Firefox Community Forum

I want to copy/clone information in my Firefox Profile (Bookmarks, Logins, ..) from one device to another. Once that was accomplished, then I would enable Firefox Sync for the two devices.

Scenario: Device “A” (Profile A): Primary/Original/Source Device “B” (Profile B): Copy/Clone/Duplicate

I understand that if I set up Firefox Sync first and then sync the two devices what I will get is a combination/fusion of the information on the 2 devices, i.e., all the “good” stuff in Profile A plus all the superfluous stuff in Profile B that I would just as soon ignore/delete – which is not what I want. This issue has been raised in a number of other posts on this forum but with no suitable resolution offered (that I could find). I’m wondering if there might be a “work-around” that would achieve the desired result.

So ... would this work?

1) Back everything up first (of course!) 2) Glean any unique information to be preserved (Logins, etc.) from Profile B and incorporate it into Profile A (Profile A now has everything essential!) 3) Purge Profile B

   a) Create a New Profile on Device B (and delete old?)
   b) Delete everything possible from the new Profile B (default bookmarks, etc.)

4) Login to Mozilla account and enable Sync

The idea is to create a “blank” Profile on Device B so that when Profile A and Profile B are Synched together (combined), Profile A remains unchanged, and Profile B is populated with everything in Profile A (a perfect copy!). The result that I want after Sync is essentially A+B=A, the solution of which is of course B=0, hence the focus on creating a "blank" Profile B.

Instead of purging Profile B as above, an alternate method might be to first “pre-load” Bookmarks in Profile B by the usual method of Backing up Profile A Bookmarks and then Restoring them to Profile B. At this point Profile A and Profile B Bookmarks would be exactly the same and Synching the two devices should make no changes to either’s Bookmarks. Logins and other information would still have to be purged, but this could at least be a head start.

Presumably this idea could be extended to more than 2 devices (but with only one being the “Primary”).

Note that I am (myself) only concerned about Bookmarks and Logins, and am thus glossing-over how other information that might be important to others (Browsing History, Tabs, etc.) might be Synched.

Could someone from Mozilla/Firefox with a knowledge of the inner workings of these features please comment as to the efficacy of this “work-around”?

Thanks.

Several weeks ago, I was attempting to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. In the process, I deleted Firefox (using Revo Uninstaller) and then reinstalled it, downloading it from the Mozilla website. Unfortunately, it didn’t run, giving me, at different attempts, different error messages. In the time since then, I have read many suggestions from many different websites and I have tried some of these suggestions, all with no success – until today. I have just completed the suggestions made on https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1327628 and Firefox is now back, working. I am happy and grateful, but not finished. None of my personal data came with the currently functioning version of Firefox. Since the re-emergence of Firefox, I have been reading several websites dealing with copy, backup and restore of my Firefox profile. Right now, the path C:\Users\rsuth\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ shows 5 folders: Two of the folders show 11/11/24 as the date modified (probably the date of the download from Mozilla). The folder 0dppjrfa.default contains one file, times.json, dated 8/11/2020. The other folder, ru82tlj5.default-release, has 97 items, most dated 11/11/2024. The remaining three folders are all dated 12/2/24 (today, as I write this). One folder’s name ends .default, the second name ends .default-release, and the third name ends .default-release-thirteen digits. The question that I am asking here is what do I do next to, hopefully, bring back the personal date I had with Firefox before my updating to Windows 11. Should I delete the folders dated 12/2/24? What, if anything, is the significance of the folder whose name ends in 13 digits? I’m hoping someone will be able to tell me how to fix these Firefox problems. And if I can, then I hope to be able to do something similar to help me bring back Thunderbird as well. Thunderbird became unfunctioning at the same time as Firefox. Thank you.

Hello. All tabs in the browser on the PC are missing. I sent the tab from the mobile version of the browser, via the share with device button. After a while, I sat down at my computer and turned on the private version of the browser. A minute later, the standard version of the browser opened with the tab I had previously sent. But all the other tabs that were in the PC version are gone. In the usual case, when tabs disappeared when opening the private version and closing the standard version, you could use the "restore tab" command to open the standard version window with the tabs closed. But in the situation with the sent tab, this does not work. In general, I would like a solution in which, when the private window is open and the standard window is closed, the tabs on the standard window are not reset.

I opened firefox profile manager using 'firefox -p' and tried to delete one profile...firefox deleted all profiles except 'default' and 'default-release'...even with them firefox renamed them with some number suffix and created new folders with the same name ('default' and 'default-release')...I have checked /home/ubuntu18/.mozilla/firefox folder...all profiles/folders gone...UPDATE: As I was typing this there was power loss, firefox deleted old 'default' and 'default-release' too...How to get all profiles back?

We apparently lost power sometime during the night. When I turned on the monitor and opened FF, I got the error message that it had crashed. As my subject line says, I lost all my tabs, the pinned ones (probably about 10) as well as the open ones (probably between 10 and 15). I also lost all my history. I can't use the 'Restore Previous Session' because it doesn't give me that option.

