Export & Import Data

Take your spaces, folders, and links out of SupaSidebar - to back them up, move to a new Mac, or hand them to any other app that reads bookmarks. Everything lives in Preferences → Import & Export.

Beta: Some of what this page covers is in the SupaSidebar 1.1.0 beta, available to Pro users who turn on beta updates. It is planned for the stable 1.1.0 release. The table below shows what you can use today.

Feature	Stable version	1.1.0 beta
Export spaces as a `.ssb` backup	Yes	Yes
Import `.ssb`, `.json`, or browser bookmark `.html` files	Yes	Yes
Export as `.json` or `.html`	No	Yes
Include settings and Air Traffic Control rules in a `.ssb` backup	No	Yes
Restore settings from a `.ssb` file	No	Yes
Air Traffic Control rules check after import	No	Yes

Exporting

Open Preferences → Import & Export
In the Export section, check the spaces you want to include
Click Export N Spaces
Pick a Format, and for .ssb, what to include
Click Export, then choose where to save the file

Choosing a format

Format	Contains	Use it for
`.ssb` - SupaSidebar Backup	Spaces, folders, links, tags, notes, smart folders, plus app settings, keyboard shortcuts, search shortcuts, and Air Traffic Control rules	Moving your whole setup to a new Mac
`.json`	Same content as `.ssb`, without app settings. Plain, readable JSON	Scripts, or keeping a readable copy of your data
`.html` - Browser Bookmarks	Links and folder structure only	Importing into Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave, Arc, or any bookmark service

.html drops more than it keeps. Tags, smart folders, notes, and app settings have no equivalent in the browser bookmark format, so none of them make the trip. SupaSidebar shows this same warning in the export dialog when you pick .html.

Including settings in a `.ssb` backup

Settings only ever travel in .ssb files - .json and .html never carry them.

When you pick .ssb in the export dialog, an Include section appears with four toggles, all on by default:

App settings and preferences
Keyboard shortcuts
Search shortcuts
Air Traffic Control rules

Turn any of them off if you just want your spaces and links, not your setup.

Your analytics preference and license details never leave the machine in any export file, regardless of format or which toggles you pick.

Importing

Preferences → Import & Export gives you two ways to bring a file back in:

Button	Accepts	What it does
From Backup File	`.ssb`, `.json`	Previews the spaces in the file - pick which ones to bring in
From HTML File	Browser bookmark `.html` exports	Imports links and folders directly, from SupaSidebar or any other browser

For live imports straight from an installed browser instead of a file, see Import Bookmarks.

Restoring settings from a `.ssb` file

When the file you’re importing contains a settings block, SupaSidebar shows which settings it found and lets you choose which ones to restore. Every option is off by default.

That’s deliberate: a .ssb file might have come from someone else, and restoring settings overwrites your own preferences on this Mac. You opt in per import, every time.

Settings restore covers:

App settings and preferences
Keyboard shortcuts
Search shortcuts
Air Traffic Control rules

Your analytics preference and license details are never in the file to begin with, so there’s nothing to restore or overwrite there.

Air Traffic Control rules after import

Air Traffic Control rules can reference a space and, for save routes, a specific folder inside it. Folders are tied to the Mac they were created on, so folder references can’t transfer between machines.

Rules that pointed at a folder come back pointing at the space instead. SupaSidebar tells you which rules need a folder reassigned, so you can point them at the right one again.
Rules that pointed at a space you didn’t import have that target cleared. These are reported too, so a rule never silently stops matching without you knowing why.

Tips

Export regularly if you don’t use iCloud sync - a .ssb file is your offline backup
Use .json when you want to see exactly what’s in your data, or feed it into a script
Use .html when you’re leaving SupaSidebar for another bookmark manager or browser
On a new Mac, importing a .ssb file is the fastest way to bring your whole setup over in one step