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How do I copy wholesale my Firefox setup from my personal PC to my work laptop? [Repost from asklemmy bcos rules] (piefed.social)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm sorry to those that seen this from asklemmy comm. Didn't read the rules. Reposting here.

Both are Windows machines. I know, don't need to preach about it.

I like how I set up the Firefox install on my PC and getting around to using it again for work because of multi account containers. Did the testing on my personal PC in case some things break with the hardening I chose for my threat model.

I just don't want to repeat the steps again, even if I already know what worked for me.

I found online that I could just copy the Firefox profile folder. Is that just it?

If it's the copy profile way, is the profile from a base Firefox compatible for other forks? If it's not the profile copying way, is the other ways compatible moving from base firefox to its forks?

TIA

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Copying the profile folder should do it

You should also copy profiles.ini (which indicates the path of the working/available profiles)

Generally speaking, this should also work for other forks, but it might depend on which versions the forks are based on. If they are too behind the version that the profile is from then there might be "forwards compatibility" issues, for example in the way specific files/databases are structured (but maybe not, this is just a guess).

Also note that since forks tend to have different default values for some settings then if you didn't explicitly set them through a user.js file or directly in prefs.js (or another method) then you would get the default from the fork instead of the one from the main version.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Will this copy saved passwords as well? They might not want saved personal passwords to go on the work computer.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, it will copy everything related to that profile. The passwords are stored in the key4.db file so it shouldn't be copied in that situation.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_what-information-is-stored-in-my-profile

Then there's also the sync feature which might import the passwords even if the file has been deleted, so the sync needs to be disabled on the work pc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Cool, didn't know where they were stored exactly. Thanks for investigating :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Copying the profile folder should do it

You should also copy profiles.ini (which indicates the path of the working/available profiles)

I see, thank you. That seems to be what I found out when I researched this as well.

If they are too behind the version that the profile is from then there might be "forwards compatibility" issues

Good point. I'm still using Mozilla's firefox, but am planning to try out Zen Browser, or go with Waterfox if Zen's Arc Browser style isn't up to my needs. For example, I'm very happy with the sideberry add-on on firefox.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Waterfox is always out of date (and isn't great imo), but zen is quite nice and as a bonus is always on the latest version of ff

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Oh that's a shame. Well I guess I'll try Zen then

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

if you trust mozilla, firefox sync handles most of that - bookmarks, history, passwords, extensions and some of their settings, etc; cookies and localstorage aren't copied over, for e.g. logged-in sites and such.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Sync is mostly for bookmarks, history related stuff, and a few sparse settings. But it doesn't sync a ton of stuff like customization, addon settings, and so on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Eh, I've had lukewarm luck that Firefox sync works for it over the years I flip flop around browsers and installs.

I'd rather do it right the first time than flipping a coin that it works this time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

see simon's comment under my original comment and my reply, regarding passwords/sync