I've restarted Firefox and also rebooted my computer...still nothing happens. It's up to date, version 133.0. But I have no history beyond this morning. Is there any way I can recover those tabs or history?

And in my FF Settings, there's a link at the top that says "Your browser is being managed by your organization". I don't have or belong to an organization. When I click on the link it takes me to another page that says it's "Active" and there's a huge list of "Documentation" that apparently involves a lot of code. Can you please explain what all that means? Thanks so much for any help!

I have set up a new Windows 11 PC (brand new installation). I installed Firefox and tried to sync, because I want to copy settings, history etc. from my Windows 10 PC.

However, it fails. I enter my password, then it asks me to enter a code sent to my email. I enter that code, and it says "Bad request" and "Something went wrong. Please close this tab and try again."

It's not the most helpful error message. All I can do is retry, but after 20+ attempts, I think there is something wrong with the 2FA.

I'm able to successfully log in to https://accounts.firefox.com/ on the browser without any issue. That uses a 2FA code from the authenticator app on my phone.

Any ideas? Is there a better way of copying my browser to the new computer? I was thinking of just copying the Firefox profile folder, but I don't want to end up with it duplicated since my Windows 10 PC is still active.

Hi,

I switched Windows from 10 to 11, reinstalled Firefox and logged in into my Sync account. But none of the bookmarks are importing - I've tried other mail that might be used, but it prompts me to create a new password, so I'm pretty sure I got the right e-mail. How can I check what is stored for my account and how to restore the bookmarks? I forgot to export them to HTML before formatting my C: drive...

I had a major failure and had to replace my PC. I still have to old C:\ but using C:\ How can I recover my bookmarks from the "old drive" my password recovery would be a bonus.

I have many, many bookmarks. Every once in a while I save them. My hard drive died. Geek Squad replaced it but where are my bookmarks and passwords? How do I recover them?

HELP!

I have Zen browser all set up on my Mac Studio with two workspaces, nice colors, etc. I also installed it on my Macbook Pro, and I am signed into Mozilla on both computers. When I synced the Macbook Pro, it did seem to sync the bookmarks but that's about it. My workspaces do not show up, and many of the other settings (default font, etc) don't sync either. In the "Zen Browser->Settings" page I checked that all of the different sync categories are checked, including Settings and Workspaces and all the others. I'm unable to figure out how to get everything to sync and I haven't found answers in support or elsewhere on the internet.

This is Zen Browser 1.0.1-a.22 (Firefox 132.0.1) (aarch64) on the alpha update channel, and is the same on both devices. Operating system is Sequoia 15.1.1 on both devices also.

All,

I just downloaded over a 100 images and created anew bookmarks folder, which I saved them to. I think I have some duplicates,so need to execute a sort on that bookmarks folder, which will place the duplicates next to each other so then I can find and delete the dups.

How do I do this?

Cheers! TBNK

PS There is not a "General" category to enter this in!

Yesterday, I had to unexpectedly get a new computer for work after the other one mysteriously died, and I had signed into firefox to save bookmarks in June when that machine was set up; I could not remember my pw today when trying to get bookmarks back on this computer, so reset, thinking I would otherwise be locked out --now I'm not seeing an option to sync bookmarks. I've had this job almost 9 years and would be lost without these bookmarks--a treasure trove of resources gathered over those years. Any help greatly appreciated!

How to recover my Notes. Version 133.0 (64-bit) of Firefox got installed just now on my laptop and all my old Notes (very important stuff) just vanished. How to recover them? Please help..

I'm not sure what type of issue this is, so hopefully I’ve posted it in the right place!

Devices:

• Firefox version 133.0 on 2022 M2 MacBook Pro OS Sequoia 15.1.1
• Firefox version 133.0 on iPhone 16 Pro Max iOS 18.1.1 (*for reference, of checking issue, not where issue is occurring)

Issue Breakdown: While updating my bookmark's tags in Bookmark Manager, my tags all but disappeared and other strange things started happening.

• My tags aren't in the sidebar menu of the Bookmark Manager at all. See Screenshot 1.
• Already tagged bookmarks retained the tags, but I’m unable to edit, add, or remove bookmark tags at all. When the bookmark is selected, the bookmark’s tags, nor any other tags, appear in a list under the bookmarks tags. See Screenshot 2.
• I can locate all bookmarks with the same tag by searching bookmarks in the Bookmark Manager.
• I can move and rename pre-existing bookmarks.
• I can add new bookmarks (confirmed by the blue star beside the address bar on the main browser after exiting and re-entering), but I cannot find those bookmarks anywhere in Bookmark Manager.
• My mobile bookmarks folder isn’t shown in Bookmarks Manager, but I can view 11 bookmarks in my Mobile Bookmarks folder on my phone’s Firefox application.

I’ve tried the following:

• restarting Firefox by quitting the application
• refreshing Firefox through the browser [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-se...]
• restarting my computer
• clearing the startup cache
• clearing the cache [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache|link]
• restarted in Troubleshoot Mode [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubl...]
• uninstalling then reinstalling Firefox software

I have no idea what is wrong with it or what is going on. What else can I do?