When you import the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 bookmarks file to a system running Internet Explorer 7 or earlier, the following error occurs when you click Finish in the Import/Export Wizard.
I could fully reproduce the problem in my Windows XP SP3 system running Internet Explorer 7. The source computer runs Windows Vista with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 installed. Thinking that this could be due to incorrect formatting or missing tags in the HTML file, I opened the file using Notepad but couldn’t find any errors in it. Eventually I spotted that this issue is caused by incorrect encoding used by Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 to create/write to bookmark.htm. With that said, the fix is very simple.
To resolve the problem, save the bookmarks file as ANSI text. To do so, use the following steps:
Start Notepad, and then open the bookmarks file (bookmark.htm)
Click Save As on the File menu.
In the Save As dialog box, click ANSI in the Encoding list, and then click Save.
Click Yes when prompted to overwrite the file.
You should be able to import the bookmark file successfully using the Import/Export Wizard in Internet Explorer.
Related Posts
- Easily Find and Remove Duplicate URLs in Internet Explorer Favorites
- Transfer Registry Editor Favorites to Another Computer
- Fix for Error 100 Invalid Class String in Internet Explorer When Opening Organize Favorites
- How to Add a Folder or Library to Windows Explorer Favorites in Windows 7
- Preserve the Order of Internet Explorer Favorites When Transferring to Another PC
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! We feature Tips, Troubleshooting information, Scripts and Utilities for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems!
Prefer an E-mail subscription?
Great advice!! Thanks!
Thanks, have got 90 users who saved their files to a share before a migration, this worked.
I don’t understand others who thought that they’d lost their favourites, worst case scenario you copy the links out of the file.
Brilliant! Took seconds…worked perfectly!!
YOU’RE A GENIUS – A GENIUS!!! Didn’t think it was going to work. VERY GRATEFUL TO YOU!!!
Awesome Answer!
Good detective work. This solved my problem quite neatly.
Thank you for sharing the solution to solve this problem. We need more people like you…..
Tried all the techniques I knew, but none worked, so typed “not a valid bookmark file” into Google, and came up with you.
I immediately tried it, and it worked a treat.
Thnks very much for such a simple solution to a baffling problem.
Barry, Lancashire, U.K.
Thank you very much for the only intelligent solution. I been at it for 3 days now and finally I just imported my favorites to my IE7. I had a IE8 where I exported from.
Great work around! you are my new best friend.