How to export JetBrains IDE bookmarks on MacOS in 2025
I was recently working on a bigger refactoring. At the same time, features were developed
and bugs were fixed on the main branch of the project. There were so many structural
differences, that I found it easier to work with two local clones of the repository,
my-project-old and my-project-new. It was easy enough to export all my IDE settings
to get going quickly, but it was unnecessarily complicated to copy my
bookmarks. Luckily, I stubmled
across a post that explains
how to do this on Windows
and decided to write the MacOS equivalant.
How to do this
1. Find your workspace data
Your workspace data is somewhere in the application support folder.
Replace PhpStorm2024.3 with the name of the IDE you're using.
cd ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/PhpStorm2024.3/workspace2. Find the respective workspace XML files
Simply run grep to get the list of files.
grep -ril "my-project" .3. Copy all relevant nodes
Now that you have found the files you need, you can copy the <component name="BookmarksManager">
section from one project to another.
Wrap up
I'm not sure why such a central feature such as bookmarks doesn't have better support in JetBrains IDEs. Then again, it's just a little obstacle and not a deal breaker. I hope this little guide was helpful for you.