hello farmerbb, all this data is stored in your old profile folder. for details please refer to: Recovering important data from an old profile

I am sorry, I read the section on "Copying files between profile folders". This make no sense, even the English is bizarre. It mentions buttons that don't exit in my copy of Firefox, and things I am supposed to do IN Firefox, after it says Firefox must be closed down. Is there not some simple way this could be fixed, like running FF from my old hard drive, instead of using the copy I made onto the new one ? I am really desperate to get my passwords, and bookmarks back working again.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

XP: Main profile location:

• XP:
  C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
• Vista and later:
  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

XP:

• Cache:
  C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
• Vista and later:
  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\LocalMozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

The "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K and the "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and later versions are hidden folders.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

For the passwords you need signons.sqlite and key3.db

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

your firefox profile is just a normal folder on your harddrive. the instructions refer to how to transfer the necessary files to your new profile using windows explorer - such file operations can't be done within firefox...

Well. I appreciate your trying to help me, but something is just wrong. I copied the entire folder across to my new disk,

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

under which there are two more sub-folders, Default.th5 and xxxx.default. But there is no way I can see to tell FF to USE them. I click on Firefox Help, and there is NO Troubleshooting menu item. What am I missing ?

My problem is still not resolved. Is there anyone who can help here ? My business has stopped if I cannot access my bookmarks and saved passwords. Another curious thing. After I create this reply, I would expect to see a button that says "Post". No. Nothing. Just Preview.

You're missing the profiles.ini file from the other drive.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

You copied over C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ which missed the profiles.ini file which sits next to the \profiles\ folder and is needed for Firefox to recognize its' Profiles.

Thanks, but a search reveals no file named profiles.ini on either drive.

Note that Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see a name without file extension. You can see the real file type if you open the Properties via the right-click context menu

The "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K and the "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and later versions are hidden folders.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

OK, Windows Search does not find those files unless you click on "hidden files". I found them using Xyplorer. What do I do next ? One thing that may be making things more complex is that the "new" computer had an ADMIN identity set up, so it asks which one (Admin or Me) I want to start. My "old" computer had only "Me". I see that some of the folders like

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Application Data...........(my old PC)

now look like

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name.ADMIN-123456\Application Data...

on the new PC. Perhaps I should have eliminated the ADMIN id when I first started trying to copy files over.

When you do a standard install of Firefox as an admin it will install Firefox for each user, and each user will have a separate Firefox profile.

On a day-to-day basis you will use the none-admin me and that is the profile where you will need to recreate the passwords and bookmarks. If you have the profile.in file in the correct (location) path it will start the correct profile and you should then have access to your original bookmarks and passwords.

I copied most of the old drive files & folders to the new drive. But I had to update Firefox multiple times, as it kept telling me my copy was out of date. There must have been seven or eight times I updated, and it said "Firefox will update the next time you start" but it did not. I had to run the EXE manually to get it to update properly. I changed the name inside the PROFILES.INI to match the value from my old disk. FF still does not use my old bookmarks. I checked and it appears that the folder default.th5 and all the contents have copied across cleanly. Not sure why it still does not work.

If you used the original profiles.ini and original profile folder the names should have matched without you needing to change anything.

Editing profiles.ini manually is best avoided. If you make a mistake Firefox is likely to create another new profile so that it can run.

1. Run Firefox then go to troubleshooting, and use the option to open the profile folder from there. That will confirm which profile is in use, and it probably will be an unexpected new profile, check and find out.
2. Then look at your directories and find out what profiles you now actually have for each user.

So do the above for both/all users on your machine.

OK, using Troubleshooting, the PROFILE appears to be

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name.ADMIN-BE96894BB\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1spk7blw.default

Can I change this to something like

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.th5

and have that work ?

I appreciate the help, of course.....

I checked and it appears that the folder default.th5 and all the contents have copied across cleanly.

I emphasised the name default.th5 .
That does not appear to be a standard Firefox name for a profile folder. Have you already previously been changing folder names &/or locations on the original hard disk ?

The actual name of the Profile is relatively unimportant, deviations from the default 8 alpha/numeric 'salt' plus the default are allowed. The important thing is that the Profile name be the same in both places, and that the formatting of the profiles.ini file be correct.

Why don't you post a screenshot of your profiles.ini file and your Profile folder (showing the Explorer address bar large enough to read the "path).

The actual name of the Profile is relatively unimportant, deviations from the default 8 alpha/numeric 'salt' plus the default are allowed. The important thing is that the Profile name be the same in both places, and that the formatting of the profiles.ini file be correct.

Why don't you post a screenshot of your profiles.ini file and your Profile folder (showing the Explorer address bar large enough to read the "path).

Here is my current file, now that I have changed it

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/default.th5

located in

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

and here is the same file

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/1spk7blw.default Default=1

[Profile1] Name=My Name IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/ptkdgspw.My Name

located in

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name.ADMIN-1234567\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

secondary question. When/if we get this working, will my logons/passwords come along too ?

Our posts crossed, but I am wondering how many Firefox profiles you will actually have ?

Obviously you have at least an admin and a none admin account. It will be the none admin account you presumably use on a day-to-day basis. In addition you may now have multiple profiles in at least one account.

You will also have more than one profile.ini file