Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox
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.
Files
Bookmarks and browsing history:
- bookmarks.html (Firefox 2) - Bookmarks
- history.dat (Firefox 2) - Browsing history of previously visited websites
- places.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Bookmarks and browsing history. Note that Firefox 3 stores both bookmarks and browsing history in the places.sqlite file.
You can alternately use the import from file feature of the Bookmarks Manager to add the contents of any bookmarks file in HTML format to your current Firefox bookmarks.
Cookies:
- cookies.txt (Firefox 2) or cookies.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Cookies
Download actions for file types:
- mimeTypes.rdf - What action to perform when downloading certain types of files (save or open with a specified application).
Form history:
- formhistory.dat (Firefox 2) or formhistory.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Saved entries for web forms and the Search Bar.
Passwords: (Both of these files must be copied)
- key3.db - Key database for passwords.
- signons2.txt (Firefox 2) or signons3.txt (Firefox 3) - Saved passwords. Note: signons.txt was used prior to version 2.0.0.2.
Permissions:
- hostperm.1 (Firefox 2) or permissions.sqlite (Firefox 3) - Per-site preferences for allowing cookies, images, popups, and extension install permissions.
Preferences:
- user.js (an optional file) and prefs.js - User preference settings. Not recommended to transfer 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.
Security certificate settings:
- cert8.db
Session storage:
- webappsstore.sqlite - Only copy this if you deliberately keep and use many saved sessions.
Spelling corrections:
- persdict.dat - Personal (custom) entries in the spell checker dictionary.
Folders
- Chrome - Contains the following optional files (if created) that change the way Firefox and web pages look
- extensions - Contains added themes and extensions. Not recommended to transfer if you had problems in your old profile. After copying this folder or its contents to the new profile, delete the "extensions.ini", "extensions.cache" and "extensions.rdf" files from the profile folder. These files will be regenerated when you start Firefox. Note that some extensions store data in additional files in the profile, usually at the top of the directory. You'll need to move them separately.
- searchplugins - Contains additional search engines, if you've added any to Firefox.