Profile backup

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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.

Recommended way

If you're a Windows user and want a simple way to back up and restore profiles, it's recommended that you use MozBackup . That 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 Mac OS X, use Email backup.

Manually back up the profile

If you are comfortable with copying files and folders, or if you can't or don't want to use a program to backup the profile, you can back it up manually. 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. Exit the application completely by choosing File -> Exit. 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. 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 could be as simple as copying and pasting it using Windows Explorer. This will back up all profiles in the default profile location. Any profiles you may have created in a custom location will need to be copied separately.

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.

Third party profile backup software

Many programs are available for backing up a profile. Some support scheduling a unattended backup. Below is a partial list.

  • BackupFox: Backup your profiles of Firefox and Thunderbird. (Windows)
  • Bookmark Backup: Profile backup utility for Firefox. (Windows and Linux)
  • Email backup: Profile backup utility for Thunderbird (OSX)
  • FEBE: Backup extension for Firefox. (Windows and Linux)
  • Jaback : A file backup utility for Windows or OSX that supports scheduling and email notification of task failures. The main downside is its not Mozilla aware, so you have to understand the profile layout if you don't want to backup the whole profile.
  • MozBackup: Profile backup utility for the Mozilla Suite, Firefox, and Thunderbird. (Windows)

See also