Hi Fred, I don't use Linux, so it may have some significant differences from Windows. But did you try clearing out the entire contents of your new profile folder (on Linux) and replacing them with the entire contents of your old profile folder? This ensures that the folder's name does not change so Firefox will automatically use the same folder after the operation.

When copying your Windows profile content, please make sure to copy from the main profile folder and not the one that contains temporary files like cache. If you open the about:profiles page you can see the two paths there and you want the contents of "Root Directory".

Yes I did do that. I'm constantly moving profiles between my three laptops and desktop. In fact this Linux laptop has a virtual shell with W7 and it has my W7 profile folder from my desktop.

Thanks, Fred

Hi Fred, it sounds as though something must be different in this case than in the other cases where everything worked normally after copying over the files. What further clues could you provide about why it isn't working in this case?

The first place I look is at saved logins.

In windows it is populated properly. In the original Ubuntu is has a few since I have barely used it In the transferred from windows to Ubuntu it has none.

Okay, it didn't work, but can you see any difference between this time vs. previous times that you were able to copy over the files successfully? Weird folder names or locations, error messages from Firefox, etc.?

Also, in case Firefox recognizes multiple parallel profiles, if you type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load that page, can you discover the missing data in another profile there?

I gave up and did it a backdoor way.

I signed into both the Windows and Linux browsers, setup a dummy account in both and signed them into sync with each other.

Waited 10 minutes and verified that the majority of the information was transferred.

All done, thanks, Fred

You should only copy specific data files and not a complete profile folder between different operating systems to avoid issues.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

• bookmarks and history: places.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 (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling 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)

cor-el said

You should only copy specific data files and not a complete profile folder between different operating systems to avoid issues.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile .

fey42 said

cor-el said

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile .

...That article predates Quantum and is no longer relevant, I think.

The fundamental behavior of Firefox profiles has not changed. The article should adapt to the Firefox version selected in the left column under "Editing Tools" so that it displays the correct file names for your version.

Did you make sure to copy the files to the correct location?

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page. You should see the location of the profile listed next to this button.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I have been moving profiles from W7 to W7 for years and it always works. I simply replace the contents of the new profiles folder with the old profile folder en masse.

I solved the problem by using Sync, which worked great and probably took less time than the other way.

This is SOLVED