Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox

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Revision as of 01:34, 5 June 2008 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs) (updated for Firefox 3; added External link to related SUMO article)
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This article explains how to selectively transfer Firefox user data and settings to a new Firefox profile and provides a list of suggested files. If you're using either Thunderbird or SeaMonkey, see Transferring data to a new profile - Thunderbird or Transferring data to a new profile.

Preparation

Back up your profiles

It's 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

Installing Firefox and running it for the first time automatically creates a "default" Firefox profile. Additional profiles can be created using the Firefox Profile Manager. If you haven't yet created a new profile, completely close Firefox by choosing File -> Exit (or Quit) and then open the Profile Manager and follow the prompts to create the new profile, Make note of the name you give to the new profile so you can distinguish between the old and the new, then exit the Profile Manager (do not start Firefox with the new profile).

Copy data to the new profile

If you had problems with your old profile and 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.

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. Extensions, themes, and preferences are a common cause of Firefox problems so you should re-install any extensions and themes and reconfigure your preference settings if you had problems with the old profile, instead of trying to migrate them.

Note that Firefox 3 uses a new file format for certain profile data (e.g., "cookies.sqlite" instead of cookies.txt) and will create files using data contained in files from older Firefox versions, if found. If you are copying profile data from a profile used with an older version of Firefox, make sure to delete any sqlite files in the new profile folder so that Firefox can create a file in the new format using the data in the copied file.

Suggested profile contents to transfer

The following files and folders are found in your Firefox profile folder. Note that, on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Linux, you will need to show hidden files and folders to navigate to the profile folder or search for the files.

Extensions and themes

  • "extensions" folder - Contains your themes and extensions. Not recommended to migrate if you had problems in your old profile.

Delete the "extensions.ini", "extensions.cache" and "extensions.rdf" files inside this folder after copying it to the new profile. These files 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 uses places.sqlite instead of those two files.

You can alternately use the import bookmarks from file feature of the Bookmarks Manager to add the contents of any bookmarks file in HTML format to your current Firefox bookmarks.

Cookies

Download actions

Form history

  • formhistory.dat (Firefox 2) or formhistory.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Saved entries for web forms and the Search Bar.

Permissions

  • hostperm.1 (Firefox 2) or permissions.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Per-site preferences for allowing cookies, images, and popups and extension install permissions.

Passwords

Both of these files must be copied:

Note: signons.txt was used prior to version 2.0.0.2.

Preferences

  • user.js (an optional file) and prefs.js - User preference settings. Not recommended to migrate if you had problems in your old profile.

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.

Search engines

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

Security certificate settings

  • cert8.db

Session storage

Spelling corrections

User styles

These optional files (located in the "chrome" folder) change the way Firefox and web pages look.

See also

External links

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