Delete a Bookmark Folder in Safari on Mac

A leftover folder in the Safari sidebar is easy to remove once you can actually see it. The catch is that Safari tucks the delete command into different places depending on how the sidebar is set up.

Control-click the folder and choose Delete, or open Edit Bookmarks and use Delete Folder. Empty the folder first, because everything inside it leaves Safari along with the folder.

In this guide, I have covered:

Find the folder you want to delete in Safari

You know the folder exists. Getting Safari to show it, and then to offer a Delete command, is the part that trips people up. Both live in the Bookmarks sidebar on a Mac.

Open the sidebar first. Everything else follows from there.

1. Open Safari and click the sidebar button in the toolbar if the sidebar is hidden.
2. Click Bookmarks in the sidebar.
3. If Bookmarks is not visible, click the back button at the top of the sidebar to return to the main list.
4. Locate the folder you want to delete.

The folder appears with its saved bookmarks listed underneath. If you cannot spot it at the top level, the Edit Bookmarks method below shows the full hierarchy.

Delete the bookmark folder

Found it. Now remove it. Control-clicking a folder brings up the same menu you get by right-clicking one with a mouse, and Delete is on it.

1. Control-click the bookmark folder, or right-click it if you are using a mouse.
2. Click Delete in the menu.
3. Confirm the deletion if Safari displays a warning.

Deleting a folder removes its contents as well. Open the folder and move anything you still need to another location before confirming the deletion.

You’ll know it worked when the folder is gone from the Bookmarks list. The bookmarks it held are gone too.

Use the More menu when available

Right-click the folder and get nothing useful? On some Safari sidebar layouts, the folder actions sit behind a More menu on the folder row instead of the context menu.

1. Open Bookmarks in the Safari sidebar.
2. Click the More menu beside the folder.
3. Click Delete.
4. Confirm the deletion if prompted.

If the More button is missing, or Delete is not listed, use Edit Bookmarks, which is covered below. You’ll know it worked when the folder row disappears from the sidebar list.

Delete a folder from Edit Bookmarks

Nested folders are the usual reason a sidebar menu comes up empty. Edit Bookmarks gives you the whole tree in a single window, and the folder commands are all there.

1. Click Bookmarks in the Safari menu bar.
2. Click Edit Bookmarks.
3. Control-click the bookmark folder, or right-click it with a mouse.
4. Click Delete Folder.
5. Confirm the deletion if Safari displays a warning.

Check both places afterwards: the folder should be gone from the manager window and from the Bookmarks sidebar. Apple documents the same process in its Safari guide for deleting bookmarks and bookmark folders.

If the folder is not visible

You opened the sidebar and the folder is not there. A compact list hides more than you expect, and a folder buried inside another folder never appears at the top level. Both cases need the full bookmark list.

1. Open Bookmarks in the Safari menu bar.
2. Click Edit Bookmarks.
3. Open any parent folders needed to locate the missing folder.
4. Control-click the folder and click Delete Folder.
5. Confirm the deletion if prompted.

If the sidebar itself changed shape on you, the fix for bookmarks showing in the sidebar instead of the menu puts the bookmark controls back where you expect them.

This applies to Safari on a Mac. Mobile Safari uses a different bookmark flow and does not offer the same folder options.

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