Transferring data to a new profile

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Revision as of 10:07, 29 December 2006 by Dickvl (talk | contribs)
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This article describes how to copy data and settings from one profile to another and lists a suggested set of files. This process will not migrate extensions, themes or toolbar/window customizations. It is not intended for moving or restoring a complete profile.

Completely close Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla Suite, and copy the files shown below from the source profile folder to the destination profile folder. This process will overwrite existing files of the same name so you may wish to back up the profile data beforehand.

Browser

These files are used by Firefox and Mozilla Suite / SeaMonkey.

  • bookmarks.html - Bookmarks
  • cert8.db - Security certificates
  • chrome/userChrome.css and chrome/userContent.css (if they exist) - User-defined styles. Note: It is not recommended to migrate these files if you had problems with the previous profile.
  • cookies.txt - Cookies
  • formhistory.dat (Firefox) or (number).w (Mozilla Suite) - Form history
  • key3.db stores the key (Master Password) to encrypt and decrypt the user names and passwords saved in signons.txt (Firefox) or (number).s (Mozilla Suite).
  • signons.txt (Firefox) - Saved passwords. Note: you also need key3.db
  • history.dat - Browsing history
  • hostperm.1 - Cookie, image, and extension install permissions
  • mimeTypes.rdf - Actions to perform on downloaded files
  • user.js (if it exists) and prefs.js - User Preferences. Note: In most cases, migrating the prefs.js file from one profile to another is not recommended, especially if you had problems with the previous profile. If you choose to do so, you may need to manually edit the paths in prefs.js to reflect the new profile location. Additionally, you may need to remove preferences that refer to extensions that are not installed in the new profile.
  • searchplugins folder - Search plugins. Copy the .src and .gif/.png pair of files (or, in Firefox 2, the .xml file) for each search plugin, from the searchplugins folder in the source directory to the destination searchplugins folder. Note: In Firefox 1.5 or later and in SeaMonkey, newly-installed search plugins are added to the searchplugins folder in the profile folder instead of to the installation directory. Starting in Firefox 2, a single .xml file is used (instead of .src and .gif/.png files) for each search plugin.
  • extensions folder - Themes and Extensions. Note: This applies only to Firefox 1.5 or later and Thunderbird 1.5 or later. It is also necessary to delete these three files at the same time: extensions.ini, extensions.cache and extensions.rdf and these files will be regenerated on restart. Note 2: It is not recommended to migrate this folder if you had problems with the previous profile.

Mail and newsgroups

These files are used by Thunderbird and Mozilla Suite Mail.

  • abook.mab and history.mab - Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses. For migrating other address books, see this article.
  • cert8.db - Security certificates
  • chrome/userChrome.css and chrome/userContent.css (if they exist) - User-defined styles
  • key3.db and (number).s - Saved passwords. If you do not migrate the prefs.js file, use about:config to modify the signon.SignonFileName preference value to match the copied (number).s file name.
  • mimeTypes.rdf - Actions to perform on downloaded files
  • msgFilterRules.dat (in each account subfolder) - Message filters
  • popstate.dat (inside each POP mail account subfolder) - Keeps track of which messages have been downloaded from the POP server. If you don't copy it, previously downloaded messages still on the server might all get downloaded again.
  • training.dat - Custom training for Junk Mail Controls
  • user.js (if it exists) and prefs.js - User Preferences. Note: In most cases, migrating the prefs.js file from one profile to another is not recommended. If you choose to do so, you may need to manually edit the paths in prefs.js to reflect the new profile location. Additionally, you may need to remove preferences that refer to extensions that are not installed in the new profile.
  • virtualfolders.dat (Thunderbird) - Saved Search folder settings
  • Mail and ImapMail folders - E-mail messages and settings. See this article.
  • News folder - Newsgroups messages and settings. If necessary, create a new "newsgroup" account for each news server in the new profile ("File -> New -> Account"), then close Mozilla Suite or Thunderbird and copy over the "News" folder contents.

Note: Do not copy the whole profile directory. Some of the other files contain absolute path information (like for security certificates), and your profile might not work correctly with old entries from the original profile.

See also