HOW TO: Copy, backup and restore your Firefox bookmarks, settings and add-ons.
Written on December 7th, 2008
I formatted my workstation the other day and needed a way to transfer all of my Firefox bookmarks and settings. I stumbled upon a very simple and quick method through copying the Application Data folder. Interestingly enough, this method also has the welcome side-effect of transferring all of your add-ons as well; so things like DownThemAll and Firebug will all stay intact.
The folder you need to copy is: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox (in my case C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox).
The Application Data folder may be hidden on your system. To enable hidden system files do the following:
- From the explorer window, go to the “Tools” menu.
- Select “Folder Options…”
- Select the “View” tab.
- In the “Advanced Settings” area, enable “Show hidden files and folders”.
- Hit the Ok button.
The previously hidden Application Data folder should now be accessible.
Once you have this folder backed up, you can paste it into a Firefox Application Data folder on another system and have your entire user profile and customizations fully restored.
Note: This method has only been tested with Firefox 3 under Windows XP.
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3 Responses to “HOW TO: Copy, backup and restore your Firefox bookmarks, settings and add-ons.”
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Nathaniel Sabanski
A Software Consultant from British Columbia, Canada. Specializing in interactive multimedia design and production.
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- HOW TO: Copy, backup and restore your Firefox bookmarks, settings and add-ons.
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December 9th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Useful tip! I was actually looking for something like this, frowning on Foxmarks (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2410) because it would also take my passwords. Sounds like a good way to hit the ground running after a reformat!
March 30th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Man very usefull tip here but i’m still gonna come after you
August 21st, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Great tip,
1. There is also a nice program called “Mozbackup” that can
backup up everything Firefox aaahnd Thunderbird
2 Since I am dualbooting, do you have any hint how this works
on Linux?