Transfer your old Firefox 2 Profile data to Firefox 3

Everybody was very excited (myself included) when the day Firefox 3 was released. Firefox has already reached 14,613,666 downloads. With more than 15,000 improvements, Firefox 3 is faster, safer and smarter than before.

So i decided to visit this link and download Firefox 3 and uninstall Firefox 2 without thinking much.

After the installation process was complete, i started my daily blogging routine. I clicked my bookmark Tab and wanted to visit my favorite site but...

I think you all know what happen right?. My old bookmarks was gone, my extensions and ect. All my data was gone. So i am here to write a post on how Transfer your old Firefox 2 data to Firefox 3. And don't follow my stupid steps.

Ok, let's get started.

Transfer your old Firefox 2 data to Firefox 3

Before you do anything to Firefox 2, you must backup your old data first. Mozilla Firefox stores all your personal settings, such as bookmarks, passwords and extensions, in a profile folder, which is stored on your computer. To back up your profile, restore it, or move it to a new location or computer, all you have to do is move or copy the profile folder.

In order to back up or restore your data, you need to know where Firefox stores the profile folder.

On Windows Vista

1. Click the Windows Start button, and type %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ in the Start Search box near the bottom of the Start menu, without pressing Enter. A list of profiles will appear in the top left of the Start menu.

2. Click on any of the profiles (e.g. xxxxxxxx.default) to open it with Windows Explorer.



On Windows 2000 and XP

1. Click the Windows Start button, and select Run....



2. Type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ then click OK.



3. Windows Explorer opens a folder containing your profiles.

4. Double-click the profile folder you wish to open (e.g. the xxxxxxxx.default folder).

Note: For Windows Vista/XP/2000 the location path is %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\

After you locate your profile folder, you need to backup it.

Backing up your profile

Backing up your profile folder in Firefox is easy. Just follow these steps:

1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, select File and then select the Exit menu item.

2. Locate your profile folder, as explained above.

3. Right-click on your profile folder, and select Copy.

4. Right-click the backup location (e.g. a USB-stick or a blank CD-RW disc), and select Paste.

After you have backup your profile in Firefox 2, you can continue uninstalling Firefox 2 and install Firefox 3.

After you have install Firefox 3, before you can transfer all your old data to the new Firefox 3 profile, you need to create new profile..BUT before you create it, you need to start your profile manager.

Starting the Profile Manager

On Windows Vista

1. Open the Windows Start menu. In the Start Search box in the bottom left, type firefox.exe -ProfileManager and press ENTER.

On Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP

1. Select the START menu in the Windows Taskbar. Then, select Run.

2. In the Run dialog, type firefox.exe -ProfileManager and click OK.

After you start your profile manager, now you can create your profile in Firefox 3.

Creating a profile



1. To start the Create Profile Wizard, click Create Profile... in the Profile Manager.

2. Click Next and enter the name of the profile. Use a profile name that is descriptive, such as your personal name. This name is not exposed on the Internet.

3. You can also choose where to store the profile, which is useful if you plan on exporting your data and settings to another computer or setup in the future. To choose its storage location on your system, click Choose Folder....

4. To create the new profile, click Finish.

Next step is how to transfer your old Firefox 2 profile data to Firefox 3 new Created Profile.

Transfer a profile backup to Firefox 3

1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, select File and then select the Exit menu item.

2. If your existing profile folder and profile backup folder have the same name, simply replace the existing profile folder with the profile backup, then start Firefox.

Important: The profile folder names must match exactly for this to work, including the random string of 8 characters. If the names do not match or if you are restoring a backup to a different location, follow the steps below.

If my help help won't work, please visit http://support.mozilla.com for more informations.