Opera iOS Bookmarks
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jonaballen last edited byJust for clarification:
There is currently no sync support on Opera for iOS as present on desktop and android browsers. Signing in to the Opera account website will not sync the browser, just give access to the account via webpage. There is no special native app to webpage integration.Note: The only syncing available is via the Flow feature that syncs Flow messages and tabs on connected devices.
Why no sync on iOS:
Its an old legacy issue, other platforms are based on the chromium open source and gets sync as part of the package (with a lot of actual coding on top), on iOS this needs to be implemented from scratch to play with the other platforms. Its not a trivial task, but will take months to implement.When can we expect it:
We intend to start working on the account/sync task the next few weeks and after that it will take quite some time of development and testing before we can launch. A lot of testing. Lets hope for a christmas present.
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JayArrBee last edited by
@jonaballen Thank you for the thoughtful response here. That makes total sense now that you have spelled it out since iOS doesn't allow anything other than WebKit for their browsers. I've read rumors that Apple may actually start to allow other frameworks like Chromium, it would be a shame if you put in months of work and then that happened. Hard to know what Apple will do though.
Thanks again.
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BobCiuff last edited by
@jonaballen How do you add bookmark folders on an iPad (iPad 9)? When I go to bookmarks, I have 2 choices, Speed Dial and Mobile. Speed Dial does not seem to allow folders. Mobile does allow folder creation, but no way to access and move the bookmarks from speed dial to those folders nor anyway to display those mobile folders from speed dial and turning off speed dial hides all the bookmarks.
I also turned on Desktop mode which doesn't seem to do anything - a big NOP! So Mobile seems to be useless on an iPad as well as turning on Desktop, which ends up getting reset to off at some point shortly after returning to the main screen.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@bobciuff On an iPhone at least, I tap the menu at the bottom right and there's a "Bookmarks" option. If I tap that to go to bookmarks, it shows a "Speed Dial" folder and a "Mobile bookmarks" folder. In the "Mobile bookmarks" folder, there's a "Create folder" option that I can tap right on the page.
For an existing bookmark, I can long-press on it and choose "edit" to change its location to a certain folder. For new bookmarks, while on the page, I tap the menu button at the bottom right and then tap the star icon where it asks me where I want to save the bookmark.
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taxt last edited by
@jonaballen just to +1 here thanks for sharing this info and definitely makes sense. let us know how that christmas present is going, we would love to see it, and am more than happy to help test
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BobCiuff last edited by
@Thank you for the reply. However, it does not work that way on the iPad. As
I explained on my post, Mobile will allow one to create a folder, even add a book mark to it. I also was able to create a sub-folder but nothing more. Edit allows you to move the position of a bookmark in its current location, but not to a new folder.In normal browsing mode, bookmarking a site automatically goes to speed dial. To go to a folder in Mobile, you cannot do it directly like you can to speed dial. You must choose Bookmarks instead of the Star (after hitting the 3 dots), then choose Mobile, then open the desired folder and then Done.
With speed dial, you hit the 3 dots and star and done. The use of Mobile is convoluted and non-intuitive plus you cannot move bookmarks directly from the speed dial page to a Mobile folder (or v.v.) without selecting the site and rebookmarking in either direction.
One last point, the "Desktop" option does not change anything from what I can see on an iPad. The larger screen size on the iPad does offer a tad bit more like a desktop than an iPhone. It also seems to get reset to "Off" after doing something after leaving Settings. If you turn it on and then go right back into settings, it will remain set to "On", but after doing a couple of things, it gets reset.
I like Opera over the other browsers, but recent changes have not always been for the good, even the desktop version. BTW, on the desktop, I like to selectively save some history over bookmarking. Most browsers will allow selecting a contiguous section and delete that section. With Opera, one must delete each item individually, which is a real nuisance when you have a large number of contiguous entries. It would be nice if they could address that, both desktop and phones and tablets.
