X doesn't publish a bookmark limit. But scroll far enough down your bookmarks and the list just stops loading. No error, no "that's everything". A lot of people say they hit that wall somewhere around 800 to 1,000 saves.
Most of what I save on X is about AI and building, and my old saves are mostly ones I never went back to.
It's a common complaint. Ethan Mollick wrote in January that there's no official way to download your bookmarks, "especially as older bookmarks can't be viewed".
Why X stops showing older bookmarks
X's help page on bookmarks doesn't mention a cap. In practice the list loads newest first, a page at a time, and past a certain point it stops giving you older pages.
You'll also see posts saying X deletes your oldest bookmarks once you pass 800. I haven't seen anyone show that. Two open-source tools that read bookmarks through X's API, birdclaw and stash, documented pulling 1,120 and 2,895 bookmarks this year, and X's current API docs don't mention an 800 limit.
So your old saves are probably still on your account. The app just won't scroll to them.
How to find an old X bookmark
Start with whatever you remember about the post.
You remember a word from it. Try the search bar at the top of your bookmarks (web and iPhone), but don't expect much. The reports I found say it only searches the part of the list X still loads. I wrote up every way to search your X bookmarks if you want the details.
You remember who posted it. Skip your bookmarks and search all of X instead:
from:handle word
Use their @handle without the @, plus any word you think they used. This doesn't depend on your bookmarks list, so the wall doesn't matter. If you remember the author, this is the one I'd try first.
You remember roughly when it was posted. The Advanced Search page lets you add a date range to that search. That's when the post was written, not when you saved it. X doesn't give out a date for when you bookmarked something, so no tool can search by that.
You just want to scroll. Use a computer on a steady connection, scroll slowly, and press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) to search what's loaded. It's slow, and it stops at the same wall.
What won't bring old X bookmarks back
Removing recent bookmarks to make room. Some people suggest this. I haven't seen any proof that it brings older ones back, and you lose the recent ones for sure.
Downloading your X archive. The archive from Settings (Your account, then Download an archive of your data) has your posts, DMs and more. Most guides say bookmarks aren't in it. One says they are, but I couldn't confirm that, so I wouldn't request an archive just for this.
X bookmarks no tool can recover
Some saves are gone for everyone, whatever you use:
- The author deleted the post. A bookmark points to a post, it isn't a copy of it, so there's nothing left to show.
- The account went private or got suspended.
- Saves that X itself won't hand back. Every outside tool reads your bookmarks through X, so it can only see what X returns.
Be careful with any tool that promises to recover all of these. reflo can't either.
Can reflo find old X bookmarks?
Not the ones X won't return. reflo reads your bookmarks through X like every other tool does.
It also starts with your most recent saves, not your oldest. On day one it reads your last 500 (you can start with the newest 250 or all 500), then 500 new ones each month. It doesn't read further back than that yet.
Where it helps is with the saves you make from now on. Once reflo has read a save, it stays in your reflo library and comes back whenever it helps with what you're working on, even after it has scrolled out of reach on X. That includes the ones where the useful part is in a screenshot, a video, a link or a thread.
If you're trying to rescue one specific post from 2023, use the from: search above. If you'd rather your newer saves don't end up behind the same wall, try reflo.
