Why am I having trouble restoring profile to different location?
I have followed the directions on restoring my profile to a new location (new computer) explicitly and it's not working. None of my bookmarks or history are being restored. It appears that entirely new folders that did not exist in my June 25 backup file now exist. When I pasted the information, I was not asked to replace any files.
I have a separate backup in an Acronis file that looks more like the original installation I have on this new computer in the newly created profile. But that doesn't work either.
Can someone help me? This is more than 5 years of bookmarks I stand to lose if this won't work. Also all my passwords will be lost. This is a serious problem for me. I also have multiple add-ons I use all the time
Thank you.
Chosen solution
You will need the profiles.ini file as well to make Firefox recognize that profile.
Sometimes it is better to only recover the files that you really need and not copy the full profile folder.
See also:
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The first thing is to make sure you dropped the files into the correct folder. If you open Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" you will be looking at your active profile folder. Keep this window open, exit Firefox, then try dropping the files in that folder. Any luck?
Chosen Solution
You will need the profiles.ini file as well to make Firefox recognize that profile.
Sometimes it is better to only recover the files that you really need and not copy the full profile folder.
See also:
Thanks, but I had the correct folder for the profile. I checked as jscher2000 suggested.
Modified by Peter
Hi phhanley, is it solved? Make sure you don't drop your entire old profile folder in as a subfolder. You need to drag the folder contents so they replace the new (empty) ones.
Was the old profile folder from the same (Windows) Operating System?
You can always restore specific items manually as stated in the KB article.
Thanks again, but I did drag the contents to the new profile, not just drop the old folder in. Both computers were running Windows 7. I'll check out these articles and see if I can manually move items. I desperately need my bookmarks and my passwords.
Maybe you had Firefox running while you dragged the files? You should make sure it is closed.
Other than that, if you have access to your old computer, you could try using Firefox Sync.
No, I definitely had Firefox closed. Thanks again for the suggestions. I just returned from a business trip, so will try again on Thursday to see if I can get this to work.
I appreciate your help. Copying the files one by one worked. Not sure why it didn't work when I copied the entire backup profile to the new profile. Perhaps I may have just closed Firefox with the "X" on the top instead of going to exit on the menu. If that's the case, maybe the instructions should be a bit more explicit. Don't know, but I have my bookmarks and history back, which is huge for me.