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firefox profile folder copy paste to usb HDD says source path too long

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  • Last reply by TechHorse

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Hi, I am removing SSD C drive win 7 64bit pro and installing new SSD hen installing win 10 64 bit pro. I then will install Firefox latest. I need to have it show all my bookmarks and other settings i have given it over the years. Impossible to recreate them all. I google how to do so, I locate the Profiles folder which has a VERY LONG non sensicle name unlike 'my profile'. I copy paste it to an external usb HDD into a folder called f, and still it says:- Source Path Too Long. The source file names are larger than is supported by the file system,try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter names.

folder f is as short as one can do ! This profile folder already resides on C drive, how become the PC was happy with what was inside added to its silly long name ? My bookmarks are a few words long else you cannot read them, I dont have any LONG ones at all. Firefox must itself be generating names longer in the process and to mess with those will kill function and I DONT WANT ERRORS. I cant shorten what are short names. I have much longer names of files sitting several folders deep on my PC not a problem when moving about the folders.

IT IS CRUCIAL I GET THIS FOLDER INTO MY NEW PC. Perhaps I will have to plug in the old SSD and copy straight to the new C drive, it should not complain as the path will be the same length, but copying out to root level folder called f is a shorter path, and it fails.

HELP !

Dbenz

Hi, I am removing SSD C drive win 7 64bit pro and installing new SSD hen installing win 10 64 bit pro. I then will install Firefox latest. I need to have it show all my bookmarks and other settings i have given it over the years. Impossible to recreate them all. I google how to do so, I locate the Profiles folder which has a VERY LONG non sensicle name unlike 'my profile'. I copy paste it to an external usb HDD into a folder called f, and still it says:- Source Path Too Long. The source file names are larger than is supported by the file system,try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter names. folder f is as short as one can do ! This profile folder already resides on C drive, how become the PC was happy with what was inside added to its silly long name ? My bookmarks are a few words long else you cannot read them, I dont have any LONG ones at all. Firefox must itself be generating names longer in the process and to mess with those will kill function and I DONT WANT ERRORS. I cant shorten what are short names. I have much longer names of files sitting several folders deep on my PC not a problem when moving about the folders. IT IS CRUCIAL I GET THIS FOLDER INTO MY NEW PC. Perhaps I will have to plug in the old SSD and copy straight to the new C drive, it should not complain as the path will be the same length, but copying out to root level folder called f is a shorter path, and it fails. HELP ! Dbenz

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DBenz, your USB drive might be formatted with a different file system than your harddrive?, one which does not support filepaths of the same length?

Here's something you could try: Make a note of the profile folder's original name in a text document. Rename your folder to something very short. Try copying the folder with it's new short name to the USB HDD. Then restore the original folder name on your harddrive. Also copy the text file containing the original long name to the USB HDD. When the time comes, copy the short named profile folder from the USB drive to the new drive, and then use the text file to restore the original name.

Modified by TechHorse