Duplicate handling
j
jLouis Francis IV
Warn users when adding a duplicate bookmark. This would show them where that link already exists, saving time from duplicate cleanup later on.
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Rustem Mussabekov
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For more specific improvement suggestions, please create separate posts. Here’s how Raindrop handles duplicates:
When duplicates are prevented:
Browser Extension and Mobile “Share”:
Bookmarks added via the browser extension or the “Share” feature in the mobile app are checked for uniqueness.
If a duplicate is detected, it will prevent you from adding the bookmark again.
The browser extension also includes a Saved Indicator to show whether a page has already been bookmarked https://help.raindrop.io/browser-extension#saved-indicator
Raindrop ignores certain URL differences, such as www, http/https, or hashes (#), when checking for duplicates.
Limitations:
Duplicate prevention may fail if the URL differs slightly (e.g., due to tracking parameters or dynamic components like session IDs).
For specific scenarios or enhancements you’d like to see, please create separate suggestions for review
---
When duplicates are allowed:
- Adding via “Add/+” Button on Any Platform:
This button intentionally does not check for duplicates. This is designed to allow users to create duplicates when necessary, such as for specific organizational purposes or workflows.
On iOS/Android app this button do not allow creation of duplicate, will be fixed accordingly.
- Duplicate Management:
If duplicates are created, you can easily review and manage them in the Duplicates section. This feature lets you identify and clean up duplicates across your collection. https://help.raindrop.io/using-search#duplicates
---
Future Plans:
We are working on a feature that will show similar bookmarks during creation. This will rely on AI to detect similar content, even if the URLs differ significantly, allowing for smarter duplicate prevention.
---
Regarding Related Requests:
- Adding Bookmarks to Multiple Collections Without Duplication:
If you want to place a single bookmark in multiple collections without creating duplicates, please follow https://raindropio.canny.io/feature-requests/p/pin-one-bookmark-into-multiple-collections
- No Plans for URL Aliases:
At this time, we do not plan to implement URL aliasing.
- No Toggle for Duplicate Checks:
We currently allow duplicates in some scenarios and prevent them in others (as described above). No toggle planned.
r
rgmccann
In between the idea of only a single instance of a bookmark existing (with or without references to that bookmark elsewhere as "bookmark shortcuts") in a collection and unlimited duplicate bookmarks existing here, there, and everywhere, there lies a potential happy middle ground.
Why not just have the program auto-generate one or more tags for every bookmark which are simply the top-level domain of the site and the FQDN of any/all subdomains (i.e. canny.io, raindrop.canny.io - without the port/path/query part)?
This way, a single click should surface all of the bookmarks I have for that domain/subdomain, preferably showing where each is located, when each was added, and the ability to select one/multiple/all to perform batch modify/move/delete operations (update base URL's, move to another folder/delete all links to site where you've canceled your account, etc.).
And with or without another feature which had been suggested (a programmatic duplicate link identifier at the time of saving a link which the user thought was new/unique to their collection), these tags would allow those who prefer to only have one bookmark for any given URI to identify and delete a duplicate bookmark already in their collection (or the one they just saved if they prefer where the current one is located).
Win-win for everyone, even the folks who would prefer a single instance with shortcut references instead of duplicates, as their primary concern is the ability to make any necessary changes to a bookmark once and have it propagate automatically to any/all reference bookmarks. Bulk operations for this User Story/Feature Enhancement would satisfy that use case!
l
lillyella676
That's a solid UX improvement! Preventing duplicate bookmarks upfront saves users frustration and keeps their collections tidy. Here's how you could implement this in a bookmark manager app (e.g., in JavaScript for a web-based tool or as pseudocode for any platform):
Aestarii
In the Duplicate finder in Pro as well as the AI suggestions for sorting, it would be great to see where the bookmarks it is suggesting to move or delete are already located -- I can't seem to find that at a glance.
ignatov
I would love better duplicate handling!
RokeJulianLockhart
Having the duplication RegEx merely ignore fragments would solve most of my duplication problems, considering that I consistently utilize text fragment directives.
Rustem Mussabekov
marked this post as
open
For more specific improvement suggestions, please create separate posts. Here’s how Raindrop handles duplicates:
When duplicates are prevented:
Browser Extension and Mobile “Share”:
Bookmarks added via the browser extension or the “Share” feature in the mobile app are checked for uniqueness.
If a duplicate is detected, it will prevent you from adding the bookmark again.
