Trying to make backups of my Firefox's Profile file.
Firefox 58.0.1 (64-bit) Windows 10 Home.
Had my first computer death in years, and lost about 16 days work during which I hadn't backed up, as well as my Firefox Profiles.
Would have liked to have the Bookmarks saved at least. The Firefox Profiles was last backed up by me 3 months ago.
So I found just what I needed -- FreeFileSync, and plan to do daily incremental backups.
I tried to set up my Firefox Profiles folder to download to a Backup Folder using this software, and make a copy daily which will just take a second.
I used C:\Users\[My Computer Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\k5j79asa.default for the folder I wanted to copy.
When I tried backing it up to my Download Folder, I got this message:
Cannot read "C:\Users\[My Computer Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\k5j79asa.default/parent.lock"
The file is locked by another process: Firefox "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"
I was able to isolate the Bookmarks folder and set that up for successful backups, but would prefer to be able to get the entire Profiles folder.
Solution?
Modified by zzyzzk
Chosen solution
The parent.lock is used when Firefox is running to let Firefox "know" the Profile was in use when the PC shutdown and Firefox didn't get shutdown properly.
Delete that parent.lock file as it will prevent Firefox from running if the Profile is copied over to a different Firefox installation, which is something that some of us would do when the PC fails and the hard drive is connected as an "external drive" so that "we" can copy over all our data to a new PC.
Basically, copy the contents of the "old" Profile into the "new" Profile, while replacing the "original contents of the new Profile" with the files from the old Profile - and delete that parent.lock file as Firefox will "see" that the Profile is "in use" and won't launch that Profile as a result of that "flag" which is a 0kb "LOCK" file.
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (3)
There was an add-on called FEBE that backed up the profile for you. But, Mozilla changed Firefox so that it no longer works (along with thousands of other add-ons).
What you are doing by copying the profile folder is a good idea. But make sure you make each copy to its own folder Just In Case.
As to the parent.lock file, it's not too important. However, make the backups when Firefox is closed.
Chosen Solution
The parent.lock is used when Firefox is running to let Firefox "know" the Profile was in use when the PC shutdown and Firefox didn't get shutdown properly.
Delete that parent.lock file as it will prevent Firefox from running if the Profile is copied over to a different Firefox installation, which is something that some of us would do when the PC fails and the hard drive is connected as an "external drive" so that "we" can copy over all our data to a new PC.
Basically, copy the contents of the "old" Profile into the "new" Profile, while replacing the "original contents of the new Profile" with the files from the old Profile - and delete that parent.lock file as Firefox will "see" that the Profile is "in use" and won't launch that Profile as a result of that "flag" which is a 0kb "LOCK" file.
Thank you both for your help.
I deleted the parent.lock file and the backup worked fine.