v1.0 — Safari Chrome Sync

Safari Chrome Sync v1.0

Native macOS desktop application that synchronizes bookmarks and browsing history between Safari and Google Chrome.

Installation

1. Download Safari Chrome Sync.dmg
2. Drag Safari Chrome Sync.app to your Applications folder
3. Grant Full Disk Access to the app in System Settings → Privacy & Security
4. Launch the app — it auto-starts on login via LaunchAgent

What's new in v1.0

• Complete rewrite as a native macOS window app (PyQt6 + PyInstaller)
• No Python installation required — distributed as a standalone .dmg
• Live log viewer, auto-sync scheduling, and sync controls in one window
• Replaced the old menu bar app (rumps)

Known limitations

• For a sync to run, the target browser must be closed: Chrome closed for Safari→Chrome, Safari closed for Chrome→Safari
• Deleting bookmarks from Safari→Chrome does not work reliably when Google Sync is active across multiple devices — see the README for details

Requirements

• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel)
• Safari and Google Chrome installed

v0.2 — Improved first-time sync & macOS compatibility fix

What's new

Simplified first-time sync procedure

The previous approach of temporarily disabling Google Sync in Chrome was
unreliable and error-prone. The new procedure is simpler and more robust:
delete all Chrome bookmarks manually before the first sync, so Google Sync
has nothing to restore. Full instructions are in the README.

Fixed: app fails to start on newer macOS versions

The install script used launchctl load, which is deprecated on newer
versions of macOS and caused a "Load failed: Input/output error".
Replaced with launchctl bootstrap throughout.

Other changes

• README expanded with clearer daily usage instructions, including the
  recommended workflow for syncing Chrome (Windows) changes to Safari
• Added note that Terminal does not need to stay open after installation
• Removed internal post-first-run cleanup logic (no longer needed)

Notes

• If you installed v0.1, run bash install_menubar.sh again to apply
  the launchctl fix
• See README for the updated first-time sync procedure

First public release of safari-chrome-sync

This tool synchronizes Safari bookmarks and browsing history to Google Chrome
on macOS. Because Chrome uses Google Sync, your Safari bookmarks automatically
become available on Chrome on other devices — including Windows.

What's included

• Menu bar app (↔) for easy control
• First sync: Chrome is fully overwritten with Safari data
• Subsequent syncs: bidirectional — additions and deletions synced in both directions
• Full Safari folder structure preserved 1-to-1 in Chrome
• Configurable sync interval (5 minutes – 2 hours)
• Automatic backups before every sync

Notes

• Requires Python 3.9+ and Full Disk Access for Python.app
• See README for installation and first-time sync instructions.
• Created with the help of Claude (Anthropic).