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I've tried copying my bookmarks to a new computer (WinXP to Win7) but it's not working. Any ideas on how to get the old profiled copied to the new one?

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  • Last reply by TonyE

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I followed the instructions here in the support forum on backing up my old profile to a flash drive, then copying it to the profile on the new computer. I'm simply opening the backup on the flash, selecting all and then "copy", then going to the new profile on the new machine and doing "paste". It's letting me overwrite (and I lost my few prior settings I had on the new PC) but I'm not getting my old bookmarks showing up. Tried rebooting and reinstalling firefox and still no luck.

I followed the instructions here in the support forum on backing up my old profile to a flash drive, then copying it to the profile on the new computer. I'm simply opening the backup on the flash, selecting all and then "copy", then going to the new profile on the new machine and doing "paste". It's letting me overwrite (and I lost my few prior settings I had on the new PC) but I'm not getting my old bookmarks showing up. Tried rebooting and reinstalling firefox and still no luck.

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Have you copied places.sqlite to the new profile folder?

It sounds like you have copied the files to the correct folder, but to be sure follow the instructions in the profiles article to open the profile folder on the new computer.

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Yes, the places.sqlite has been copied. I don't see any specific instructions in the "restoring to a different locaton" directions on how to open the new profile, though. Step 7 just says to paste the contents of the backed up file to the new profile (in this case, I've copied them over the default profile created when I first downloaded firefox). This overwrote the existing files. Then it says to Start Firefox. Which I did with no old bookmarks showing up. That's why I posted here - am I missing a step once I open Firefox to make it look at the new profile information?

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This page explains how to open the new profile folder - https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles

Is this the same location that you copied the files to?

Another way to copy the bookmarks without having to open the profile folder is to use the process in the backing up and restoring bookmarks article. It shows you how to backup the bookmarks to a json file, which you can copy to the new computer and then use the restore option.