How to get rid of bookmarks in synced Chromium

Question

I'm using three Ubuntu systems in an irregular pattern, and since I use Chrome/Chromium anyway and have a Google account, I decided to make my life a bit easier and sync them.

Now I am having a problem: When I want to remove bookmarks from my lists, they not only come back when I switch the machine, they double. By now, I have up to ten identical bookmarks in the list and I spend a lot of time scrolling over them.

Is there any way to remove them permanently?

EDIT: Apps, too.

Solution 1

You can select what to sync and what not. For example you can disable sync for bookmarks and apps but keep it enabled for autofill and themes. It is in Settings / Personal Stuff / Advanced... (the button is near the top, next to "Disconnect Your Google Account")

After this if you remove your bookmarks I suppose they should not come back.

I hope this helps.

Solution 2

Actually, after looking at several responses via Google searches and spending hours looking at my problem with imported bookmarks creating one folder per website I had in my bookmarks, it appears I finally fixed the problem. Here's what I did to fix it. Hope it works for you as well and saves you some time looking for a solution.

I am using Windows 7 OS. Please note that these steps will delete ALL Google Chrome bookmarks from your browser. Then, you will import from IE (or whatever browser you choose) so you have a clean copy without duplicate bookmarks being shown in Chrome. Please note the steps are easy. I just broke them down to be very specific and clear in several steps for better results.

If you have more than one computer with this problem, then do these steps on all computers at the same time. Otherwise, bookmarks on one computer will mess up the others when you Sign in to Chrome (and you'll have duplicates again).

1) Go to the Chrome menu, using the icon in the upper right corner, and select Settings. In the Sign In section, click on the "Google Dashboard" link.

2) On the Google Dashboard screen, press the "Stop and Clear" button, then confirm by selecting "OK" on the next window.

3) After the Google Dashboard clear is complete, on the Settings screen, press the "Disconnect your Google Account..." button. Then, confirm with "Disconnect account" on the next window.

4) Exit out of ALL Chrome browser windows.

5) Go to your C: Drive and search for "Bookmarks" in the Search field.

6) Right click on the result that says "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default" and select the "Open File Location" menu item.

7) Delete the Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak files.

8) Open a Chrome browser window. You will notice there are no bookmarks, but there is a link at the top stating that you can Import your bookmarks. Click on that link and follow the prompts to import from whatever browser window you choose. Your bookmarks will be shown once they have all been imported.

9) On the Settings screen, press the "Sign in to Chrome" button, then enter your Google email and password. Then, confirm with "OK, sync everything" on the next window.

10) There you go... Now the bookmarks should be correct and they are now uploaded to your Google Account for easy syncing to other computers. You may want to turn off syncing temporarily or permanently to preserve your bookmark list.

Enjoy your day. I know I will now that I finally figured this out!

Solution 3

Ok i have a solution for this, its 2016 now, things have changed.

1) Open your Master Chrome browser that you have all dialed in the way you like.

• open settings
• in the Sign In section, click on the "Google Dashboard" link.

2) On the Google Dashboard screen

• press "Reset Sync"
• "OK" to confirm

3) After the Google Dashboard clear is complete

• open settings
• press "Disconnect" your account, if it isnt already
• close and reopen browser
• sign back in
• turn sync on, and adjust

4) BE CAREFUL

Now you need to go to any other devices browser that uses this account and carefully do the following IMMEDIATELY as you open them(could be 6 months from now? have to remember, or do it now):

• open settings
• sign out
• do one of the following
• clear all bookmarks
• or Reset settings, depending on if your also having theme issues, etc.. Resetting will make sure ALL settings are synced exactly.
• sign back in
• turn on sync it will bring your master copy down to it.

Comments

[Alvar]

I have the same problem in google chrome!

[janos]

I don't think my answer deserves to be accepted. Better answers came in after mine, I suggest to kindly review them and accept something else.

[Lanbo]

But wouldn't that mean I'd have to do that all over every time I want to remove just a single bookmark from my synced list?

[Brian Thomas]

I dont like this answer, cant see how it was accepted one. We're here for sync(for bm's), disabling it is not what I want atleast. SO for me, I get issues all the time when i delete bookmarks, are those sync deleted or not? I have dups show up all the time and i want them sync deleted once and for all. Trying to figure that part out. I though thats what this post initially set out to ask..

[Brian Thomas]

Ok, i like this response better, essentially this means to me, i can skip the deleting bookmarks since i just cleaned them up for the umpteenth time, and want those synced. So step 2 is what i needed. i can pretty much skip 4,5,6,7,8 and just resign in, or toggle sync back off/on or something, so it syncs up the bookmarks FROM this browser. Shit, now that means in my other systems when i open chrome i need to immediately sign out, DELETE all bookmarks, then sign back in to sync. thats the only way this will work from the way i see.

[janos]

@BrianThomas I agree with you and upvoted your answer. I wish OP will unaccept this so I can delete it.

[Brian Thomas]

Well i would think you dont't need to delete it, it might work for others :-) It just boils back to the ole accepted answer syndrome, where the highest voted is Not really always what you want. Hence, why i suggested they take the big bold green off it, and or atleast add a big bold blue next to the highest voted, etc.. i put in that suggestion, and it got stalled.