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HJ edited this page Sep 8, 2023 · 14 revisions

Make a Backup Profile

The easiest, and most complete, way to backup is to copy your entire profile directory when Firefox is closed.

Only backing up prefs.js file is not enough and is not recommended by this wiki.*

🛑 Always make a backup!

Instructions

Open the profile folder

  1. To find your profile directory in Firefox, go to about:support.
  2. Find the 11th item listed, Profile Folder, and select Open Folder button.

Copy + paste contents

  1. Close Firefox. Copy the contents of the folder.
  2. In Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS), go back a page to see all the Firefox profiles.
  3. Create a new folder, and paste the contents into it.

Name your profile

  1. Rename your copied folder to something meaningful, and keep the original name (for an easy rollback).
    • For example, if the profile folder is called jiu9k8gm.default, a backup copy might be called jiu9k8gm.default-backup or jiu9k8gm.default-pre-betterfox-userjs.
  2. Open the new profile folder and paste the contents into it.
  3. Close the window. You now have a backup profile! 😄

Be aware that this is your entire profile. So switching back to your old profile will not keep any new cookies, saved passwords, bookmarks, extension changes, etc.


* prefs.js is a runtime file that includes more than just your pref changes, and backing up prefs.js does not cover all the things a user.js can alter.

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