Porblem migrating the profile file between Windows XP and Windows 7 64 bit
I have purchased a new Windows 7 64 bit computer. My old computer was a 32 bit Windows XP. I cannot get the new computer's Firefox version 18 to read the profile data from my old XP computer. I have renamed the old profile file to the correct name for the new computer but none of the bookmarks, passwords, add-ons etc. appear in my new computers Firefox. The correct profile file is being accessed by the new computer as I can see the modification time etc is changing when using windows explorer. Is the new computer being a 64 bit the problem or is there some way that I can get the old profile migration to work or do I just have to start again from scratch?
Will I have a similar problem with Thunderbird?
Modified by Ianola
Chosen solution
This should not normally be a problem. (Or was it an encrypted folder: XP pro, NTFS, EFS, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308989 ) Was the old profile from a very recent Firefox version 17 or 18 or a very old one (Old ones may be a problem).
Is the old XP still working and running Firefox ?
What you should be doing is copying the contents of the old profile into the new but empty profile location. Firefox and Windows 7 sort out the permissions, location and profile.ini file, you add the copies of the original contents folders and files.
You may need to start again with the migration process, but you should not need to start from a Firefox that does not contain your old profiles passwords, bookmarks and History etc.
Carefully read this article that explains in detail what to do:
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Chosen Solution
This should not normally be a problem. (Or was it an encrypted folder: XP pro, NTFS, EFS, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308989 ) Was the old profile from a very recent Firefox version 17 or 18 or a very old one (Old ones may be a problem).
Is the old XP still working and running Firefox ?
What you should be doing is copying the contents of the old profile into the new but empty profile location. Firefox and Windows 7 sort out the permissions, location and profile.ini file, you add the copies of the original contents folders and files.
You may need to start again with the migration process, but you should not need to start from a Firefox that does not contain your old profiles passwords, bookmarks and History etc.
Carefully read this article that explains in detail what to do:
It is better to only copy the files that you need from the old profile to the current Firefox Profile Folder to avoid issues and you also need the profiles.ini files in such a case.
Thank you for your replies, much appreciated. Problem was that I was trying to change the profile in the directory train that branched at Local instead of Roaming. The profile file is created in both trains. Thanks again.
You're welcome
The location in Local is used for volatile files like the browsing cache.
The location in Roaming stores you actual personal profile data.