Configurable rotating automatic backups (keep multiple backup versions)

[amras123]

Firefox Nightly already supports automatic backups of bookmarks, history, passwords, and settings. I would like this feature to support multiple backup files instead of only a single one that is overwritten.

The idea is simple: let the user choose how many backups to keep (for example 3, 5, or 10). Each time Firefox creates an automatic backup, it saves a new file and leaves the existing ones in place. When the number of backups reaches the chosen limit, Firefox removes or overwrites the oldest backup and keeps the newer ones.

This would give users a short history of backups, which helps recover from corrupted data, bad changes, or unwanted syncs, while keeping the feature easy to understand and manage.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[david-rubino]

Thanks! Just wanted to let you know that the usefulness of this feature is understood and the feature is in our "backlog". I don't have a timeframe right now... but if we see votes here on Connect that will help inform prioritization of work. Thanks!

-David Rubino
PM for Firefox Backup

[TechHorse]

amras123, agree. i have also heard that the backup file can get updated more frequently than the once-per-day that I initially inferred from the support article.

If everytime you delete an item then this is quickly reflected in the backup, then your chance to recover an accidentally deleted item is reduced.

Not to mention the fact that I would prefer for my SSD to not get frequently written to by a constantly updating backup file, if this is what happens?

My preference would be for this overall backup system to work in a similar way as the standalone bookmarks backup system does: at most One backup created per day, with a rotating set of the last 15 backups. (And in a perfect world, the user would be able to control both the backup frequency and, as you have suggested, the total number of backup files in rotation.)