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3 Useful Methods to Back Up Your Firefox Preferences

By Abhijeet on April 22, 2008

If Firefox is your preferred browser and you have a lot of bookmarks and use different add ons with it, then it is important to back up your firefox preferences so that you don’t lose them if anything goes wrong with your firefox .

Although there can be many methods to backup firefox, I am listing 3 of them below which I think are the easiest and the best .

1: FEBE – A Firefox Add On

FEBE firefox addon

I use FEBE and find it the best way to backup your firefox preferences. Once you install it, you can go to Tools – > FEBE – > FEBE Options and there you get various backup options. You may decide to backup only certain things like cookies or bookmarks or you may backup the entire profile which will include everything including the add ons. One other very useful feature in FEBE is scheduled backup. You can schedule the backup at a specific time everyday and FEBE does the rest.

2: Mozbackup ( Windows Only )

Mozbackup firefoxMozbackup is another nice utility which allows you to backup your firefox preferences. You will first need to download and install it and then like FEBE, it allows you to either backup specific preferences or the entire profile. However it doesn’t have a scheduler like FEBE.


3: Manual Backup

Yes, you can manually backup your firefox preferences too. You need to go to your firefox profile folder. In Windows XP type C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\\ in the run box and in Vista, type C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\\ and there you will find a file called prefs.js. This is the main file containing your preferences. Hence you can copy it and save it somewhere else and later if you install firefox from scratch, you need to replace the prefs.js file in the new firefox profile with the old saved file.

You can use any of the above 3 methods and backup your firefox preferences. Do you know about any other better methods to backup Firefox? Let me know in the comments.

 

Posted in | Tagged , , , | 34 Responses

  • http://unseend.wordpress.com/ unseend

    thanks man! great post! when i was on xp my firefox crashed sometimes and lost all of preferences and settings.. but now in linux it doesn’t do that! but for sure i’ll download FEBE. thanks again…!

  • http://unseend.wordpress.com unseend

    thanks man! great post! when i was on xp my firefox crashed sometimes and lost all of preferences and settings.. but now in linux it doesn't do that! but for sure i'll download FEBE. thanks again…!

  • http://unseend.wordpress.com unseend

    thanks man! great post! when i was on xp my firefox crashed sometimes and lost all of preferences and settings.. but now in linux it doesn't do that! but for sure i'll download FEBE. thanks again…!

  • http://readerszone.com/ Ajay

    thanks for the manual backup.

  • http://readerszone.com Ajay

    thanks for the manual backup.

  • http://readerszone.com Ajay

    thanks for the manual backup.

  • http://iccotdis.blogspot.com/ Sidhartha Dhar

    “in Vista, type C:Users\AppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles\”

    here I would like to add that using the run command with the above will give error.

    It is better to first make the hidden folders visible then manually go to the prescribed file

    OR

    one should modify the link as follows

    C:Users****AppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles9duk2ix2.default

    here replace the **** with your user name and then use the run command

  • http://iccotdis.blogspot.com/ Sidhartha Dhar

    "in Vista, type C:UsersAppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles"

    here I would like to add that using the run command with the above will give error.

    It is better to first make the hidden folders visible then manually go to the prescribed file

    OR

    one should modify the link as follows

    C:Users****AppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles9duk2ix2.default

    here replace the **** with your user name and then use the run command

  • http://iccotdis.blogspot.com/ Sidhartha Dhar

    "in Vista, type C:UsersAppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles"

    here I would like to add that using the run command with the above will give error.

    It is better to first make the hidden folders visible then manually go to the prescribed file

    OR

    one should modify the link as follows

    C:Users****AppDataRoamingMozillaFirefoxProfiles9duk2ix2.default

    here replace the **** with your user name and then use the run command

  • http://techmalaya.com/ Syahid A.

    Nice tool Jeet. I’ve only used FEBE previously. I am looking forward to test MozBackup.

  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    Nice tool Jeet. I've only used FEBE previously. I am looking forward to test MozBackup.

  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    Nice tool Jeet. I've only used FEBE previously. I am looking forward to test MozBackup.

  • http://www.thegrowinglife.com/ Clay Collins | The Growing Lif

    Great post! In our rush to back up other files, it’s easy to forget to back up browser preferences. Thanks for these useful tips.

  • http://www.thegrowinglife.com Clay Collins | The G

    Great post! In our rush to back up other files, it's easy to forget to back up browser preferences. Thanks for these useful tips.

  • http://www.thegrowinglife.com Clay Collins | The G

    Great post! In our rush to back up other files, it's easy to forget to back up browser preferences. Thanks for these useful tips.

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  • Jared

    I have used Google Browser Sync for some time now and it seems to work very well. I’ll look into FEBE

  • Jared

    I have used Google Browser Sync for some time now and it seems to work very well. I'll look into FEBE

  • Jared

    I have used Google Browser Sync for some time now and it seems to work very well. I'll look into FEBE

  • Pingback: Sync Firefox Across Different Computers With Mozilla Weave

  • http://webabout.org/ web about money

    I have used Google Browser Sync for with IE,It work very well.I don’t like the firefox,when I use it ,I find the words is too small!

  • http://webabout.org web about money

    I have used Google Browser Sync for with IE,It work very well.I don't like the firefox,when I use it ,I find the words is too small!

  • http://webabout.org web about money

    I have used Google Browser Sync for with IE,It work very well.I don't like the firefox,when I use it ,I find the words is too small!

  • Howard T

    How come nobody ever just says put them on an USB. This way you can take them with you, load other machines and also share them with others. It’s easy and fast to do.

  • Howard T

    How come nobody ever just says put them on an USB. This way you can take them with you, load other machines and also share them with others. It's easy and fast to do.

  • Howard T

    How come nobody ever just says put them on an USB. This way you can take them with you, load other machines and also share them with others. It's easy and fast to do.

  • Pingback: Automatically Backup Your Firefox Profile To Box.net With FEBE

  • http://www.badxp.com/ Badxp

    I didn’t know these tools exist before I stumbled upon this page. Thanks for the info.

  • http://www.badxp.com Badxp

    I didn't know these tools exist before I stumbled upon this page. Thanks for the info.

  • http://www.badxp.com Badxp

    I didn't know these tools exist before I stumbled upon this page. Thanks for the info.

  • Pingback: Life Transitions NewsletterVolume 1, Number 9 October 30, 2008 at The Retirement Network

  • vpv

    thanks!

    you also have to back up ‘profiles.ini’
    - it’s contain proper instructions:

    —————————-
    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]
    Name=default
    IsRelative=1
    Path=Profiles/uqw8z99c.default
    —————————-

    …for your profile “Profiles/uqw8z99c.default”

  • vpv

    thanks!

    you also have to back up 'profiles.ini'

    - it's contain proper instructions:

    —————————-

    [General]

    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]

    Name=default

    IsRelative=1

    Path=Profiles/uqw8z99c.default

    —————————-

    …for your profile "Profiles/uqw8z99c.default"

  • vpv

    thanks!

    you also have to back up 'profiles.ini'

    - it's contain proper instructions:

    —————————-

    [General]

    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]

    Name=default

    IsRelative=1

    Path=Profiles/uqw8z99c.default

    —————————-

    …for your profile "Profiles/uqw8z99c.default"