One Profile at Work and Home

Hi HTH,

I have a question. I have Firefox installed both at work and at home. I would like to use the same profile both at work and at home.

I copied the entire profile from work and brought it home and tried your restore method (http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=40866). However, after "creating" the new profile, it opens with a completely blank screen. I have tried a couple of days in a row thinking maybe my initial copy was bad. However, I get the same results.

Any idea why? Is there something within the profile tied to the computer on which it was created? Or ???

Thank you for your help!
Dave

 

Dave,

When you copy the Profile at work, copy the entire Firefox folder, located in:
<path>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

In Profile Manager, create a Profile with the same name as the one at work. It will have a slightly different name as the one at work, as each new Profile has random characters. E.G., your work profile may be named: 1234abcd.dave, and the new dave Profile may be named dcba4321.dave.

Once you have created the "dave" profile at home:
Rename the new Firefox folder (<path>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox) to: XFirefox

Now copy the work Firefox folder to the Mozilla folder

Next:
Change the name of the work profile name to that of the new dave Profile: From 1234abcd.dave, to dcba4321.dave, which is the newly created home profile.

Open Firefox, and everything should be in place, as Firefox will recognize the newly created Profile name.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona

 

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the BBS.

I use Firefox on two different computers, with exactly the same profile on each. With apologies to Ramona, I'd go about setting up identical profiles in a slightly different way (assuming that you have a single profile on each computer).

The default location for your profile is C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\, but you can place it anywhere you want and name it anything you want. For instance, the FF profile folder on each of my two computers is E:\Userfiles\Mozilla\Firefox; note that Firefox is the profile folder ... there is no further profile subfolder contained therein. The path includes Mozilla only because it is the parent folder for my Firefox and my Thunderbird profile folders. They could just as easily be E:\Userfiles\Firefox and E:\Userfiles\Tbird.

1. With Firefox closed, rename your home FF profile folder.

2. Copy your work FF profile folder to the same parent folder.

3. Open the Profile Manager, delete the old profile, and create a new one (it can have the same name as the old one, if you like), navigating to the new (work) profile folder.​

Even with the FF profile in a location other than the default, certain files will remain at C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\. The Mozilla folder contains a file called registry.dat, and the Firefox folder contains the pluginreg.dat and profiles.ini files. If you like, you can open profiles.ini in Notepad (or any other text editor). It should show you the correct profile information. For example, mine is:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=FIREFOX
IsRelative=0
Path=E:\USERFILES\MOZILLA\FIREFOX​

Yours should reflect your own profile name and path.

I'd suggest that, from time to time, you copy whichever is the more current bookmarks.html file from one profile to the other, just to keep your bookmarks synchronized.

 

Here's the official guide to managing Firefox Profiles:

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile

mike

 

Thanks, Mike ...

I knew the guide existed somewhere, but it was easier to write my message than to go looking for it.

 

Here's what I did as a test, to see how copying a profile to a new location might work. I copied my default.xxx profile folder, which has no added extensions or themes, and then recreated it in a new location:

I copied the profile folder default.xxx from C:\Documents and Settings\ "myusername "\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\to a new location, D:\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\, then renamed the copied D:\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.xxx folder to test

Next I opened the Firefox Profile Manager by using Start > Run > and typing in firefox.exe -P and the Firefox Choose User Profile window opened. I clicked the Create Profile button, entered the profile name I wanted - test - then clicked the Choose Folder button, browsed to D:\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles and selected the test folder.

The Create Profile Wizard confirmed that my new profile data would be stored in:
D:\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\test
and then I started Firefox with the new test profile.

It worked, in that my bookmarks were all accessible and all my customizations and preference settings were carried over. I still had access to the original default profile .... you could delete the default profile from the Profile Manager, if all is working.

A copied profile that had added extensions might cause some problems, discussed here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=196276
MozillaZine Forum Index -> Firefox General -> How do you properly duplicate a profile so that...?

[Edited for clarity]

 

You are my type of guy! You can always say that you made a mistake, or say nothing.

 

No apology necessary, as there is more than one way to accomplish what Dave wants. Different strokes for different folks!

Ramona

 

If you use only one profile, you can shorten the path to as little as D:\Firefox, with the profile subfolders (cache, chrome, etc.) and files in the \Firefox folder.

If you use a single profile, you should delete any other profiles, just so you don't have to go through the Profile Manager every time you want to start Firefox.

I use the default FF theme, and only three extensions. I've never had a problem copying profiles, as the extension information is included in the profile. As a test, I uninstalled all three extensions from my laptop computer and renamed the profile folder. Then, I copied the profile folder from my desktop computer to the laptop. When I opened FF on the laptop, all three extensions were present and working.

 

It's never necessary to go through the Profile Manager if you add the command line switch -p profilename, to the Desktop shortcut Properties sheet:

Right click the Desktop shortcut
Select: Properties
Click on the Shortcut Tab
To the end of the Target line add one space
Then add: -p profilename
"C:\Program Files\firefox\firefox.exe" -p profilename

It is a good idea to remove unused Profiles.

Ramona

 

Yes but I like using nested folders for organization and to identify folder contents. It's just my system. D:\ "foldername" doesn't tell me that it's a profile folder. D:\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ "foldername" does.

You can also check the "don't ask at startup" box in the Profile Manager window and Firefox will automatically open the selected profile... it tells you that in the "official" firefox profiles guide, http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile
.....You can also have Firefox start a selected profile automatically, so you don't have to pick one each time the browser is launched. Do this by checking the Don't ask at startup option.....

