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Upgrading your computer and moving your Firefox data

asafko
Employee
Employee

Hello, Connect community!

Our team at Mozilla is trying to understand how we can make the transition from one computer to another easier for Firefox users who upgrade their devices. We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. 

What worked for you, and what has proved to be a challenge or annoyance when upgrading your computer and transferring your Firefox data (bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history)? 

Did you create a Firefox account to sync your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history? Or did you export your bookmarks manually? 

What would be the most seamless way for you to move Firefox data from a previous computer to a new one? 

20 REPLIES 20

noel_envoide
Making moves

You've presented several issues here. Upgrading; syncing, transferring/relocating.  While they're all a part of the comprehensive process, they are not necessarily related in some respects.  We need to differentiate between them. What I'm suggesting here is related to Desktops/Laptops.

Is there a thread here, like this one dedicated to the Firefox Profile Manager?

Using Release, ESR, Beta, Aurora, and/or Nightly together.

If not, someone might consider dedicating a tutorial to it in this venue. 

Being introduced to the profile manager profoundly changed and simplified my user experience with Firefox, particularly with the knowledge and understanding that Firefox is essentially a "portable" application, allowing the user to easily create, situate, and pretty much gain immediately access to an infinite number of your existing Firefox profiles with a few clicks of the mouse.

Once you configure the profile manager, moving anything Firefox related, regardless of the destination on any device, becomes little more that a "copy and paste" operation.

After that, the user can choose whatever sync options they desire, and/or transfer complete profile folders.  You can also replace from one location to another, not all, but many of the individual profiles internal files manually.  Among several others, these include your Bookmark, history, password and session files. 

Here's a sample of what it looks like

 

 

superuser
Familiar face

After moving my profile to another directory, my extension buttons were missing, and I had to open the Customize Firefox page and use the Restore Defaults button to bring them back.

Please clarify.  You're referring to toolbar buttons, not the icons to the left of your extensions in about;addons, correct? Were the buttons missing, or was there just a blank placeholder for the extension instead of the icon?

I have, on random occasions in the past when, for whatever reasons, some toolbar buttons icons went blank.  For me, In this scenario, i found that disabling and then enabling the affected addons one by one in the addons page brought the icons back.

Simply moving the profile would not have cause it.

 

kremlinbot
Making moves

I just copy the whole Profiles folder whenever I want to reinstall my OS, lol

 

lihvacrmike7
Making moves

for the most part, you guys did a good job. its also been years soo im due for a new computer soon. ive used firefox since we still had windows xp.. i dont plan on changing

pjolt
Making moves

@asafko wrote:

What would be the most seamless way for you to move Firefox data from a previous computer to a new one? 


I have used Firefox Sync for many years now and a major annoyance is that Sync does not include changes made to search engine settings,search engine defaults and keywords associated with those. Same issue with Sync not carrying over search settings on mobile.

aquierick
Making moves

@asafko wrote:

Hello, Connect community!

Our team at Mozilla is trying to understand how we can make the transition from one computer to another easier for Firefox users who upgrade their devices. We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. 

What worked for you, and what has proved to be a challenge or annoyance when upgrading your computer and transferring your Firefox data (bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history)? 

Did you create a Firefox account to sync your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history? Or did you export your bookmarks manually? 

What would be the most seamless way for you to move Firefox data from a previous computer to a new one? 


For various reasons I change my OS very frequently and I find it annoying that I have to redo all my toolbar customizations (moving flexible spaces, removing unused buttons, etc.) in each new install. Maybe a toggle in the sync settings would be useful.

DavidGreenhalgh
Making moves

I did a disk image.

Although new Laptop asked for confirmation on MS Office (which was OK) and FFox asked for reinstall, which was a pain since this created new (empty) json files.

I had to manually copy my back up files 😉 onto new laptop which isn't a big ask.

Strangely though a FFox update installed a couple of days ago wiped the json login file and gave me a new one. Only discovered when I tried to login apps to find no usernames or passwords for anything!! Yes I have my backup files (again) but they where now a little out of date. Thanks Team........  

s1fly
Making moves

I think that Firefox Sync does a great job at syncing and moving personal data. What would make it even more useful when moving devices, would be to have an option to sync local settings/preferences and installed add-ons. 

This wouldn't need to hold a lot of data, as the add-ons themselves are obviously hosted, it would be just a case of storing those permalinks. 

In a perfect world, there would be a way for developers to use Firefox Sync for add-on settings but that's a whole lot of work!

Luca_Pavan
Familiar face

Now that I have my Firefox Account I don't mind about saving my customizations anymore, at least this. By the way, I already asked to add the possibility to save Shortcuts.

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/saving-shortcuts-on-firefox-account/idi-p/21391

Invetor
Making moves

I just export my bookmarks and import them in the new FF installation. I apply all my preferred settings, install all my extensions and configure them to my preference. As for my logins and credentials, I use Bitwarden instead of the built-in password manager of FF. Oh, and I bookmark my open tabs so I can (somewhat) easily transfer them (by exporting bookmarks).

