Export Safari reading list using Python

Clean up your teeming reading list.

Image credit: author (Oliver K. Ernst)

Here is the GitHub repo. with the script.

If you are like me, your reading list is overflowing. Mine is over 1000+ entries. I use it daily to quickly remind myself of useful websites I’ve found, but I never bother to clean it up after those sites have used their purpose.

I didn’t want to clean it up manually by clicking through 1000+ items with a mouse is tedious. There is a shortcut to remove all items, but before doing that I wanted to export the data.

JSON exported reading list.

CSV exported reading list.

Here’s how it’s done.

Your reading list is stored in ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist (at least, in Mac 11.4 Big Sur it is). Additionally, icons for the reading list are stored in ~/Library/Safari/ReadingListArchives .

To read the .plist file format in Python, it is easiest to use the plistlib library:

pip install plistlib

The complete script

Here is the complete script — the explanation is below:

export-safari-reading-list/export_reading_list.py at main · smrfeld/export-safari-reading-list

Usage

Basic usage:

• Export to CSV:

python export_reading_list.py csv reading_list.csv

will write the reading list to reading_list.csv.

• Export to JSON:

python export_reading_list.py json reading_list.json

will write the reading list to reading_list.json.

Options:

• Also copy the reading list icons:

python export_reading_list.py csv reading_list.csv — dir-icons-out reading_list_icons

copies the icons to the folder reading_list_icons. They match up to the entries through the WebBookmarkUUID key.

• Specify the source directory for the icons:

python export_reading_list.py csv reading_list.csv — dir-icons ~/Library/Safari/ReadingListArchives

The default is ~/Library/Safari/ReadingListArchives.

• Specify the source directory for the reading list .plist file:

python export_reading_list.py csv reading_list.csv — fname-bookmarks ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

The default is ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist.

• Include cached data for the websites:

python export_reading_list.py csv reading_list.csv — include-data

The data is written to the Data field. The default is the--exclude-data option, which excludes the data.

Explanation of the script

First, copy the plist file for safety:

Next, find reading list elements in this terribly formatted dictionary:

Convert the reading list dictionaries to custom objects:

Finally, dump the entries to JSON or CSV:

Final thoughts

Now we have a backup of the reading list. A future project may write an edited CSV or JSON file back to the reading list plist format recognized by Safari.