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Help! Need to move Bookmarks, Extensions & Add-Ons to another Mac

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 25 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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My present iMac is failing rapidly and I will be replacing it with a new Mac very. I do not have a Time Machine backup. The only info I really need is how to copy off, to an external drive, all the bookmarks and bookmark structure), extensions, and add-ons I have added to Firefox, and then add them to Firefox on my future Mac.

Do I just copy the Firefox app to the external drive? I looked in the Macs' base system Library and Preferences, and in my User files, but I do not see anything related to Firefox.

My old (current) and failing Mac is running the latest version of Catalina,

Thanks for any info!

My present iMac is failing rapidly and I will be replacing it with a new Mac very. I do not have a Time Machine backup. The only info I really need is how to copy off, to an external drive, all the bookmarks and bookmark structure), extensions, and add-ons I have added to Firefox, and then add them to Firefox on my future Mac. Do I just copy the Firefox app to the external drive? I looked in the Macs' base system Library and Preferences, and in my User files, but I do not see anything related to Firefox. My old (current) and failing Mac is running the latest version of Catalina, Thanks for any info!

Chosen solution

Hi fastdude, all the important files are store in your profile folder. Could you take a look at these two articles and see whether they guide you to the correct spots:

For bookmarks, there are other options. You can create these files and stash them somewhere safe like your iCloud or email them to yourself:

Last but not least, if you will have the two computers simultaneously, you could try using a Firefox Account to Sync the contents of your current profile to your new one on the other computer. But I would still make a backup first. More info on Sync: How do I set up Sync on my computer?

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All Replies (6)

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Hi fastdude, please ignore the spam message with a phone number -- that's not official and we don't know what they will do to your system if you engage.

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Hello,

You may have seen a post or received a notification regarding support for Firefox or Thunderbird with a link to another site or a phone number being posted. This is a scam and is not a method to receive support from Mozilla. Mozilla does not have telephone or email support. Please do not click on the link and do not interact by calling any phone numbers or email addresses listed. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. You are currently posting on the official Mozilla website and will receive assistance here.

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Chosen Solution

Hi fastdude, all the important files are store in your profile folder. Could you take a look at these two articles and see whether they guide you to the correct spots:

For bookmarks, there are other options. You can create these files and stash them somewhere safe like your iCloud or email them to yourself:

Last but not least, if you will have the two computers simultaneously, you could try using a Firefox Account to Sync the contents of your current profile to your new one on the other computer. But I would still make a backup first. More info on Sync: How do I set up Sync on my computer?

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I hope you can help me. I just got a new Macbook Air which has Catalina OS. I installed Firefox on it but want to transfer my bookmarks to the new computer from my old Macbook Air. I thought the bookmarks are in the profile folder within the user Library so I copied those onto an external hard drive and then copied that folder inside of the Firefox folder in the User folder on the new computer. I opened Firefox and expected to see my bookmarks but none are there. I was going to use the Sync feature on Firefox but apparently I have forgotten my password. I am logged into my user account in Firefox but no matter what I try to do it is requiring that I re-enter my password! I read that if I do a password reset without entering a recovery key I will lose my bookmarks (I have several hundred), so I don't want that to happen. I found a recovery key that I must have gotten years ago in a folder on my old computer but I am not sure if it would be current. Can you please advise me as to how to proceed? Many thanks!!

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For clarification, I don't want to export my bookmarks - I am wanting to copy the bookmarks file to my new laptop.

Modified by wrabb

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Hi Wanda.

Once you reset the password of the Firefox Account then an old recovery key is no longer working. Did you copy the Library folder in your home directory to the new device ?

Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).

  • ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.