how to carry my stored uname-passwords and autofill data to new profile

[V S Rawat gmoz]

several times I had set out to make a new profile for ff/tb, but there
had been some stumbling block.

this time, now that I know how to backup and restore bookmarks, the
stumbling block seems to be my stored passwords.

which file in current profile has my passwords that I can take new
profile to get all my username/pwd intact and working?

same about auto form fill data file. which one is it?

I think it was already discussed in this ng, that there is no export/
download possible for changed about:config settings, so that we can
get them to new profile.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

So, I have backed up my bookmarks, saved my extension list (even
downloaded and stored all xpis)

Now, apart from the above queries about stores passwords, autofill,
about:config changes data -

- What about settings of extensions? All the noscripts settings? all
the default values for add ons. How do I carry them to my new profile?

- What about plugins? I guess they will not enter ff again, till I
reinstall the said software. How do I carry my plugins to new profile?

- toolbar customizations. how do they reach new profile?

- Should I unintall ff and even delete its program files, program data
and all other "firefox" folders that I can find anywhere on my
hardisk, except my profile folder that I know is separately kept in E:?

- And then I reinstall ff afresh

- with new ff, I guess I should create another fresh profile, in some
other folder in E: so that my old profile also exists and new profile
becomes operative. This way, if I ever have to find something from old
profile, I can start ff with my old profile, find that value and then
restart with new profile, and put the value there -- unless I can not
find such a value directly from old profile files.

- import all bookmarks, install all plugins in new profile?

Will it do?

You guys don't realize how difficult it is to dump a 10-15 old thing
and go for afresh. Though everybody wishes that he can do the same
with his life. :-)

Have downloaded latest ff exe. going ahead with creating new profile.
Will curse you all if I loose anything. :-) ha ha. kidding.

--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

While uninstalling, I did prompt for "remove my firefox personal data
and customization"

that is unticked, so my personal data will remain undeleted. going
ahead. let's see whether it leaves a declared corrupt profile.
otherwise will have to uninstall again with this option ticked.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

Uninstalled it.

While here it is talked so much about leftover by uninstalled addons,
etc., I find that firefox itself doesn't remove the following folders
and some of its subfolders, even when the leaf level folders have no file.

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox (deleted manually.)
C:\ProgramData\Mozilla (deleted manually.)
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Mozilla (deleted manually.)

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla
removed extentions and crash reports folder. there were three blank
profiles that I was not using, deleted them. retained just my active
e: profile entry in .ini. Hope it will not overwrite this file, and
will directly go to my old profile.

Installing it afresh.
unticked Install Maintenance service. Hope it will not update itself
automatically. :-)

unticked "launch automatically". exit-ed.

in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla,
profile.ini is intact and is pointing to my old profile.

but, for that matter, it hadn't even created
C:\ProgramData\Mozilla
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Mozilla
so probably, it has just installed and hasn't gone to AppData at all.
Might go there on first run.

It didn't even create a Start menu folder for mozilla firefox. it just
have a direct run link at the top there. I had retained the tick on
"create start menu folder." doesn't follow my wish.

first run.

checked my addons. Means it has found my old profile from profile.ini,
and has gone there. good enough.

There should be some option in first run if we don't want it to check
the compatibility of our addons. there could be several reasons for
our not wanting it to do some. No point forcing a check and wasting
time there.

gave a warning about keysrabler module not found. I had already
uninstalled that add on some time ago. I don't know where it found that.

yup, started.

took me to about:support page for some reason, Keyscrambler is still
listed in my extensions there.

also shown me reset ff help page for some reason
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems#os=winxp&browser=fx10

all my bookmarks are intact.

but my diigo toolbar and web developer toolbar is gone.

in extensions, several extensions are gone.

yet it shows several other extentions (table2clipboard, socialreviver,
etc.) that I had uninstalled long back.

what is all this? either it should not show any extension as in the
case of "reset" or when it has successfully reached my profile, it
should show correct extensions that I had in my profile. some bug
there. could be the leftover of extentions. But leftover is one thing
and it is too much if it could revive the very extensions that I had
uninstalled.

With just 3 tabs open, in the first fun, it is eating 86 MB of RAM.
You guys will never be able to beat chrome in memory management.

ok. going to create new profile. There is no start menu folder, so I
don't know how to get direct link of ff options. shall try ff -p

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[Ron Hunter]

There is a much easier way. Go to help/troubleshooting/ and look in the
upper right corner. You can reset to a new profile, with your essential
information already copied over.

[Ron Hunter]

If you do all those things, the chances are, you will replicate your
problems into your new profile.
Saving all the old profile data is a good idea, in any case.