The MozillaZine thread mentioned potential problems with extensions when copying firefox profiles from one computer to another so I thought I'd post a link to it.

mike

 

I understand completely, Mike. I was just making the point that your profile folder can be located ANYwhere, can be named ANYthing, and that it doesn't HAVE to be as deeply nested as FF does by default..

 

Good point, Jim

 

Thank you everyone!

I just wanted to say "thank you" to all who responded. I found some good information and good links. I realized that I only copied the folder from work that I "thought" was the profile. I realize now that I need to go up 2 levels to the "Firefox" folder and copy that.

Can anyone tell me what about the "registry.dat" file found in the Mozilla folder? What does it do and what does it store?

Also, can anyone tell me what the 'pluginreg.dat' file in the "Firefox" folder (..\%UserName%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\pluginreg.dat) actually does?

Again, thanks for the lessons on Firefox. I sure like this program!

Dave

 

Dave,

The registry.dat file in the Mozilla folder, points to the location of your Mozilla/Netscape Profile. You don't need to copy that file to your home PC.

The pluginreg.dat file stores the plugin cache information for Mozilla/Netscape. No need to copy that to your home PC either.

The Firefox folder contains profiles.ini, and pluginreg.dat files, which is why you should copy the entire Firefox folder. Profiles.ini, is the pointer for your Profiles in Firefox, rather than registry.dat.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona

 

I got it working....

I again wanted to say "thank you" to all who responded. I was finally able to get my work profile on my home computer running. In the process I realized one thing that hit me. It was a comment by JSS3rd. It was basically his location for his profiles. I think using a similar location to his (or at least *not* storing them in the Windows' user profile) is a good thing *if* you may wish to transfer the profile at some future date to another computer.

To explain, in following all the steps presented here, I still ran into some snags along the way. Most notably, the chrome.rdf file. Although correcting that alone did not make the Firefox profile work. What I found was that the Firefox profile name and the Windows' login name were both hard coded into this file and several others.

I tried using Windows' search function to search "within" files for my login ID and my Firefox profile name (from work). However, neither search returned any results! Since I didn't trust the results, I proceeded to check myself using my text editor, TextPad. As I opened files, I searched for my login ID, and if found, used the change command to change it with my home login ID. I did the same with the profile name.

For example, my work login id is "drk223db" and my home login is "Dave ". I found that the "drk223db" was listed in numerous files throughout. That along with the Firefox profile name. Once I had them all changed, I tried Firefox and it actually worked. My profiles from home and work are now both operational.

I know I said in my original post that I wanted to get to one profile (from work), and I do, but this was also a learning experience for me. I now realize that I need to find a better location that I can use both at work and at home. One that will make the profile(s) much more portable. In other words, if the Firefox profile(s) has the same name, and is in the same directory at all locations (e.g. C:\UserFiles\Mozilla\Firefox\Dave), I can update the profile either at work or at home and copy it to the other location without *any* additional work. I should be able to place the updated Firefox profile in place and have it work right off. At least that's the theory.

So in closing, I would suggest that anyone in a similar situation to mine, that unless you have the same Windows' logon (assuming Windows is your platform) at all locations from which you will be sharing the profile, that you find a location that works for you and fits all computers (e.g. C:\UserFiles\Mozilla\Firefox\%YourProfile%). This is because this directory (path) will be hard coded into numerous files in your profile. Using the same path at all locations will solve the problem described above if, like me, you want to take a profile to another loation.

One final note is that I will get down to only a single profile. Initially I didn't want to lose either profile in the process, but now can switch between the two without hassles.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Dave

 

That was exactly the problem I thought might occur and is why I gave the link to this thread:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=196276
How do you properly duplicate a profile so that...?

The solution you came up with .... have your firefox profiles in the SAME custom location..... is a good one, if you want to exchange profiles between two difference computers.

If you copy profiles from the default to a custom location, though, like I did, the chrome.rdf file paths in the "copied" or "cloned" profile will still point back to the original hard drive location, so you still may need to edit the paths. Here's a helpage, linked from the MozillaZine thread, with more on this issue:

http://the-edmeister.home.comcast.net/advice-html/advice-clone_a_profile.html
the-edmeister's Firefox Advice - Cloning a Profile

mike

 

Hi Mike,

Yeah, I saw your post and read all of the Ed-Meister's website. And I read the link to "How do you properly duplicate a profile" (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=196276). I didn't look hardly at all at the "portable" Firefox site, so I don't know if that would provide any further benefit.

However, I found that an additional file (Compreg.dat), which was not mentioned on either site, also required editing. Note though that at the top of the file is reads "Generated File. Do not edit. ". I don't advocate people do this, but I was working on a 'copy' of my profile, so went ahead anyway. Inside this file also has hard coded paths to some of my extensions, and until I performed this editing, my profile opened up blank with an error in the title bar and Firefox would do nothing. But after editing, I got my work Firefox profile working at home as desired.

Thanks,
Dave

 

You might have been able to simply delete the compreg.dat file with Firefox closed and let it regenerate itself. (Deletion of the <program files>\components\ compreg.dat file is a known fix for download manager problems in Mozilla).

I deleted it from my "test" profile and it was recreated, with no ill effects that I could see.

Here's what I could find on compreg.dat:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xpcom/book/cxc/html/component_internals2.html