Restore Firefox and Thunderbird Profiles from backup

Hi, How do you restore your profiles from a backed profiles folder in Firefox and Thunderbird..... and also i make a shortcut for profiles manager for Firefox in start/programs/Firefox when i clic on the profiles manager it is my ISP home page come on not the profiles manager windows...... can you help me on these three things....Thanks

 

I think that this reference from Ramona's Solutions should cover more or less what you want.

 

Restore Profiles

Hi, I thing reference From "Ramona solutions" is only to backing up your profiles not to restore them, so i want to know how to restore profiles to Firefox and Thunderbird from a backed profiles folder....Thanks

 

Gaston,

First, more information from you:

What folder did you back up, i.e., the Mozilla folder, Firefox folder, Profiles folder, or only the salted folder?

Same question for Thunderbird.

Have you installed Firefox and Thunderbird, and if so, have you created profiles yet?

I ask because there are different actions to take, depending on what you have done...

The shortcut for the Profile Manager:
Right click on the firefox.exe file, located here:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox

Select: create shortcut
Right click the newly created shortcut and select: Copy

Next: click on Start | Programs
Right click, and highlight "Mozilla Firefox "
Select: Paste

In the expanded Mozilla Firefox Menu, you will see the firefox.exe shortcut
Right click on firefox.exe and select: Rename
Rename the shortcut: Mozilla Firefox Profile Manager

Again: right click on the renamed Firefox Profile Manager shortcut
Select: Properties
Click on the "Shortcut" tab
To the Target field add -p . The line should look like this:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p
(Note the space between the " and -p.)

If you wish to forego the pleasure of the ghastly orange splash screen, then also add the "quiet" switch:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p -quiet


Ramona

 

Restore Profiles

Hi, I backed up for Firefox...Application data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles
for Thunderbird....Application data/Thunderbird/Profiles

 

Gaston,

Have you installed Firefox and Thunderbird, and if so, have you created profiles yet?

 

Restore Profiles

Yes i installed Firefox and Thunderbird,i imported Profiles from Netscape 7.2

 

Restore Profiles

And also i done everything you said to make a Profiles Manager in Firefox but when i clic on the Profiles Manager i get my ISP home page instead of Profiles Manager Splash screen

 

So what you wish to do now, is replace the Netscape 7.2 Profile Data with that of your backup?

If this is what you wish to do, I would suggest a manual restore. Only restore specific files:

Firefox
bookmarks.html
cert8.db
cookies.txt
formhistory.dat
hostperm.1
key3.db
persdict.dat
signons.txt
userContent.css (if you have created the file)
userChrome.css (if you have created the file)

When Windows asks to overwrite files, answer YES.

Thunderbird
Basically the same as above, in addition to:
Address Book (abook.mab)
training.dat
and no Bookmarks...
Next: backup the new Thunderbird Profile, for good measure
Close Thunderbird
Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to your Mail Account folder(s)

If you have already received Mail in Thunderbird then in the Mail Account Folder(s) of your backup:
Rename the Inbox, Templates, Drafts, Sent, etc. folders, with NO msf extension. These are the files which contain your mail.
Rename them to OldInbox, OldSent, or Inbox2, Sent2, etc.
Once you have renamed the files, then copy them to the NEW Thunderbird Mail Account folder.
Do NOT copy the msf files from the backup to the new Mail Account folder.
Also copy your subfolders, which will be those folders ending in *.sbd. Delete all files with msf extensions from these folders, before copying them to the NEW Mail Account folder(s).

When you open Thunderbird, you will see the renamed files included in the Mail Account(s). You can either leave them as is, or copy the renamed Inbox messages to the NEW Inbox, etc. Once you are certain all is well, perhaps in a day or two, then you can delete the renamed folders. Note that I say copy, not move. Best to copy, then there is no risk of losing any messages in the transition.

Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona

 

Gaston,

With the Profile Manager, if the browser is opening instead of the Profile Manager, then you must have skipped the step, where you rename the shortcut from: firefox.exe
to: Mozilla Firefox Profile Manager

Ramona