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Can't back up profile: "Destination Path Too Long"

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I periodically make a backup copy of my profile (by copying the entire profile folder from C:...Roaming to another location on my computer), just in case. Now, I want to make a current copy because I'm about to power down a failing old computer and want a final profile to load on the new computer. But, in the past few days, I've run into a problem I've never seen before when I try to create the necessary profile backup:

What happens is that I get a screen titled "Destination Path Too Long". The screen lists a file name that's mostly gibberish but is not particularly long for a modern Windows file:

   3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eemgsairo.files

That mystery file is shown as having been created 3/15/2020 at 10:36 PM, which was when I installed Firefox on this computer.

I've made weekly backups of my Firefox profile on this computer since 3/15/20, and this problem has never appeared before. But I MUST get a copy of the profile NOW, before it's too late (and, no, sync is not an option in this case).

So I have two questions:

1) Can I just tell the file copy process to skip the problem file, or will that create some problem when I load the profile to the new computer?

2) Any idea what's causing this problem to just now appear? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Advice and assistance would be much appreciated!

I periodically make a backup copy of my profile (by copying the entire profile folder from C:...Roaming to another location on my computer), just in case. Now, I want to make a current copy because I'm about to power down a failing old computer and want a final profile to load on the new computer. But, in the past few days, I've run into a problem I've never seen before when I try to create the necessary profile backup: What happens is that I get a screen titled "Destination Path Too Long". The screen lists a file name that's mostly gibberish but is not particularly long for a modern Windows file: 3647222921wleabcEoxlt-eemgsairo.files That mystery file is shown as having been created 3/15/2020 at 10:36 PM, which was when I installed Firefox on this computer. I've made weekly backups of my Firefox profile on this computer since 3/15/20, and this problem has never appeared before. But I MUST get a copy of the profile NOW, before it's too late (and, no, sync is not an option in this case). So I have two questions: 1) Can I just tell the file copy process to skip the problem file, or will that create some problem when I load the profile to the new computer? 2) Any idea what's causing this problem to just now appear? Any ideas on how to fix it? Advice and assistance would be much appreciated!

All Replies (2)

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Hi K in NC, It's probably OK to skip the file - I've done it myself with no consequences. Also, take a look here -

Profile backup problem https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1306971

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Those file are part of local storage (indexedDB) that is used to store website and extension data.

With what file system is the drive that you copy the files to formatted ? If that is something like FATxx and not NTFS then this might explain the problem as NTFS is used by Windows and supports much longer file paths than FAT.