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Transfering settings from dead machine

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have a machine that went tits-up. I have a new machine and would like to transfer my FireFox book marks, passwords, logins, etc. from DOA to new. I have the original HD set as an external drive on new. What files do I need to migrate?

I have a machine that went tits-up. I have a new machine and would like to transfer my FireFox book marks, passwords, logins, etc. from DOA to new. I have the original HD set as an external drive on new. What files do I need to migrate?

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You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

  • 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 (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
    if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
  • persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling 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.

Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location.

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

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles) (not necessary to restore files in this location).

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\