Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox

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Sometimes when you have problems with Firefox and can't figure out what's wrong, it's easier to create a new profile and transfer any data you want to save, rather than keep trying to fix your existing profile. See Transferring data to a new profile - Thunderbird or Transferring data to a new profile - SeaMonkey if you're using either Thunderbird or SeaMonkey.

Preparation

Since you may be copying files over existing files with the same name, its a good idea to first back up your profiles as a precaution. MozBackup is a popular way to do that if you use Windows.

Create a new profile

Create a new profile, if you haven't done so already. To do this, completely close Firefox by choosing File -> Exit (or Quit). Then use the Profile Manager to create a new profile. Make note of the name you give to the new profile so you can distinguish between the old and the new. Then completely close Firefox.

Identify what you want to salvage

If you haven't identified what set of files is causing your problem, it's recommended you copy files from your old profile folder to the new one in several steps, testing whether things are still working okay between steps.

A list of files used to store each type of data is provided below. It's recommended that you only copy data that would be a lot of work to recreate (such as bookmarks, passwords, and cookies) to the new profile, and that you re-install any extensions and themes rather than trying to migrate them. Its frequently quicker to re-install or re-configure something than to spend time debugging what you did wrong.

This article assumes you're using Firefox 1.5 or later. If you're using a older version, you may need to look at Profile_folder - Firefox to see if there are any changes that affect you.

Add-ons

  • extensions directory - Themes and Extensions.

Delete the extensions.ini, extensions.cache and extensions.rdf files in the directory. They will be regenerated when you start Firefox. This avoids potential problems due to old paths. A few extensions store data in additional files in the profile, usually at the top of the directory. You'll need to move them separately.

Bookmarks and browsing history

Firefox 3.0 (not released yet) uses places.sqlite instead of those two files

Cookies

  • cookies.txt - Cookies can be used to keep you logged into web sites you logged into before.
  • hostperm.1 - Cookie exceptions

Download actions

  • mimeTypes.rdf- What action to perform when downloading certain types of files (save or open with a specified application)

Form history

  • formhistory.dat - Autocomplete entries for web forms and the search bar.

Permissions

  • hostperm.1 - Cookie, image, and extension install permissions.

Preferences

You may need to manually edit the paths in prefs.js to reflect the new profile location. If the new profile doesn't have the same extensions, you may have some unused preferences set by those extensions, but that usually doesn't harm anything.

Saved passwords

  • key3.db - Key database for passwords. The two other files require it.
  • signons2.txt - Saved passwords. signons.txt was used before version 2.0.0.2
  • cert8.db - Security certificates used by SSL etc.

Normally you would copy all three of these files or none of them.

Search engines

  • searchplugins folder - Only copy this if you added another search engine

Session storage

User styles

These optional files change the way Firefox and web pages look.

See Also