm not assuming anything, just telling you what I see.

2. When--with Safari closed--I attempt to go on the path Macintosh HD > Users > Library > Safari, I can do Macintosh HD > Users, but as soon as I click on Library in the Users folder the path indicator jumps to Macintosh HD > Users > [a folder named after me]

But I don't see a window for the folder named after me. The Users folder window stays on the screen. Within that window I can locate, and click on, Safari, after which the path indicator shows Macintosh HD > users > [my name] > Safari

It's after 1:30 AM here in Maine so I'll turn in now and await further word with recharged brain. Thank you so much for your persistence.

I read in a book collection of essays on Albert Einstein the opinion of one author that Einstein was not so much brilliant as he was PERSISTENT. Somewhere years ago I read the same statement about Isaac Newton.

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OK, here's what I'd like you to do.
Dec 5, 2013 10:00PM PST

you see where my name, mrmacfixit, is? The one with the Red M next to it. Click it.

This will take you to my profile page.

On the right you will see an "About Me" panel.

Directly above the "About Me" there is the word E-mail. Click it and send me an email.

I will reply with a Step by Step process which will achieve what we are trying to do here.

I think we can get it done faster that way.

If you do not feel comfortable with the email, say so and I will continue to work with you in this thread

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Not on 10.6.8
Dec 5, 2013 11:11PM PST

Option key on the Go menu does not work with OS 10.6.8, you need to go into ~/users/<your user folder>/Library/Preferences

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Ahh. To long in Mountain Lion, but
Dec 6, 2013 5:15AM PST

the Preferences is not the place to be for the bookmarks

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Must be a misunderstanding here by MEgeezah
Dec 6, 2013 6:31AM PST

Dear mrmacfixit,

SUBJECT ONE

I finally succeeded in the task for which you wrote the original instruction in your 12/3/2013 4:27 PM post.

I traveled the path ~/Users/[my name]/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

I did not open Bookmarks.plist.

I don't think I closed Safari. (Too weary [see below] to go back and check now.)

I activated Time Machine, and had it return to 1:30 AM today or hereabouts.

Then highlighted Bookmarks.plist.

I did not click on Restore because there was no need to:

Reason: Earlier I had discovered the folder missing from the Bookmarks folders list--my accidental misplacing of which started this whole thing. (The mishap: I had accidentally jerked the folder across the vertical bar just right of of the bookmark folders column, into the larger of the two areas, where all the individual bookmarks within a given folder appear. Eventually I noticed the missing folder, out of place amongst a long list of bookmarked sites/links, and I just dragged that folder leftward, back across the vertical line, and restored it to alpha order in the list.

SUBJECT TWO

Is there a way to deactivate INDIVIDUAL keyboard shortcuts? There are two I would love to eliminate, because I'm just a two-finger-peck typist who makes many mistakes, and wastes time over and over again negating the unwanted action my misdirected peck causes. The two are:

1) In Word, in Microsoft Office 2004 (and 200Cool for Mac, the one that causes the second and subsequent lines of a paragraph to be indented. Normally in my letters & other documents I don't want second & subsequent lines indented. Undoing the unwanted indenting is time-consuming.

2) When I'm on line, the one that activates the Top Sites feature.

Today I hit that shortcut, whatever it is, by accident five or six times, got the Top Sites screen. Within that screen, never saw the one I'd been typing, that is, not amongst the thumbnails shown, and couldn't figure out how to reverse the action without getting kicked out, so had to start the post all over again..........5- 6 times, not exaggerating. Very aggravating.

Eventually I composed this in Text Edit, and pasted that into the reply box, hoping to avoid triggering Top Sites.

Maybe an alternate way is to turn off Top Sites somehow? Or if that is an App, put it in Trash?

SUBJECT THREE

How do I log onto this particular forum in cnet? The home page has so many things it overwhelms me. Fortunately I get the emails indicating you or another helper has replied, and I reach this forum fairly quickly.

But what if, say a month later, I'd like to request help? Now I need the link for the How to Forum. Sufficeient floundering will eventually do the trick, I suppose; after all, I did reach this site somehow for the first time yesterday . But I hope you can supply it so that I can bookmark it.

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Answer
About Word Paragraph Formatting.
Dec 6, 2013 6:48AM PST
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Excuse me while I smile quietly.
Dec 6, 2013 9:28AM PST

Pleased you have located the errant folder.

Your Word question has been answered by Bob. (See below) A little light reading for you.

Top Sites. This is a choice and can be changed as follows.
With Safari open, go to the menubar Safari > Preferences > General and change the New Tabs open with: to Empty Page.

the Keyboard Shortcut to open a new Tab in Safari is Command + T. Quite how you manage to hit both those keys at the same time is a mystery.
However, if you do create one, just look at the top of the Safari page and you will see the tab called Untitled. Just look to the left of it and you should see the Tab you were originally in. You can also delete the Untitled tab by clicking on it and then clicking the little x

Logging on to CNET. Just create a shortcut. Rather than going to the How To forum, go to the Mac forums and pick a subject from there.
Click on this link, http://forums.cnet.com/mac-forums/ , and when you get there go to the menubar item Bookmarks.
Choose Add a Bookmark
In the next dialog box, where it asks you where you want to save the bookmark, click the up/down triangles and choose Favorites Bar.
Click Add.
At the top of the Safari page you should now see the bookmark you just saved. Just underneath the icons and the place where you type your URL's.
If you do not see anything, go to the menubar View and choose "Show Favorites" bar.

Now, whenever you want to get to CNET, just click that spot on the favorites bar and you will be taken there.

If you need any more help, just create a new thread.

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In OS 10.6.8 how to reach folder with my Safari bookmarks by
Dec 7, 2013 4:10AM PST

Thank you so much for how to get Top Sites out of my hair. Perhaps some day I'll be agile enough with the Mac to do tabbing, and will change settings to suit.

Now I think I know why both that annoyance and the unwanted para indents in Word occur: With my hunt-and-peck typing, the probability of a missed jab goes up sharply as I try to get a thought typed quickly, and my left index finger all too often misses its target. So, for example, if I type a word ending in t and I simultaneously jab my left index finger at the space bar but it hits the right hand edge of Command, the short cut actuates.

So I need to develop a new pattern, such as consciously jabbing more at the center of the space bar. Or perhaps switching and using my right index finger for spacing. I'm right handed so should expect better performance from that finger.

While typing this, twice I hit spacebar and t and actuated the shortcut. 'twas almost a joy to get out of it so quickly! Three time zones away you probably heard my triumphant "TakeTHAT, Keyboard Short Cut !"

Idea--probably not good enough--for a T-shirt for people such as you: A take-off on the current wave of "Keep Calm......." shirts. "Keep calm. Ask: What keystrokes did that? Would need two lines, maybe three for thin people.

As I type, some outfit is doubtless silk screening shirts with a much better one: "Keep calm. Call your techie."

Again, thank you for your help!

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(NT) You're welcome, see you in the Mac forums
Dec 7, 2013 4:20AM PST
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About Word Paragraph Formatting.
Dec 7, 2013 10:18PM PST

Dear R. Profitt,

I've discovered why I cause Word to indent when I don't want it to:

I'm a hunt-and-peck typist. Too often when I jab at the space bar with my left index finger it hits the right hand edge of command instead. If that happens when my right index finger has been a tad tardy in lifting from the t key, the keyboard shortcut for indent is triggered.

I hope I can retrain my LHIF to hit the space bar a bit more more to the right and hence dig out the root of the problem.

Goodness knows there's enough width to that bar that I needn't worry about overshooting at the right hand end!

Thank you for the link!