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Copying places.sqlite from old profile isn't working

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

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My computer died, and I am in the process of copying the data from the hard drive. I am trying to follow the intructions on how to restore an old profile so I can get my bookmarks and history from my old computer onto my new one.

Whenever I try to copy places.sqlite from the old profile, it looks like Firefox is overrwiting it with a clean version. I have tried copying just that file and I also have tried copying the entire profile folder...neither is working. Can anyone give me some ideas why it's not working?

Thanks

My computer died, and I am in the process of copying the data from the hard drive. I am trying to follow the intructions on how to restore an old profile so I can get my bookmarks and history from my old computer onto my new one. Whenever I try to copy places.sqlite from the old profile, it looks like Firefox is overrwiting it with a clean version. I have tried copying just that file and I also have tried copying the entire profile folder...neither is working. Can anyone give me some ideas why it's not working? Thanks

All Replies (5)

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When I copied my profile folder to my new Win7 PC, I just dropped the entire thing under Profiles. However, Firefox didn't "see" it until I edited a file named profiles.ini in:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox

I closed Firefox, edited the migrated folder name into the place of the blank new profile, and restarted Firefox. It ran the compatibility check and didn't look back.

If you copied over the entire folder, maybe this will work for you.

Edit: It occurs to me that you could copy your old profiles.ini if you saved it. Might want to back up the new one in case you need it later.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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I tried that too. For some reason FF keeps insisting on resetting my places.sqlite file no matter what I do.

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You can also use the Firefox Profile Manager to create a new profile. If you click the Choose Location button then you can select the folder of an exiting profile to make Firefox use that profile.


Are you in the correct location of your current Firefox profile folder?

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder
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Yeah I am in the right folder, because I can see my places.sqlite file get replaced as soon as I start Firefox. I have tried creating a new profile and copying the files into that...it's not working either.

Modified by Osman

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If that copy of places.sqlite isn't working then you need to use a JSON back to restore the bookmarks.