Moving bookmarks, passwords between Operas

If you know how

 

The Opera Web browser is one I've been using ever since the days when floppy diskettes were still considered the acceptable form of software distribution. Although, if you needed to use a Web browser, you'd have an Internet connection, and so you could download it.

Opera used to be programmed in Norway, but now it has Chinese owners, which is annoying. Still, it remains the best Web browser around: it's based on the Chrome browser (as are most these days) and then adds all kinds of useful extras. 

(The founders of Opera subsequently developed their own, Vivaldi, but it has not yet met the level of Opera. Microsoft's Edge bears watching.)

Whenever I get a new computer, one of the first tasks is to launch Internet Explorer (now Edge) in order to download Opera. That's the last time IE gets used on that computer.

Pretty much all browsers offer accounts through which you can synchronize bookmarks, something I've never found useful. I prefer that each browser has its own set of bookmarks. The problem with accounts is that you are giving the browser makers permission to view your bookmarks; there is w-a-y too much surveillance going on, and it really does get tiring to work around.

So here is one more work-around: how to copy bookmarks and passwords from Opera one computer to another, without telling Opera head office.

 

Copying Bookmarks Between Computers

1. In Opera, click the Big Red O and then choose Bookmarks > Export Bookmarks.
2. In the Save As dialog box, choose a drive and folder, such as on Dropbox or pDrive, and then click OK.
3. Switch to the other computer.
4. In the other Opera, again click the Big Red O, and then choose Bookmarks > Import Bookmarks and Settings
5. In the Import Bookmarks and Settings droplist, pick "Bookmarks HTML File."
6. Click Open File, and then choose the file with the Open dialog box.

Here is the somewhat nasty part: Opera sticks the imported bookmarks into their own folder, and so you need to access them through the Bookmarks Manager, where you can move groups of bookmarks around to more convenient locations.

To access the Bookmarks Manager, click the Big Red O and then choose Bookmarks > Bookmarks.

 

Copying Passwords Between Computers

Copying bookmarks does not bring along associated passwords. so you have to copy passwords separately:

1. In Opera, click the Big Red O and then choose Settings.
2. In the Search Settings field, enter "pass." Notice that Opera jumps the password section.
3. Open the Password Manager section.
4. Next to Add, click the ... (More Actions) button, and then choose Export Passwords.
5. Go through the steps to save the passwords in a Opera Passwords.csv file.

As Opera warns you, anyone who accesses the CSV file can read your passwords in plain English. CSV is short for "comma-separated values," and when you open the file in Notepad or even a spreadsheet program, it looks like this:

name,url,username,password
1.1.1.1,https://1.1.1.1/fs/customwebauth/login.html,yyyyyyy,xxxxxxx

To import passwords into Opera on another computer, follow these steps, because importing  password files is normally disabled in Opera:

1. Switch to the other computer.
2. Enter the following Web address into Opera: opera://flags/#password-import
3. Change the flag for password-import to "Enabled."
4. Restart Opera. 
5. Return to Settings > Password Manager.
6. Click the ... (More Actions) button and then choose  Import to bring in the CSV file.

(I didn't post any images, because I didn't want to necessarily make things clearer.)

Comments

[Tim Neumann]

Thanks for the tips, I'm always on board when it comes to "flying below the radar".

Regarding passwords, LastPass had another security breach recently the 2nd in less than 6 months I think. Been debating on using a password manager but think I'll debate a bit longer.

[Ralph Grabowski]

I record passwords in a small notebook, which cannot be stolen long-distance.