Unable to migrate my profile from XP to Win 7
I want to migrate my Firefox profile (bookmarks, passwords, last sites visited, installed extensions/apps settings etc) from my Win XP 64 machine to my new Win 7 machine. Firefox is up to date (34.0. 5) on my XP 64 and Win 7 machines (I manually installed the active apps/extensions on Win 7). However Firefox was originally installed on my XP machine many years ago (at least 6) if that matters.
I've read the articles and tried everything I can think of but *nothing* works.
On my XP machine, I have only the default profile (from running Firefox with the -P option). This is located in C:\Documents And Settings\TexasTim65\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1f2yd5bq.default
On my Win 7 machine I located the default profile in C:\Users\TexasTim65\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bjy0sgis.default.
Try #1) I copied the 1f2yd5bq.default folder to Win 7. I run Firefox -P but the profile manager only sees the default profile. So it apparently can't detect new profiles randomly added to the Profiles folder. So that's a no-go.
Try #2) I open the bjy0sgis.default folder on Win 7. I delete everything in this folder. I then copy and paste in everything from 1f2yd5bq.default. I start Firefox and it's got nothing. No bookmarks, no last sites visited and I assume no password info or anything else. So this doesn't work for me either even though MANY people claim this is all they had to do.
Try #3) Using the profile manager on Win 7 I added a new profile called Main. I once again copied everything from 1f2yd5bq.default into the new profile. I set Main to be the default profile used (which I know works because it uses different extensions/plugins) but of course I have nothing from my copied profile.
So I'm stumped. Something is different about my setup that isn't allowing me to migrate over in a simple manner.
TIA,
Tim
P.S. Is there any thing I can do to get Firefox to create the EXACT same profile name under Win 7 as I had under XP? I would have thought the same username would generate the same default profile but apparently it doesn't.
Chosen solution
"On my Win 7 machine I located the default profile in C:\Users\TexasTim65\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bjy0sgis.default. "
There is another "Profile" folder at C:\Users\TexasTim65\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bjy0sgis.default - without the \Local in the path. That's the folder you need to copy your old Profile files into.
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (3)
¡Hola Tim!
Why don't you try Sync, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/sync ? It should work for your use case.
Let us know if you need further help.
Suluhisho teule
"On my Win 7 machine I located the default profile in C:\Users\TexasTim65\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bjy0sgis.default. "
There is another "Profile" folder at C:\Users\TexasTim65\AppData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bjy0sgis.default - without the \Local in the path. That's the folder you need to copy your old Profile files into.
Alex,
I had no idea the sync feature existed until I started this whole process. Given that I plan to run my former machine as a Virtual Machine I will definitely be getting the sync feature working. It looks really cool and will be handy for my Android phone too.
Edmeister,
THANK YOU! I had no idea there was a 2nd location. I found it easily once I knew it was there and the cut-n-paste worked. You might want to point that out in the instructions to make people aware there are 2 locations and only 1 is the right one (what does the 2nd one do anyway?)
Tim