Syncing office computer with laptop
I have Firefox on my laptop (Win10 Pro) and on my Android phone; just bought a new office computer that is running Win11. My laptop has a long list of bookmarks and a dozen or more open tabs. I would like to get this same setup on the new computer. I thought I followed directions but since it does not work I guess I have missed something important.
Go to the menu in upper right, then the > next to my account, which brings up Manage Account, Syncing, several other items, then a list of tabs on my phone, another list of tabs on my laptop, and a third list of tabs on an old computer that no longer exists. It has been syncing for 2-3 hours without evident progress. I would like to delete the dead computer to avoid confusion but see no way to do it. Mainly I want to sync with the laptop or, failing that, import the bookmarks from it.
I also copied the FF profile from the old computer into the new one. The files and directory structures are identical but FF cannot read the profile. I do not know what to do about any of this.
All Replies (3)
A profile needs to be registered in the Profile Manager and stored in profiles.ini in the Firefox profile folder for Firefox to use it.
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)
I may have messed this up beyond recovery. I copied the profile from my old computer into the Firefox\Profiles folder and opened Profiles Manager, which I assumed would list it along with several other profiles of unknown origin, allowing me to select it as default; however, the PM lists the others but not the one I want to use. It remains inaccessible. Is there any answer for this?? Baffled.
I have now copied in the individual files listed above, which seems to have resolved most if not all of my issues. Still curious why I can't get it to use the whole profile. Oh well, moving on. Thanks much for the help. JRS