Backing up your information

Mozilla Firefox stores all your personal settings, such as bookmarks, passwords and extensions, in a profile folder on your computer, in a location separate from the Firefox program. This article explains how to back up your profile, restore it, or move your profile to a new location or computer.

• Just Bookmarks? For backing up, restoring, or moving your bookmarks (not other data), see Backing up and restoring bookmarks.

Table Of Contents

• Locate your profile folder
• Firefox 3.6
• Firefox 3.5
• Windows 7 and Vista
• Windows 2000 and XP
• Backing up your profile
• Restoring a profile backup
• Restoring to a different location

Locate your profile folder

Windows:

The default location of the Firefox profile folder is %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\.

• %APPDATA% is shorthand for the C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\ folder (Windows 7/Vista) or the C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\ folder (Windows XP/2000), which depends on your Windows user account name.

Mac OS:

The default location of the Firefox profile folder is ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/.

Linux:

The default location of the Firefox profile folder is ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/.

• xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters.

You can locate your profile folder using these instructions:

3.5/3.6:

Firefox 3.6

1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information.... The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
2. Under Application Basics, click on Open Containing FolderShow in Finder. This will open the profile folder (e.g., the xxxxxxxx.default folder).

Note: If you can't open Firefox, use the instructions for Firefox 3.5 given below.

Firefox 3.5

Windows:

Windows 7 and Vista

1. Click the Windows Start button, and type %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ in the search box at bottom of the Start menu, without pressing Enter.
2. A list of profiles will appear at the top of the Start menu. You can click on any of the profiles (e.g. xxxxxxxx.default) to open it with Windows Explorer.

Windows 2000 and XP

1. Click the Windows Start button, and select Run....
   
   
   
2. Type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ then click OK.
   
   

Windows Explorer will open the Profiles folder, which contains a folder for each profile.

Mac OS:

1. Open Finder and go to your home folder. Note: Your home folder is usually the short name of your Mac user account.
2. From your home folder open /Library/, then /Application Support/, then /Firefox/, then /Profiles/. The Profiles folder contains a folder for each profile.
   
   

Linux:

1. (Ubuntu) Click the Places menu on the top right of the screen and select Home Folder. A File Browser window will appear.
2. Click the View menu and select Show Hidden Files if it isn't already checked.
3. Double click the folder marked .mozilla.
4. Double click the folder marked firefox. Your profile folders are within this folder.

Backing up your profile

To back up your profile, first close Firefox if it is open and then copy the profile folder to another location.

1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
2. Locate your profile folder, as explained above.
3. Go to one level above your profile's folder, i.e. to %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/~/.mozilla/firefox/
4. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on your profile folder (e.g. xxxxxxxx.default), and select Copy.
5. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click the backup location (e.g. a USB-stick or a blank CD-RW disc), and select Paste item.

Restoring a profile backup

1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
2. If your existing profile folder and profile backup folder have the same name, simply replace the existing profile folder with the profile backup, then start Firefox.
   Important: The profile folder names must match exactly for this to work, including the random string of 8 characters. If the names do not match or if you are restoring a backup to a different location, follow the steps below.

Restoring to a different location

If the profile folder names do not match or if you want to move or restore a profile to a different location, do the following:

1. Completely close Firefox, as explained above.
2. Use the Firefox Profile Manager to create a new profile in your desired location, then exit the Profile Manager.
   Note: If you just installed Firefox on a new computer, you can use the default profile that is automatically created when you first run Firefox, instead of creating a new profile.
3. Locate the backed up profile folder on your hard drive or backup medium (e.g., your USB-stick).
4. Open the profile folder backup (e.g., the xxxxxxxx.default backup).
5. Copy the entire contents of the profile folder backup, such as the mimeTypes.rdf file, prefs.js file, bookmarkbackups folder, etc.
6. Locate and open the new profile folder as explained above and then close Firefox (if open).
7. Paste the contents of the backed up profile folder into the new profile folder, overwriting existing files of the same name.
8. Start Firefox.