Need: Break down/ drill-down of Chrome User Profile & how Extension data & configs are stored under the User Profile default folder?

[Abhi S]

Need: Break down/ drill-down of Chrome User Profile & how Extension data & configs are stored under the User Profile default folder? 

After a lot of searching I found very little information (posted below) on some of this folder structure under Chrome. Is there a better reference or breakdown/ drill down? 

Especially, some kind of clear document of this from Chromium or Chrome product/ dev teams? 

Extensions:

..\AppData\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

• https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/6EVtjeaWObs
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14543896/where-does-chrome-store-extensions
• Where does Google Chrome save LocalStorage from Extensions?

Cookies:

C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cookies

chrome://chrome/settings/cookies

• Chrome cookies folder in Windows 7
• https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84862

[Antony Sargent]

I'm not sure if the reason you're asking is that you want to be able to write a program external to chrome which modifies chrome settings, but if you are, please don't go down this path. The location/formats can and do change, and have protections against outside modifications since so many malware/adware/unwanted software tries to mess with them behind users backs. They are *not* intended to be a public API. 

We do have a number of supported APIs for extensions to view/manipulate cookies and extensions, as well as change some browser settings with user opt-in. 

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/cookies

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/management

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/settings_override (windows only)

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/override

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Chromium-extensions" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to chromium-extens...@chromium.org.
To post to this group, send email to chromium-...@chromium.org.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-extensions/.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/chromium-extensions/75993635-2cf8-4b7e-b184-a9524a3b3aed%40chromium.org.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/optout.

[Abhi S]

Hi Antony, 

Sorry for the late reply. My intent is not to write an external program. Please help me/ guide me with this or I lose YEARS of information. 

I just want to migrate my existing User Profile data to a new machine. There seem to be issues with it  - linked below: 

http://superuser.com/questions/937817/migrating-google-chrome-profile-from-windows-7-to-windows-8-resulted-in-corrupt

http://superuser.com/questions/951095/understand-structure-of-chrome-user-profile-data-to-transfer-to-new-pc-os-avo

Is there anyway I can debug or trace what piece of data is causing Chrome to fire this error? (Some kind of program of file trace or log file?)

And then I can maybe find a way to fix or bypass that piece? 

Even if I cant migrate all of it I'd like to atleast Copy over these key things as they store years of information for me. 

Thing's I'd like to transfer migrate for sure:

• • Extensions (synced but No Data or Settings synced)
    - Extension Configs/ Settings + Extension Local Stored Data (Very important)
    • (Especially, in extensions like Session Buddy I have stored stuff for few years now)
• Cookies (Not synced) (Important for forums I frequent)
• History (No idea what syncs - I use months & years of history to traceback and recall things)

[PhistucK]

Perhaps enable logging and when you try to load your old profile, see what the log says. Perhaps it logs the specific errors it found.

☆PhistucK

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/chromium-extensions/CAOjBWRNRkEoPt2c6gEYVLFnDNWYEiwsa744xFE%3DH8e%3DWAe399g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Antony Sargent]

Unfortunately I don't know of any reliable or supported way to do all of what you're asking about. 

Chrome sync supports saving history in the sync server, so you should be able to get your history back on any chrome install where you sign back in to chrome sync. For extensions, chrome sync will sync the set of extensions installed, although it only works for things that are in the webstore, and doesn't sync any data; it just installs them. 

For history and cookies, there are some extensions in the webstore that look like they claim to do at least export; some may support import as well. These likely use the API's I referred to earlier in this thread. 

For localStorage, chrome.storage.local, html5 filesystem, html5 web databases, indexeddb, etc. there aren't many great options. You can try and copy the specific files used to store this stuff from the profile directory, but copying them into a different profile may or may not work (and in some cases might overwrite other data; eg some of these files might store data for multiple origins in a single file, so just blindly copying from profile A to profile B might nuke things that were present in profile B but not A). Ideally web and extensions developers should be using these storage mechanisms as a cache for data that they persist server-side, or at least provide an in-app way of exporting/importing data, but clearly not all do.