Bookmark ScoutFind and repair dead links
Scan bookmarks for dead links, see which ones need a manual check, and repair them by deleting, following a redirect, using an archived copy, or editing the URL.
Check Dead Links is in the Tools sidebar of the bookmarks manager, under Maintenance. It requests each bookmarked page to see whether it still loads.
Firefox
In Firefox, open the manager with Open bookmark manager in the popup.
Run a scan
In Check Dead Links, choose the current folder or all bookmarks in the scope menu, and click Scan.
Bookmark Scout explains which sites it needs: only the sites of the bookmarks you scan, or all websites when there are more than 20. Click Allow access, then accept the browser's prompt. Sites you allowed before are not asked for again. If you choose Not now or decline, nothing is scanned.
Wait for the results. A summary at the top counts the links that are confirmed dead, need a manual check, or were redirected.
Website access is optional and is not granted at install. Requests are sent without cookies, and you can revoke the access in the browser's extension settings. A link that redirects to a site outside the scan cannot be followed, so it shows Check manually instead of Confirmed dead. See Permissions.
Read the results
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| Confirmed dead | Page not found (404 or 410), the connection was refused, the host was not found, or the redirects looped |
| Check manually | Often still works in a browser: sign-in or access denied (401, 403, 407), rate limited (429), the site rejects automated checks (405 or 501), a server error (5xx), another HTTP error, or a timeout |
| Redirected | The link works but now points elsewhere; the destination is shown |
| Skipped | Not a web link, such as a bookmarklet |
Any error from a HEAD request is confirmed with a GET before it is reported, because some servers do not support HEAD.
Console messages in Chrome
Chrome logs one "Failed to load resource" line in the page's developer console for each failed request. Extensions cannot suppress these lines; the scan itself logs nothing.
Repair links
Click Review repairs. Every failed, timed-out, or redirected link is listed.
Choose an action for each one:
- Keep as is (the default, so nothing changes unless you pick something else)
- Delete bookmark
- Use redirect target, offered only when the scan saw a redirect
- Use archived copy (Wayback Machine), which points the bookmark at
https://web.archive.org/web/<original URL>. The link is built locally and not checked, so the page may never have been archived. - Edit URL, which accepts only a valid
httporhttpsURL that differs from the current one
Check the summary of how many bookmarks will be deleted, have their URL replaced, or be kept, then click Apply.
Nothing changes until you apply. Before each change, the bookmark is read again: one that was deleted or edited since the scan is skipped and listed, so a stale scan never overwrites a newer edit.
Undo, shown for 10 seconds in the message or in the dialog after a partial apply, and Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac) in the bookmark manager undo the same repairs: they restore deleted bookmarks and put replaced URLs back unless they were edited again since.
Tune the scan
On the Maintenance tab of Settings:
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Request Timeout | 8 seconds per request |
| Concurrency | 4 requests at a time |
| Retry Count | 1 retry |
| Follow Redirects | On |
| Success Status Codes | 200, 201, 202, 204, 301, 302, 307, 308 |
Last updated on
Clean up duplicates and tracking URLs
Remove duplicate bookmarks after a review, strip tracking parameters such as utm_source from bookmark URLs with a preview first, and refresh missing site icons.
Import and export
Export bookmarks as HTML, JSON, Markdown, or CSV with a privacy review, and import HTML or JSON files after a preview that shows duplicates.