From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

The profile folder is a folder on your computer that stores all of your data such as settings, bookmarks, extensions, themes, mail (if you're using Thunderbird or SeaMonkey) etc. Its a good idea to occasionally backup your profile in case something happens to your computer. This article describes how to backup the profile, and to restore it.

If you want to move your profile to a different place on your computer (or a different computer), see Moving your profile folder. It has different (and more complicated) instructions because it has to tell the application where the profile is stored. See Transferring data to a new profile if you're trying to recover data from a profile to reuse in another profile.

If you're migrating from Windows to Linux see this article instead.

Third party profile backup software

Recommended: If you're a Windows user and want a simple way to back up and restore profiles, it's recommended that you use the MozBackup program. MozBackup is a profile backup utility for Mozilla Suite, Firefox, and Thunderbird. This eliminates the need to find where your profile is stored, and it has options to backup just part of the profile. Its also a very convenient way to migrate a profile to another computer (or restore a profile on a reformatted boot disk).

If you're using Portable Thunderbird or Firefox Mozbackup won't backup your profile because it expects to find it via the profiles.ini file, and one of the goals of portable applications is to avoid having to register/install the application on each PC. Portable Apps Suite (Base Edition) includes a PortableApps Backup utility. Toucan is a stand alone utility with more options, that lets you synchronise, backup and secure your data. It also supports command line arguments.

See this article for other alternatives, including automated online backup.

Manually back up the profile

If you are comfortable with copying files and folders you can manually back up your profile. This process can be as simple as copying a single directory to a backup location. Most of the work is in finding where the profile folder is stored.

1. Its a good idea to first get rid of any unnecessary files to reduce the size of your backup.
   • Firefox: "Tools -> Clear Private Data... -> checkmark "Cache" and other unneeded items -> Clear Private Data Now".
   • Mozilla Suite and SeaMonkey: Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cache -> Clear Cache, as well as compact your mail.
   • Thunderbird: Compact your mail.
2. Completely exit or quit the application. Mozilla Suite and SeaMonkey users on Windows should also exit Mozilla Quick Launch if its enabled.
3. Find the "Mozilla" "Firefox" or "Thunderbird" folder in the profile folder path that contains the registry.dat file or profiles.ini file and the "Profiles" folder (Windows and Mac) or <profile name> folder (Linux) . See Profile folder - Firefox , Profile folder - Thunderbird and Profile folder - SeaMonkey for the location.
4. Copy the "Mozilla" "Firefox" or "Thunderbird" folder to the backup location. This will back up all profiles in the default location.
5. If you have created any profiles in a custom location, copy them to the backup location.

Mail is stored by default within the profile. If you re-configured Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey to store an accounts messages outside of the profile, you need to also copy the "local directory" for that account. Look in Account settings to find the location of each account's local directory.

Manually restore the profile

To restore a profile backup:

1. Close the application whose profile you're going to restore. If you're using Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey you should also exit Mozilla Quick Launch if its enabled.
2. Copy each folder you backed up to the exact same location that it was in when you made the backup.

Partial backup

In some situations you might want to manually back up or restore only certain files in the profile folder. See Transferring data to a new profile for a list of suggested files.

See also

• Migrating and backing up address books
• Moving your profile folder
• Moving your mail storage location - Thunderbird
• Moving your mail storage location - SeaMonkey