What can be excluded from the Firefox profile folder when backing it up?
I've moved my Firefox profile to a custom location (in My Documents). When I run a backup, I want to exclude files that can easily be regenerated when the profile is restored on another system. So far, my exclusion list is as follows:
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\OfflineCache\*
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\cache2\*
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\minidumps\*
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\safebrowsing\*
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\storage\temporary\*
D:\Documents\My Documents\Firefox\parent.lock
Is this a safe list?
Are there additional folders that can safely be excluded? Keeping logins active upon restore is preferable (so keeping cookies, etc. is preferable).
Edit: The list above is safe, and when I tested the restore it works fine. The accepted answer lists some more folders that can be excluded, which I haven't yet tested but looking through them they look correct.
Modified by Shosha
Chosen solution
If you create the profiles not in the default location in "AppData\Roaming" then all files will be stored in that location.
I see these folders in the secondary location that contain temporary data and those folders can safely be excluded.
/cache2 /OfflineCache /safebrowsing /settings /startupCache /thumbnails
For other folders, probably only these are important:
/bookmarkbackups /sessionstore-backups folder
You can also include these folders:
/extensions /chrome (if you use userChrome.css or userContent.css)Read this answer in context 👍 1
All Replies (4)
hi, Recovering important data from an old profile contains some information about where in the profile your important data is getting kept.
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-esr Mozilla Firefox ESR, Portable Edition
A fully functional package of Firefox optimized for use on a USB key drive. A specialized launcher will allow most favorite extensions to work as you switch computers.
Firefox Portable is a 3rd-party build. Support is available here: http://portableapps.com/forums/support/firefox_portable
You can use sync to share data between profiles. But some data cannot be shared between different versions.
The list of excluded directories in the OP is safe. I've tested this and restored the profile on a different computer and Firefox started up without issues, with the exact state as it was saved.
Chosen Solution
If you create the profiles not in the default location in "AppData\Roaming" then all files will be stored in that location.
I see these folders in the secondary location that contain temporary data and those folders can safely be excluded.
/cache2 /OfflineCache /safebrowsing /settings /startupCache /thumbnails
For other folders, probably only these are important:
/bookmarkbackups /sessionstore-backups folder
You can also include these folders:
/extensions /chrome (if you use userChrome.css or userContent.css)