Copy Old Bookmarks to New Install

[borgward]

I copied .mozilla from old home folder to new home folder. I did not get my old bookmarks into Firefox as I expected. Additional steps needed? 14home is the old home directory.

~ $ cp -R 14home/xyz/.mozilla /home/xyz

[gtsfer]

One easy way to get your bookmarks into a new install of Firefox is to export them from the old FF, then import them into the new one. If you didn't export them before hand you might find a backup file though.

Click "Bookmarks -> Show All BookMarks". Then "Import and Backup -> Restore -> Chose File". If you have a copy of your .mozilla folder you can look in .mozilla/mwadXXXX.default/bookmarkbackups/ for a backup file of type JSON to import.

Look in the "copy" of the .mozilla folder if you still have it. Not the new working .mozilla folders. The backup file most likely got overwritten as soon as you invoked the new FF.

FF keeps bookmarks by default in a "places.sqlite" file. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pr ... -user-data. Exporting them yourself is a good idea if you're moving to another install or something like that. Then it's easy to import them into the new FF.

[borgward]

I did Bookmarks -> Show All BookMarks. Then "Import and Backup -> Restore -> Chose File. I am unable to select .mozilla from there. I do have "Show hidden files selected" in Nemo. I can view .mozilla there.

[gtsfer]

I did Bookmarks -> Show All BookMarks. Then "Import and Backup -> Restore -> Chose File. I am unable to select .mozilla from there.

Once you get the file open dialog from there, right-click in that window and do "show hidden files". Having the hidden files showing in Nemo doesn't affect what the bookmark manager sees.

[borgward]

That worked.

Looking in .mozilla I see 2 folders, extensions and firefox. Extensions is empty. In firefox/mwadXXXX.default there are:

drwxr-xr-x 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 adblockplus
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 365283 Jul 20 2013 adblockplus-rules.json
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 21166 Jul 23 14:34 addons.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 524288 Nov 3 2013 addons.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 140137 Jul 23 14:36 blocklist.xml
drwx------ 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:51 bookmarkbackups
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 1 Jul 14 2013 _CACHE_CLEAN_
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 344064 Jul 26 20:44 cert8.db
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 1738 Feb 22 2014 cert_override.txt
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 160 Jul 11 12:00 compatibility.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 229376 Jul 7 12:54 content-prefs.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 1572864 Jul 26 20:44 cookies.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 3 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 extensions
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 490 Jul 10 09:44 extensions.ini
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 43056 Jul 23 14:34 extensions.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 524288 Jan 8 2014 extensions.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 524288 Jul 26 20:44 formhistory.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 FVD Single
drwx------ 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 healthreport
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 1146880 Jul 26 20:44 healthreport.sqlite
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 16384 Jul 26 20:44 key3.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 20508 Jul 26 20:44 localstore.rdf
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 57 Mar 21 13:25 marionette.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 9205 Dec 5 2013 mimeTypes.rdf
drwx------ 2 xyz xyz 4096 Jun 17 12:28 minidumps
drwx------ 2 xyz xyz 4096 Feb 9 2013 mozilla-media-cache
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 74842112 Jul 26 20:44 netpredictions.sqlite
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 194 Mar 29 2013 NoScriptSTS.db
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 65536 Jul 26 20:44 permissions.sqlite
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 15 Oct 27 2013 persdict.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 31457280 Jul 26 20:44 places.sqlite
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 6520 May 4 23:41 pluginreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 33324 Jul 26 20:44 prefs.js
drwxr-xr-x 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 safebrowsing
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 31663 Jul 26 20:40 search.json
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 485 Apr 10 16:48 search-metadata.json
drwxr-xr-x 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:52 searchplugins
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 16384 Feb 5 2013 secmod.db
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 288 Jul 26 20:44 sessionCheckpoints.json
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 1131 Jul 23 16:11 sessionstore.bak
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 13026 May 8 12:23 sessionstore.bak-20140428194215
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 165 Jul 26 20:44 sessionstore.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 327680 Jul 26 20:44 signons.sqlite
drwxr-xr-x 3 xyz xyz 4096 Jan 9 2014 storage
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 25 Jul 14 2013 times.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 52428800 Feb 13 2013 urlclassifier3.sqlite
-rw------- 1 xyz xyz 154 Apr 29 23:55 urlclassifierkey3.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 1407894 Feb 13 2013 urlclassifier.pset
drwxr-xr-x 5 xyz xyz 4096 Mar 8 2013 weave
drwxr-xr-x 2 xyz xyz 4096 Aug 23 19:51 webapps
-rw-r--r-- 1 xyz xyz 4128768 Jul 12 20:25 webappsstore.sqlite

If I want Firefox 31.0 in my new Mint install to look and behave just like Firefox from the last installation, shouldn't I move everything in .mozilla to the new install?

[gtsfer]

If I want Firefox 31.0 in my new Mint install to look and behave just like Firefox from the last installation, shouldn't I move everything in .mozilla to the new install?

Gaaaaah! Lots of files. Sure that should work in theory, I guess I have seen some posts where people have done that. It looks like plugins, extensions, etc are all in there. I have never done it that way myself, just exported my bookmarks and basically started fresh.

But I would guess if you started "new" FF up to create the user .mozilla/mwaksXXX whatever it is directory, then shut FF down, and then copied (maybe delete the new FF stuff under that directory first) all your original stuff into it it would pick everything up. Maybe including that places.sqlite bootmarks file too.

By "new install" do you mean your OS or just Firefox? Is it the same version of FF? Just curious.

[borgward]

OS

I'm thingking Uninstall Firefox. Copy .mozilla and contents to the new home on the new Mint17 install, then Install Firefox.

[gtsfer]

OS
I'm thingking Uninstall Firefox. Copy .mozilla and contents to the new home on the new Mint17 install, then Install Firefox.

That might work, dunno. Normally you'd have to start FF up after re-install just to create a profile directory. But if you're copying it in there first, it may work for you.

EDIT: But now that I think about it, that profile directory is different on each "new" FF. (i.e. the directory name is a little different.)

There might be other stuff floating around somewhere that's related to FF (such as in .config/chromium) for all I know. You can try an "apt-get purge firefox" to help get rid of some config stuff too if you want to try that.

How much "stuff" do you have there customized in FF? I mean aside from bookmarks? I only have like 7 plugins, most of them are defaults. Plus 3 extensions that I add. If I ever reinstall, I just go into FF prefs and set a couple things. Do the plugins and extensions. Customize this and that, import bookmarks and I'm done with FF in 10 minutes tops.

[borgward]

How much "stuff" do you have there customized in FF? I mean aside from bookmarks? I only have like 7 plugins, most of them are defaults. Plus 3 extensions that I add. If I ever reinstall, I just go into FF prefs and set a couple things. Do the plugins and extensions. Customize this and that, import bookmarks and I'm done with FF in 10 minutes tops.

Not a lot. I use NoScript and Adblock. I will also install Chromium browser which I only use occasionally for Hangouts when I want to make long distance calls for free.

I will be doing new Mint installs on other computers that are now running Mint. I want to streamline the process so I don't have many things to install and configure.

[gtsfer]

I will be doing new Mint installs on other computers that are now running Mint. I want to streamline the process so I don't have many things to install and configure.

I get it. You can probably get this to work, I think you must be getting close by now.