The browser extension also includes a Saved Indicator to show whether a page has already been bookmarked https://help.raindrop.io/browser-extension#saved-indicator
Raindrop ignores certain URL differences, such as www, http/https, or hashes (#), when checking for duplicates.
Limitations:
Duplicate prevention may fail if the URL differs slightly (e.g., due to tracking parameters or dynamic components like session IDs).
For specific scenarios or enhancements you’d like to see, please create separate suggestions for review
---
When duplicates are allowed:
- Adding via “Add/+” Button on Any Platform:
This button intentionally does not check for duplicates. This is designed to allow users to create duplicates when necessary, such as for specific organizational purposes or workflows.
On iOS/Android app this button do not allow creation of duplicate, will be fixed accordingly.
- Duplicate Management:
If duplicates are created, you can easily review and manage them in the Duplicates section. This feature lets you identify and clean up duplicates across your collection. https://help.raindrop.io/using-search#duplicates
---
Future Plans:
We are working on a feature that will show similar bookmarks during creation. This will rely on AI to detect similar content, even if the URLs differ significantly, allowing for smarter duplicate prevention.
---
Regarding Related Requests:
- Adding Bookmarks to Multiple Collections Without Duplication:
If you want to place a single bookmark in multiple collections without creating duplicates, please follow https://raindropio.canny.io/feature-requests/p/pin-one-bookmark-into-multiple-collections
- No Plans for URL Aliases:
At this time, we do not plan to implement URL aliasing.
- No Toggle for Duplicate Checks:
We currently allow duplicates in some scenarios and prevent them in others (as described above). No toggle planned.
Dawid Ferenczy 🦇
Why creating duplicates in the first place? I would simply create a reference (link) to the original entry instead of creating a new (duplicate) entry. Even if not visible to the user on the UI, I would implement it that way internally to save storage by preventing to store duplicate data. The relation between entries and collections should be 1:N.
My use case is: I would like to have a single entry in multiple collections but I want all those entries to share the same data so I don't have to edit it multiple times.
pookiepats
there is an old open source app called histre.com that claims to solve this, why not just check out their implementation :)
on the site they claim to maintain craigslist bookmarks using the example that bookmarked ads will frequently change their URLS's unexpectedly on updates or otherwise, the code adapts dynamically with no user input - "just works".
lukasgabriel
If this gets added, it would be great to make it toggleable. I add duplicates all the time, it's just part of my process, I just clean them up in the "Duplicates" filter once in a while.
S
Sebastian
> Some websites slightly change page URL each time you visit it, they add some tracking info, etc. In this case you always have different URL. Just check page URL and bookmark that you saved and check difference in URL.
Rustem Mussabekov I think it’d be a better UX if Raindrop was assisting users a bit during this process.
One idea: Raindrop could check whether the same _domain_ (without sub-paths, query parameters, etc.) already exists in the database and warn the user about that (without preventing a duplicate entry, because users might be intentionally adding a different sub-page to their bookmarks).
Zach Laster
Domain would be too broad. Every YouTube link would have a warning, then, and one of the more impactful candidates for this feature is YouTube links.
I think the more useful solution would be to allow a droplet to have multiple URLs which it treats as aliases, possibly with some pattern matching rules to help recognize matches.
For example, I've written a script that gets all of my YouTube links in the mobile format and updates the droplet link to match the desktop format for YouTube URLs. This doesn't help for preventing duplication when using mobile, but it does on desktop. Being able to have both URLs in the droplet would resolve this.
There could even be some simple logic for major sites like YouTube which generated link aliases based on the bookmarked URL, possibly specified or modifiable by the user.
A link aliases list would also open up opportunities for "merging" droplets, where one link becomes an alias and all other properties are combined. This would help when unifying the tagging of duplicates before deleting one of them.
Zach Laster
The pattern matching was an additional thought, and can be discarded.
My primary suggestion is "aliases", which is essentially allowing a droplet to have more than one link associated with it. All links, including aliases, would need to be checked for existing droplets, but that's the only "hard" part.
Anything on top of that is bonus. Automatically generating aliases would be valuable, but can be left to the user.
J
Jerry007
Zach Laster: I believe Edge mobile on iOS converts the YouTube link to the simplest desktop version.
to
Would be nice if rd recognized these links as similar/duplicates
b
belgio
Jerry007: I like this implementation. Removing filler URL links & tracking. Storing only the simplest link. cc: Rustem Mussabekov
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