AppleScript_to_automatically_sync_Safari_from_Chrome

This script fixes Aneureka's sync-from-chrome-to-safari and adds new functionality to reset bookmarks.

Background

Bookmarks imported from chrome to safari will only add new bookmarks, but will not delete old bookmarks.

Solution

• This script first resets safari bookmarks to empty, and then imports bookmarks, passwords and history from chrome.
• I assumed the maximum number of bookmarks to delete in the root directory is 20, but you can modify it in sync-from-chrome-to-safari.scpt file.

repeat 20 times -- assume at most 20 bookmarks
	key code 125
end repeat

• The program needs to input the password to unlock the mac. You should replace <your_password> with your own user password in sync-from-chrome-to-safari.scpt file.

-- wake the computer
do shell script "caffeinate -u -t 3"
tell application "System Events"
	keystroke "<your_password>"
	keystroke return
end tell

Automation

Because I want to automatically sync bookmarks every night, but at this point my mac's lid is closed. The cron is unusable when the lid is closed. Therefore, I decided to use launchd to do the automation.

1. You should replace the path to sync-from-chrome-to-safari.scpt with your own path in local.sync.plist file.

<key>ProgramArguments</key> 
  <array> 
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string> 
    <string>the path to sync-from-chrome-to-safari.scpt</string>
  </array> 

2. I set it to run daily at 4 am. You can change the time it runs in local.sync.plist file.

<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
      <key>Hour</key>
      <integer>4</integer>
      <key>Minute</key>
      <integer>0</integer>
  </dict>

3. Move the local.sync.plist file to /Users/<your_user_name>/Library/LaunchAgents.
4. Run this line in the terminal to get your-user-id

id -u

5. Then run this line to move to the LaunchAgents folder:

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

6. We can now load our agent by executing the following command:

launchctl bootstrap gui/<your-user-id> local.sync.plist

7. Now everything is ok.
8. If you want to modify, remember to unload the agent and then load it again:

launchctl bootout gui/<your-user-id> local.sync.plist

Tips:

Here is an example of using launchd agents to schedule scripts on macOS.

Here is an example of using cron to set up automated tasks/jobs in macOS & Linux.