Hi Mike,

I am sure you will already have seen

• Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

You say moved I presume you mean copied,and that you are using that as a temporary backup of your profile. (It is possible to move profile locations)

I am not sure what you are cleaning up, some of the work may be easier from Firefox interfaces rather than from profiles or profile files. You may find it easiest to use a 2nd Firefox install on a laptop. Note however you may setup multiple profiles on a single computer.

You could clone the profile to a new profile and work on that. Or you can start with a blank profile and modify that whichever is best for your objectives. If bookmarks and history are the main concern maybe work in a new profile that contains a copy of places sqlite and then overwrite the original places.squlite once cleaned up. (Note History is not separately backed up anywhere)

signons
Some of those are present for backwards compatability reasons

• see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Signons3.txt

cookies
The cookies.txt are old types of files Firefox now uses cookies.squlite

• see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Cookies#Where_are_cookies_stored

Note transfering profile files is often done for troubleshooting issues, and in such circumstances extensions & cookies may not be transferred, because they may be the cause of the problem. In your case you probably do wish to transfer software extensions & cookies.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
• Also see
  • http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
  • http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder

I have reason to believe that something in my profile caused problems with my OS. For example, I was unable to install updates on my Desktop, so I was told I would have re-install my OS to fix it.

So I moved to my laptop and copied my profile files into my laptop profile. Then I noticed the last update failed to install. So, realizing I had just moved my profile files onto my desktop I removed them and the updates installed. Now that may have been a coincidence; but they certainly seemed related.

So I created a new profile, and have copied just the files I listed. The next step is to install my Add Ons.

I have reviewed the links you posted. It would appear that I can remove the signon2 and signon3 files as they are not relevant to the current versions of FF.

I wonder if key3.db and signon3 are related. If so I guess I should be able to be remove it from the profile. However, in the list of Files: to transfer it shows signons3.ext (if exists); so maybe I’d better leave it?

I see too that Cookies.sqlite is the only Cookies file I need to copy to the profile.

At this point the changes appear to have been successful; everything is working.

Thanks for the help.

You need the key3.db file and the signons.sqlite file to transfer the passwords.
The key3.db file is used in all Firefox versions to store the encryption key and a possible master password.

The sqlite database files shouldn't cause problems unless specific functions were working properly previously.
Extensions are best reinstalled and files like prefs.js and localstore.rdf are best not transferred.

Hmmm, I copied prefs.js. I hope that doesn't turn out to be a mistake

IMO, that is the wrong file to copy from a Profile which you had problems with, or suspect that Profile was troublesome.

I guess you now have it working ok.

My problem when trying to answer was that I was unsure if you did have problems with something not working.
Or whether you were just trying to make changes and clone a profile after such changes ( maybe cleaning-up bookmarks and passwords, and choosing a suitable set of extensions).

pfefs.js is relatively easy to work with either by direct editing of better still using about:config & about:support

Lets hope it doesn't become problem, but at least I'll know where to look if it does. If, at some future point, I simply delete it it will regenerate, new, am I correct.

"using about:config & about:support"

Is that a line I would enter in "run"?

They are entered into the address box like that for a web-page.

about:support
is the same as using the troubleshooting option in the firefox User Interface menu. That includes a list of important prefs that the user has changed.

• see Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues

about:config
lists all the preferences. It is a lot safer than trying to edit the file prefs.js manually. It has a search filter, and is interactive. You may see some sort of warning before it opens.

• see http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config

Thanks John, I had no idea!

Very helpful resource; I'll remember it.

And yes, I did see "some sort of warning" (-: and I'll be careful!