If I remove the Profiles folder from Firefox in Appdata, would that remove all my personal information from Firefox such as browser history and passwords?
Sometimes I have to bring my computer to the computer store, but I always make sure to delete any information from programs like Firefox, just incase. But I read that Firefox saves all your information in a folder in Appdata. So I was wondering, if I were to move that folder to an external harddrive, and delete it from the computer, would all my information from Firefox get deleted from the computer, or will it still save that information elsewhere?
And if it does delete all the information, if I were to move the folder that I save on an external harddrive back onto my computer, would Firefox get access to all that information again?
Chosen solution
Firefox will itself create a new profile folder if you try to open it without it having a profile folder
Yes you could just copy the content and then delete the original content, leaving the folder. Then overwrite the content again with your backup content.
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Hi Yusunoha,
You are right. If you move the profiles from "\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox" folder, all the saved information including passwords will be deleted and you can restore it by moving it back.
You can change the path of profile folder in the "profiles.ini" file in the path mentioned above.
It is slightly more complicated than that. Doing that will work only if Firefox is not opened. Firefox may well be opened during testing or fixing of the computer. If Firefox is opened it will create a new profile. Take care to make a note of the exact name of the original folder for comparison.
The new profile will have a slightly different name.
Deleting that folders contents, not the folder itself, and replacing the content with the backed up folder content should work as you expect.
What you are trying to do is keep the new name but use the old content.
See these articles, but note in this instance there is no problem with migrating all the content because the original profile was not faulty and it is not a different computer
- Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
- Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles
Update, oops, I did not see the other post. Editing profiles.ini would work to use the original profile, but it may be easier and safer to transfer the contents. profiles.ini is not straightforward to edit and if it is done wrongly it will often result in another new profile being created.
Modified by John99
but what if I were to move the content in the current profile, and after moving the content, delete the files that are in the current profile folder?
in other words copy the content of the current profile, and deleting the content of the current profile afterwards. later on I could then move the content back into the current profile folder.
if I'd do this I wouldn't need to worry about creating new profiles right?
Chosen Solution
Firefox will itself create a new profile folder if you try to open it without it having a profile folder
Yes you could just copy the content and then delete the original content, leaving the folder. Then overwrite the content again with your backup content.
Modified by John99
then this seems to be the best course of action for me, thank you very much :)