It is indeed a lot of work, but it works. I don't want to work with the profiles and folders. I don't know if it'll work correctly or cause any bugs in the new FF installation. So I just do it manually (better be safe than sorry).

Room for improvement :

If the users can export all their stuff (profiles, settings, open tabs, containers, extensions settings, themes, history, bookmarks etc.) into a single file on their desktop, and then import that single file in the new FF installation, it'd be really nice and convenient.

  • When exporting, users should be able to select what they want to transfer and what they don't.
  • Then in the welcome screen of the new FF installation, the user will be asked if they want to import their old FF stuff.
  • Exporting/importing user data/stuff needs to be as painless as possible. This feature can be showed to the user at the bottom of "settings > general".

Now, this feature can be implemented with FF Sync but that's a lot of work. The method described above should be enough (if it works). So I think we can focus on that first, then implement it with FF Sync.

dogtooth
Making moves

Just did it yesterday - used the trad html export and then had to do extensions and logins by hand.

Mind you it worked, unlike the mess that is Thunderbird profiles - (use the ImportExport extension is the solution there) ... but only after you've wasted two hours getting more and more frustrated with it's refusal to load something it thinks is out of date. It wasn't, both were latest versions, but one was 32 bit, the new one 64 bit.

2MuchC0ff33
Making moves

I would like to see the carry over of my about:config parameters from one PC to another.

2MuchC0ff33
Making moves

The syncing feature with a Firefox account is the most convenient way for me to transfer data from one computer to another. Simply logging into my account on my new computer brings up all of my bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history.

However, I value the ability to manually export my data as a backup. This has come in handy when the syncing process fails or when I need to transfer data to a computer that does not have internet access.

The most seamless way to move Firefox data from one computer to another, in my opinion, would be if the process was fully automated and did not require any manual intervention. For example, it would be a game changer if my data was automatically backed up to the cloud and then restored on my new computer!

Overall, I believe that providing multiple options, such as syncing with a Firefox account or manual export, is the best way to meet users' diverse needs.

Bmuzammil
Making moves

How to back up and restore information in Firefox profiles 

 

Method 2: Open through Run

  1. Make sure your Firefox browser is closed.
  2. Win + R and Copy & paste: %appdata%\mozilla\firefox\profiles\ 
  3. Click on the OK button or press Enter.

Step 2: Copy and Paste the Profiles Folder

  1. Connect an external hard drive or USB drive to the current computer.
  2. Right click on the profile folder you want to copy. If you have only one, it will be named ********.default.
  3. Choose Copy.
  4. Open your external hard drive or USB drive.
  5. Right click on the blank space and select Paste.

    How to back up and restore information in Firefox profiles 

rjrfe89
Making moves

Hi asafko,

"What worked for you, and what has proved to be a challenge or annoyance when upgrading your computer and transferring your Firefox data (bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history)?"
- and -
"Did you create a Firefox account to sync your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history? Or did you export your bookmarks manually?"

I have a Firefox account - and this works quite well as the "seamless way" to mirror/move Firefox data from a previous computer to a new one.

🙂

My input or suggestion is that I have not yet readily found a way to do this: Select to have Firefox BLOCK all other browsers from accessing and importing Firefox data without explicit permission on my part as a Firefox user.

Thanks for the feedback request!
rjrfe89

 

Ponda
Making moves

It's frustrating that even with Sync, I have to manually change some settings, customize toolbar and add search engines again. It is also frustrating on mobile – even more with Android and search engines, considering there is no way to reorganize them. Also, most of the extensions has to be reconfigured as they do not support Sync (notably, uBlock supports it experimentally but it doesn't work on Android). Aside from these, Sync is great and made configuring new devices so much easier!

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Ci
Making moves

My wish that you have shortcuts for extensions and also can move shortcuts from one computer to another.

Ameliacruise121
Making moves

Here are some thoughts and suggestions for making the transition easier:

  1. Use a Firefox account to sync data: Creating a Firefox account and using the sync feature can be the most seamless way to transfer Firefox data from one computer to another. This feature automatically syncs your bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history across all your devices.

  2. Manually exporting bookmarks: If you don't want to use a Firefox account, manually exporting your bookmarks is a good option. This can be done by going to the bookmarks menu, selecting "Show All Bookmarks," and then selecting "Import and Backup" and then "Export Bookmarks to HTML."

  3. Transferring passwords: Firefox passwords can be transferred by exporting them to a CSV file on your old computer and importing them on your new computer. This can be done by going to the password manager and selecting "Import and Export."

  4. Challenges or annoyances: Some challenges or annoyances that can arise when upgrading and transferring Firefox data include the need to manually install Firefox on the new computer, having to manually import bookmarks and passwords, and having to log in to all your accounts again.

Overall, using a Firefox account and sync feature can be the most seamless way to move Firefox data from one computer to another. However, manually exporting bookmarks and passwords can also be a viable option. It's important to ensure that all Firefox data is backed up and easily accessible when upgrading to a new computer.