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There is no sync when Switching from Windows 10/11 to Ubuntu?

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I have recently lost trust in Windows and went back to Ubuntu. Work computer can probably boot back into Win11 if I try and it's on 22.04LTS. Home laptop was Win 10 but I'm not sure it is able to boot to that. Anyhow:

I had a great workflow with containers and handling a few different accounts and there are probably 100+ unique strong passwords saved in my firefox sync. Now I get to linux, get things set up ... and now I have to start over with everything. Most accounts, I'm totally OK to just "Forgot Password" because then it's a great chance to get a newer, longer, meaner passwd and review if I can turn on 2FA, etc. But there are sites that are slipping through the cracks; sites that are a little broken about recovery.

On an aside, I do have the windows filesystem and poked around Users/me/AppData/Roaming/blahblah/profile/files. There are json files with encrypted usernames and some sqlite DBs. Is there a mechanism for merging the "old" AppData into ubuntu's ~/snap/firefox/profile ?

Or is there a means to get user/pass out of those files? I'll see if I can get logged into the work computer tomorrow since I see there's an export option, which is a good backup plan if there isn't a way to import.

Thanks! Krista

I have recently lost trust in Windows and went back to Ubuntu. Work computer can probably boot back into Win11 if I try and it's on 22.04LTS. Home laptop was Win 10 but I'm not sure it is able to boot to that. Anyhow: I had a great workflow with containers and handling a few different accounts and there are probably 100+ unique strong passwords saved in my firefox sync. Now I get to linux, get things set up ... and now I have to start over with everything. Most accounts, I'm totally OK to just "Forgot Password" because then it's a great chance to get a newer, longer, meaner passwd and review if I can turn on 2FA, etc. But there are sites that are slipping through the cracks; sites that are a little broken about recovery. On an aside, I do have the windows filesystem and poked around Users/me/AppData/Roaming/blahblah/profile/files. There are json files with encrypted usernames and some sqlite DBs. Is there a mechanism for merging the "old" AppData into ubuntu's ~/snap/firefox/profile ? Or is there a means to get user/pass out of those files? I'll see if I can get logged into the work computer tomorrow since I see there's an export option, which is a good backup plan if there isn't a way to import. Thanks! Krista

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Keep it simple and use Sync. It's been working just fine for me across all platforms. see old screenshot https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-set-sync-my-computer https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-choose-what-information-sync-firefox

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You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder, especially if the OS differs.


  • 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 (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell 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)