IMS_Blog

Recently I upgraded my Mozilla installation (from 1.8 alpha 2 to 1.8 alpha 4). In doing so I created a completly blank profile. I decided that I wanted to move across my bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. from the old profile to this new one. While Mozilla Backup offers some functionality for achieving this in general, it suffers some failings, not least the fact it will copy all general preferences, which wasn’t what I wanted in this case. So I did everything “by hand”. This details the process as a resource and future reference for myself. Feel free to add useful comments. Note that this was upgrading Mozilla on a Windows XP box. This should apply to other windows versions, though the exact location of profiles will vary. It probably also applies to linux, and maybe mac, but I haven’t verified that in anyway. Also note this is the Mozilla suite (seamonkey) not Firefox, which is a bit different (though some of this might apply—but be very careful). I also recommend backing up the old profile, and anything else important come to that, just in case.

Profile locations: On XP the profiles are in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles by default. Here username is the login name you use for XP. Within the profiles directory each profile is stored in a directory with that profile’s name. We’ll refer to these as OldProfile and NewProfile. Inside each of those is a directory randomly named xxxxxxxx.slt where xxxxxxxx is a random sequence of characters. We’ll call these oooooooo.slt and nnnnnnnn.slt for OldProfile and NewProfile (see how this works ;-) ). Ok, now a list of how to transfer bookmarks, etc, from OldProfile to NewProfile. Note: Do this with Mozilla completely shut down (File->Exit).

Bookmarks

Starting easy. Simply copy bookmarks.html from oooooooo.slt to nnnnnnnn.slt (overwrite the file that’s there)

Cookies

Again, simple. Just copy across cookie.txt and cookieperm.txt

History

That would be the history.dat file to copy

Junk Mail

You probably want to copy across the Junk Mail training file, training.dat

Passwords

This one is trickier. In the profile directory will be a file named zzzzzzzz.s where zzzzzzzz are 8 random numbers. Copy this to the new profile directory and make a note of the filename. Now, in a text editor openup prefs.js. Search for SignnnFileName. There should be a line like user_pref(“signon.SignonFileName”, “filename”); If there isn’t you’ll need to add it. Replace filename with the zzzzzzzz.s noted above.

Mail

Tricky one this. I’ve found the following works quite well for recovering mail account information and local mail (Mozilla offers a method of importing mail from other mail clients such as Outlook, but apparently not from itself). Copy the folders Mail and ImapMail from the old profile directory (oooooooos.slt) to the new (nnnnnnnn.slt). Now open the old profile prefs.js file and the new profile prefs.js file. Copy any line beginning user_pref(“mail. from the old to the new. Unfortunatly the path to the mail folders is given in absolute form. So replace any instance of OldProfile\oooooooo.slt with NewProfile\nnnnnnnn.slt. Copy panacea.dat and go change those absolute references. Also, get the address books all sorted by copying across abook*.mab and impab*.mab and history.mab.

Downloads

Actually another easy one, though I don’t normally bother. Copy across downloads.rdf

Sidebar Panels

Copy panels.rdf

Calendar

If you have the calendar installed then copy the calendar directory from one profile to the other. Again, calendar.rdf in this directory must be edited to change the absolute paths to reflect the new profile

Final Things

Don’t forget to copy across userchrome.css and usercontent.css for all those personal styles

There’s probably other stuff that could be copied across that I don’t bother with. Used file information is available for Mozilla 1.8a4, which may be of use.