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I am presently running Windows XP on my old computer, and I bought myself a new computer running Windows 7 64-bit. What's the easiest, safest way to transfer all my settings, add-ons, plugins and themes from Firefox, from one computer to the next?

Does just copying the profile from the old computer do the trick? Or how about Magic Transfer? Or FavBackup? Or MozBackup? Or is this just not possible? Firefox is presently downloaded and installed on the Windows 7 computer, waiting for me to make a move. Both versions are the same.

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8 Answers 8

Reset to default
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I used MozBackup without any problems.

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  • Aye! I second that!
    – Grumpy ol' Bear
    Nov 29, 2009 at 20:11
  • This doesn't seem to work on Firefox 12.
    – galacticninja
    May 17, 2012 at 10:01
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You can also now use the built-in Firefox Sync.

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I personally use XMarks, an add-on that will sync your bookmarks with a copy in your repository. You can then register multiple computers with the Xmarks account, and they will all have the same bookmarks. Note that if you bookmark a URL at work, which is not available from the net, it will not work, but you can also have different profiles, and sync based on those profiles.

Xmarks saved me so many hours of retyping and emailing of URLs.......

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I've always just copied the profile from one Windows user directory to the other. Never had a problem.

The only extra step is when copying a profile from Windows to Ubuntu; there's a text file listing the profiles (in ~/.mozilla/firefox/) that I updated manually. I'm not sure if that's actually necessary.

See the official Mozilla Profile support page for how to locate the profile, as well as the official how-to for backing up and restoring a profile.

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  • The nice thing about copying the profile is you also copy over all your sqlite files, including places and forms data. This is both a good and bad thing depending upon how your use firefox. Since I rely upon completion within the awesome bar, having my places database intact is very useful.
    – Darren Hall
    Nov 30, 2009 at 16:54
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FEBE backs up your extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and just about everything else Firefox offers (it can even backup/restore your entire profile). You can selectively restore only the items you need.

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  • Copy whole profile to new computer
  • Keep profiles in sync with Firefox Sync (built in since 4.0 i think) if you still want to use the old machine (but generally no bad idea in terms of backups)
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Step One: We first need to grab the Firefox profile off the old computer or hard drive. On the old computer, browse to (Windows XP) C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles; (Windows 7,8, 8.1) C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. You will find under the Profiles folder a xxxxxx.default profile.

Copy the Firefox profile folder to a flash drive or network location.

Step Two: Go to your new computer. Install Mozilla Firefox. If you are running Windows 7 or 8/8.1 go to C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. Under the Profiles folder you will find a profile name (normally a string of numbers and letters with .default at the end).

Make sure Firefox is closed and cut the new Firefox xxxxxxx.default folder to your desktop.

Step Three: Ensure Firefox is closed on the new computer. Get your flash drive and copy the Firefox profile from the old computer into the C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles (Windows 7, 8 or 8.1) folder on the new computer.

Step Four: Go to your desktop and copy the name of the new computer’s Firefox profile. Next, go back to the profile folder (C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles) on the new computer, and rename the old computer’s Firefox profile to the exact same name of the new computer’s Firefox profile. In my case, I would rename the new Firefox profile (35jar636.default ) to H9gzaar6.default .

Open Mozilla Firefox and everything will be there just like your old profile. I hope this helps you. Thanks.

Source: http://techspeeder.com/2014/11/12/how-to-manually-move-your-mozilla-firefox-profile-from-one-computer-to-another/

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The easiest way is to copy all the files inside your old profile from your XP machine and put it in the new profile folder from the Windows 7 one.

Follow these steps for this: - navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile_old.default\ on the XP computer - select all the files from that folder and copy them to a usb stick - open Firefox on the new PC in order to have the folder created and then close it - navigate to C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile_new.default\ and put all the files on the stick there and select "Replace all" in order to overwrite the files.

Then you should have all of your passwords/bookmarks/history from the old PC to the new one.

Note: The AppData folders are hidden so you have to go to the explorer settings and select "Show Hidden Files and Folders".

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