[Ron Hunter]

Strongly suggest using the Reset Profile function I mentioned first.
Much easier, and it was intended to help solve problems while retaining
essential information (passwords, bookmarks, etc.) It will not retain
the customizations, or the extensions.
Plugins are another issue. They exist outside of Firefox, and will be
found by Firefox when you start with the new profile.

[V S Rawat gmoz]

I did that a few months ago, following yours or probably Chris' advise.

Still members are blaming me for carrying a corrupt profile and
wasting their time asking questions about ancient versions (13). :-)

Anyway, Reset doesn't really reset firefox. it removes add ons, but
several remain in the hard disk, and in .js files.

In other post in this thread, I have written how it "RE"activated my
addons that I had consciously deleted long back.

seems reset option needs a lot of working. though, good concept. once,
a backup and restore of all user setting is possible, reset will be a
child's play for us.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

after fresh install, it created a folder

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates

Why does it at all keeps anything in "Local" when otherwise the
profile being used is in "Roaming". (that itself is just a redirection
to the actual hdd profile in E:), so, shouldn't it use either program
files itself, or my hdd profile in E to keep anything?

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

ok. now I am in new blank profile. created in a new folder on hdd.
--
showing the firstrun screen and mozilla start page. looks so neat. :-)
--
bookmark bar and addon bars are not active, have to activate them. I
guess all toolbars should be made active at the very begining so that
user can know what all is there, and if he turns them off manually, he
will at least remember where to access them.
--
Could restore bookmarks without any problem. great feature.
--

God knows why you call it "Tool bar layout" in options submenu, when
you are calling the same thing "customize" elsewhere. :-)
--

I haven't even visited any website, and in privacy - remove individual
cookies, it already had cookie for google and for some
statse.webtrendslive.com

What is the connection of mozilla with these sites so that it created
cookies for them without me even visiting there?
--

similarly, in security, it already had "allow sites to install addons"
for addon.mozilla.org and also some getpersonas.com

mozilla addons is understandable, though I have removed that also, I
will get warning when mozilla also tries to install one.

but what is getpersonas.com. Why should mozilla allow it to install
addons? I have never heard of them, never used any of there addons.
What is mozilla connection of them?

--

my saved passwords are all gone. :-( that is another big drawback of
fresh install. Now, I will have to login to several sites. Hope
mozilla does something about it.

maybe sync should give more intuitive method of using that so that
user prefer to use it to get all these.

(I wonder whether installing secure-login add on will get them all
back? the addons for such things should give user option to store
settings at a chosen place, so that we can remember and can get them
back).

--

I was seeing and changing all options tabs. I reached sync and I
clicked on "pair a device" and then on show me how.

that opened the page in new window, when ff had already default
selected "open pages in new tab" instead of new window. bug bug bug.

--

now to add on.

plugins came intact without me doing anything. but not addons. :-)

extensions tab shows "learn more about addons" window message, and
didn't allow me to drop my 13 addons in one go. I had to go to a page,
and then I could drop on. it asked install now after wait for two
only, and then gave message "all 12 will be installed" when you
restart ff. Why ask twice, just ask once for all the dropped addons.

gave some error message that "adblock could not be installed becase it
can't edit the required files" or something. message gone so I can't
write it.

--
Anyway. installed all add-ons, updated, restarted,

customized toolbars and addon bar icons placement, menu selections.

and it is well now. Except for lost settings of add ons.
--
hope my running commentary might give some idea to developers which
areas are to be worked upon to make the process more user friendly.
And it might give some clue to other users whether to take all this
pains to go for new profile or continue using old profile.
--
glad that new profile already allows closing last website tab to leave
a blank tab only. previously we had to adjust a config flag to get that.

so guys, I am back, with a oven fresh ff with a oven fresh crisp new
profile.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

This time it didn't create a c:\Program Data folder for itself.

Also, it created crash reports in Roaming. I don't know why it has to
use local or roaming. it should keep everything in our hdd profile
that the romaing profile.ini directs it too. in case of many profile,
store crash reports in the profile which was logged in while crash
occurred.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat gmoz]

would like to add

prefs.js was 131 KB in previous profile and it was 1.01 MB on sep 22.

now, it is 13KB in new profile.

:-) till the extensions bloat it up again.

Thanks to you all.
--
Rawat

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

V S Rawat gmoz wrote:

> Still members are blaming me for carrying a corrupt profile

I suppose that is possible, with all your recent tweaking and
troubleshooting...

> and wasting their time asking questions about ancient versions (13).

I've mentioned to you about that. Why do you not want to upgrade to the
latest version? Your Windows 7 can certainly handle it. There have been
many important security updates since 13. Latest is 16.0.2, and 17 is
coming along soon.

<http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html>

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high