How do I organize my bookmarks when folders have stopped working?

Folders ask you to decide where something belongs at the moment you least want to think about it. They also only help if you remember which folder you chose. A commenter on r/BookmarkManagers said this directly, adding that they remember pages by how they look, not by their titles: r/BookmarkManagers thread. In the same thread, others said that when they need something, they just search Google, even when it is already saved.

So the goal is not a better tree. It is making a saved link easier to find than a new one.

Step 1: back up, then look for duplicates

In Chrome, open the Bookmark Manager with Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Option+B on a Mac), open the three-dot menu and choose Export bookmarks. Firefox and Safari have similar export options. You now have an HTML file you can restore from, so you are free to be bold.

Very large collections can have a technical cause. Someone on r/chrome found about 186,000 bookmarks and a warning on their phone. Commenters suspected repeated sync had duplicated them, and one said sync limits meant getting below 20,000 for mobile and 100,000 for desktop: r/chrome thread. Treat those numbers as one person's figures, not a documented rule. The useful tip is to sort by name, because duplicates then sit side by side.

Step 2: stop sorting the past

Put everything into one folder called Old plus today's date. Leave it. You are not deleting anything, and you can still find it through search. This is the step that frees you, because a decade of folders is not a project you will ever finish.

Step 3: learn to search from the address bar

This takes a minute to learn and most people never do it. In Chrome, typing in the address bar already suggests bookmarks, and typing @bookmarks first limits the search to them. In Firefox, typing * and a space does the same. One r/BookmarkManagers commenter said this covers most of their needs, though it only helps if you remember enough to type something: r/BookmarkManagers thread.

Step 4: new folders only for what is alive

Make a few folders for current work, like a trip or a job hunt, and delete or archive each one when that work ends. Everything else goes in one Inbox folder.

Tags or folders? People argue about this constantly. A long-time r/raindropio user felt stuck because one link fit several projects: r/raindropio thread. One reply gave a clean rule: make collections your topics, and put things like media type in tags. Another person warned on r/raindropio that it is easy to go too far with overly specific tags: r/raindropio thread. My view is that a tag you will not type later is decoration. Keep a short list.

Step 5: add one line of why

An r/BookmarkManagers commenter said every save now gets one line on why they kept it, that links without that line almost never come back, and that they archive those after 90 days without guilt. It was the most practical idea in these threads.

Should you switch to a bookmark manager?

Maybe. Raindrop came up most, and many people like it. But even one fan on r/BookmarkManagers said they still never revisit, they just feel calmer: r/BookmarkManagers thread. A tool can fix finding. It will not fix revisiting.

If you do move, check you can leave. Someone on r/raindropio asked what happens if the service dies, and replies pointed to its automatic backups and standard HTML export: r/raindropio thread. On r/BookmarkManagers, a user who could not get a reply from support and could not log in raised the same worry: r/BookmarkManagers thread. Keep your own export, whichever app you use.

Where Nemos fits

Nemos can import a browser bookmarks HTML file or a Raindrop CSV, then search your links alongside screenshots, notes and documents, with previews so you can spot a page by its look. Smart folders do some of the grouping, and the extensions cover Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

If you only care about links and want more powerful bookmark tools, a dedicated manager may suit you better.