
Restore an old FF profile on a new browser version
Due to a problem, today I’ve restored the folder containing the entire FF profile saved on 02/12/2021.
Everything worked immediately without any apparent problem, even though since December 2 FF has been automatically updated to a new version.
The procedure is correct or I should have installed an old version of FF corresponding to the saved profile ?
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Are there any problems? If not you are all set.
FredMcD ha detto
Are there any problems? If not you are all set.
Apparently there is no problem and everything works perfectly (bookmarks, passwords and extensions) but, better to ask those who know Firefox thoroughly ...
With some versions of the browser, the profile data is not backward compatible.
Older profiles can be read. But there might be an issue if there is a jump of many versions of the browser. Example: (this is just an example) version 94 can 'read' a profile created by version 90, or even 86 (again just an example) but may not be able to 'read' a profile created by version 80 (again an example).
In such a case, we can help the user by telling them how to recover some of the data.
Is storage working properly as that is the major reason a profile is broken ?
You can check for issues with Storage (indexedDB).
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.
- 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)