Import from another browser
Bring your bookmarks, open tabs, history, sign-ins and extensions from Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox and other browsers into Lilo, step by step.
By the end of this page your bookmarks, open tabs, history and sign-ins from your old browser are in Lilo, its extensions are reinstalled, and your password manager is added. The import reads your other browser’s files on your Mac, and sends none of them anywhere; only the extensions you reinstall are downloaded again from the Chrome Web Store, which learns their ids.
You arrive here from the Bring your favorites screen of the setup. If you skipped it, open Settings (⌘,) > General, find Import from another browser and click Import…: the same screen opens.
What Lilo can bring over
Lilo looks for these browsers, and lists only the ones installed on your Mac: Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Dia, Comet, Opera, Chromium, Firefox and Zen. The browser that currently opens your links comes first.
| On the screen | What it imports |
|---|---|
| Bookmarks | Your bookmarks bar, plus every other bookmark in one folder, such as Other Bookmarks (Chrome). |
| Open tabs | The tabs of your last session, with their pinned tabs and tab groups. From Arc, its Spaces and favorites. |
| History | The pages you visited, up to the 50,000 most recent. |
| Stay signed in | Your cookies, so the sites you are signed in to stay signed in. |
| Extensions | The extensions you use, downloaded again from the Chrome Web Store. Their settings stay in the old browser. Chromium-based browsers only. |
Lilo never imports passwords, and has no password manager of its own: the same screen lets you add the password manager you already use. Not every browser has every kind of data; Import sources has the full list per browser.
Import
Choose the browser
Lilo shows a card for each browser it found, and selects the first one it can read. Click a card to select it or deselect it. You can select several browsers.
If a card says Allow access, macOS is keeping that browser’s files private. See Allow access to a browser below.
Check what comes along
Under the cards, a sentence lists what will be imported. By default that is everything: bookmarks, open tabs, history, your sign-ins and extensions. To change it, click Change, then:
- under What to import, turn kinds of data on or off;
- under Chrome profiles (or the name of your browser), pick which profiles to import, when it has several;
- under Extensions to reinstall, uncheck the extensions you no longer want.
Click Import
Click Import. The screen shows each step as it runs, such as Importing bookmarks from Chrome.
If you import sign-ins from a Chromium-based browser, macOS asks whether Lilo may use that browser’s key in your keychain. Click Allow: without it, your sign-ins cannot be read. The other kinds of data import either way.
Read the result
When the import ends, Lilo says what it brought, for example Done: 214 bookmarks, 12 open tabs, 1,830 pages of history, 412 cookies and 3 extensions. Click Continue.
If something could not be imported, Lilo names it and, when it knows, why, and you can run the import again later from Settings. A browser that is open can hold its files: quit it, then import again. Troubleshooting lists each cause. Importing twice into the same Space adds nothing twice.
Where your things land
- The first profile you import goes into the Space you are in: bookmarks and pinned tabs become its pinned tabs, the other bookmarks one closed folder, and your open tabs its tab list. Tab groups become folders.
- Each further profile gets its own Lilo profile and a Space of its own, so its sign-ins stay apart from the first one.
- Arc Spaces and Zen workspaces each become a Lilo Space. Arc favorites and Zen essentials become favorites, the tiles at the top of the sidebar.
- Extensions pinned to your old browser’s toolbar are pinned to Lilo’s address bar, in the same order, after any you pinned in Lilo.
Allow access to a browser
macOS protects some browsers’ files, Safari’s in particular. Lilo can only read them once you give it Full Disk Access. It asks only when a browser you have needs it, and only when you click that browser’s card.
Click Allow access
Click the browser’s Allow access card. System Settings opens on Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access.
Turn Lilo on
Turn on Lilo in the list. If Lilo is not in the list, drag the Lilo icon from the small panel beside System Settings into the list.
Come back to Lilo
Switch back to Lilo. It looks again, and the browser’s card can now be selected.
You can turn Full Disk Access off again once the import is done.
Add your password manager
Below the browsers, under Your passwords, click Choose next to Password manager, then Add next to yours: Lilo installs its extension. NordPass, Bitwarden, 1Password, Proton Pass, Dashlane and KeePassXC are offered; iCloud Passwords is marked Soon while it waits for Apple’s approval. Later, the same list is in Settings > Extensions > Add a password manager. Extensions covers every other extension.
Next
Continue the setup in Your first five minutes.