Thank you,
Bob C. -
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BobCiuff last edited by
@burnout426 Thanks. I figured that out eventually. That process is somewhat convoluted and non-intuitive, IMO. The next problem is to get a hundred bookmarks from SpeedDial into those Mobile folders.. Bookmarks are an important part of a browser and their use should be simple and straight forward. Every browser I have ever used had simple way plus a bookmark manager. The iPad and iPhone (Safari) handle bookmarking OK, but STB when it comes to managing them. Of the browsers I use (6 or 7 different ones), Opera does the best at ad blocking. I have one site I visit plasters the page so its unreadable on an iPad/iPhone when using Safari and not much better with the others, Opera being the exception.
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Andymatic last edited by
@jonaballen Bumping this... it's 8 months down the road.
I was all-in on switching to opera until I realized I could not sync bookmarks/pinboards/etc. Having those collections of information isolated to specific devices is pretty meh - I travel frequently for business and I really need to be able to access the same information wherever I am, and whether I am on a work machine, laptop, mobile device, quest headset, android or iOS etc.
Flow is good, very appealing... that and aria, snapshots, pinboards and tab management all drew me to consider switching (and recommending coworkers at my fortune 50 workplace do the same.) The various extensions are pretty old and uninteresting, but the overall effort to be a next-gen browser is compelling...
...But then I run into this blocker issue where the iOS browser is fundamentally different and lacking compared to the desktop, and no full parity of data between devices is the exact opposite of next-gen...
If your leadership is capable and serious I would suggest this is a critical and existential issue for this browser. 8 months+ to even add bookmarks is no good. They need to invest in this seriously, and do what it takes to get full sync in production.
Design features and helpers are attention grabbing and fun, and yes a LLM chatbot is handy. But ultimately if various devices are not sharing information people are going to look elsewhere.
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loviepuppy last edited by
Is there any updates on syncing on IOS yet??? I know a few devs have commented on here saying it’s in planning or being worked on in the next few months but it’s frustrating to have no updates on WHEN.
I know from another comment describing how they will have work on scratch would take a lot of time, but I’m so tired of nothing still.
I loved Opera for my computer!! But I can’t continue to use it if I don’t have phone sync since I spend 90% of my time on phone vs computer.
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loviepuppy last edited by
@loviepuppy I have no idea when I wrote this and to what it was. I’m guessing to the person mentioning the work around pulling up the sync site on the phone lol
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EphyMcBeefy last edited by
General consensus is that this browser is amazing and I tend to agree. The biggest limitation for me making a full switch is this issue. Full bookmark and password saves by extension are a must have.
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Hilom last edited by
@jonaballen said in Opera iOS Bookmarks:
In case you missed it:
Standard bookmarks support was added on Oper Browser for iOS in April.
- You can add a site to either Speed Dial or bookmarks from the Menu > Star icon, select location in the Bookmark sheet that open in bottom
- If an site is already starred and loaded in a tab, the star is "filled" and user can tap it to edit it.
- You can open bookmarks from the Bookmarks section by opening Menu > Bookmarks
- You can also edit or move or delete bookmarks in the Bookmarks section by long pressing on an item.
- You can add folders and delete them.
Sync and import bookmarks feature is on the roadmap for this fall.
18 months later... June 2024... Still no syncing on iOS
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LeUmbranox last edited by
How can it be that there is no way to synchronize your account information (bookmarks etc.) with the iPhone? Every browser supports this function and it can't be so hard to implement it.
Too bad, but Opera is not usable for me this way... -
MorphNorth last edited by@Andymatic And now nearly 18 months down the road. I've just started using Opera GX and trying to use across my PC, work PC, and iPhone, and have come across this. I honestly can't believe a browser of this seemingly high quality doesn't have mobile bookmarks, let alone sync. This could be a very short-lived browser migration!
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LukasMendez last edited by
@jonaballen what's the status of this? I found this thread yesterday, and you said it was on the roadmap more than one year ago. Kinda curious, as I love Opera, but its a dealbreaker when you can't use your stuff between devices
