I just got a new laptop and i want to copy my settings from the portable Firefox.
I am sure that this has been asked before, but i can't find it. Please Help!
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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It's all there in the Firefox Portable help file (FirefoxPortable\help.html). It links to the support page here, which covers this issue.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Start the PortableApps.com menu, right click on the icon in the lower-right corner for it and choose Explore. Double-click on PortableApps then double click on Firefox Portable. Go into Data, then Profile. That's your portable profile.
Now make sure Firefox is installed and has been ran at least once. This generates a local profile.
I'm going to assume your new laptop is running Windows Vista. New laptops have been Vista exclusive for a while now.
That said, click the Start button on the Windows taskbar to open the Windows Start menu. Type in %APPDATA% in the "Start Search" box. Click the "Roaming" item that appears on the menu. In the Windows Explorer window that opens, choose Mozilla → Firefox → Profiles. Each folder in this folder is a profile on your computer but there should be only one.
(Source for above paragraph: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox )
Now copy everything in your portable profile folder to the profile folder on your hard drive.
Hope this helps!
Once you understand how to copy your profile over and the folder paths involved, you can use Toucan to make it a much quicker operation. Same with Thunderbird if your interested. Also using portable Variables within Toucan you can set the sync job up to work across multiple computers.
Hope this helps : )
PortableApps.com Advocate
I might check into that myself - and I recommend others, particularly newbies, give it a shot, as it sounds like it can be helpful.
For myself however, I've used a few different folder sync apps, and they're always great the first time. But after that it almost feels like cheating. Then I wonder if it's right. Of course it is, I don't actually doubt the app, but rather how I've set it up. So for what you're suggesting it do, I actually like to do manually.
An example: When I reformat and reinstall Windows, I back up several folders to my 750GB SATA drive. I have a folder set up specifically for this. Now you'd think a program like Toucan Portable would be perfect for me. Go into it (run it off my flash drive) and have it back everything up in seconds. My Firefox profile, my Deus Ex save games, my Pidgin profile, my wife's Firefox and Pidgin, and other stuff that's escaping me at the time. And maybe I will try it, since being a portable app, it'll be more reliable across Windows installations than an installed sync app. But it's one thing I like to do myself. (Then I turn into a hypocrite and use a tool to do something simpler, like, I don't know, but it's bound to happen.)
But that's just me and one of the bad habits I've let myself slip into. If you're a newbie, what you lack in experience, you make up for to some extent with a lack of bad or even just eclectic habits.
Hope that... made some amount of sense. It's been a long day.
By that I mean I understand what your saying and the thought process behind it but just as you recommend Toucan to newbs I would even more say it is recommendable to advanced users who have swathes of data, multiple data types and locations and multiple paths to sync from and to.
The fact that you identify your decided action as being a bad habit demonstrates you know this method is not the most effective. This shows that though you are aware that you are using the lesser method (illogical) you have thought it through and decided to use your preferred method (logical).
Does that make sense = )
PortableApps.com Advocate
But I left out the part where I mostly took the need to sync anything out of the equation. By mostly I mean I'm trying something new - PortableApps.com, that is. I have the Platform (actually the Mod R34 - I *need* the folders) installed on an external 300GB hard drive. I have two Firefoxes and two Pidgins (one for me, one for my wife). Now when I reformat/reinstall, it's just a matter of putting shortcuts on the desktop.
(If I were to automate that, I'd think it should be a function of the menu, not an app. The idea goes against portability so I don't suggest it to JTH, though it does spark debate over portability vs. installation. While my apps are portable (I can take the external HDD to a friend's house) the purpose they're serving is independence from the OS. Oh, the OS can register file types to them and call them, that's all well and good, but when I wipe the OS and either reinstall it or install another version, the apps still work.)
There are a few things that will always need to be installed and can't be portablized (or shouldn't be). Drivers, antivirus, and virtual drivers (e.g. DAEMON Tools) are the big three, but there are a couple others. But still, I used to set aside an entire day to erase a hard drive, install Windows, install apps, and then configure everything. Still gotta configure Windows and install a couple apps, but the portable ones retain configuration as they're not touched.
Please don't take me the wrong way, NathanJ79 and horusofoz, but I'd already answered the question perfectly; your responses don't really add anything, and they do duplicate information. It is much simpler to maintain useful information if you just refer people to the answer (especially when it's an official one) rather than providing information yourself.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
And current, too, because XP is still installed on current computers and Macromedia still makes Flash (see the next tip down on your link - there hasn't been a "Flash extension" for quite some time).
No, in all seriousness, I know RTFM/JFGI (the latter now sometimes LMGTFY) is the common answer in forums. But it's kind of self-defeating to have a forum and shoot down questions with the party line. Besides, this site is working towards building an image as well as a brand, so I figure my brand of helpfulness applies.
When someone asks a computer question, I generally pretend they're a newbie. I provide help for the lowest common denominator, the best answer for the least computer-literate person, and anyone more adept can still follow along. Besides, I needed to get at a local profile in Vista and, lo and behold, it wasn't where I expected. I would never have guessed to use the Start Menu inline search thingy. So I JFGI'd it (recursive acronym, lol) and found the answer.
Besides, "Nobody reads the stickies" is pretty much a universal law of forums, along with "It doesn't matter how many times the question has been asked and answered, at some point, it's gonna get asked again."
I know that nobody reads forum rules. Nevertheless, my post, while helping the user not to do it again next time, also gave a link to the answer. Thus any extra answer was extraneous.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Actually, no. The wink meant "no offense, I'm just sparring with words". It didn't mean "I was kidding". The paragraph you linked to assumes the user is using XP. I'm not saying they aren't, but "new laptop" tells me Vista, and the paragraph is of no help to Vista users.
I reread the paragraph and found another group of newbies it's of no use to. Firefox 3 users. It says the cache settings can be found on the privacy tab. Not in the current version, where it's in Advanced -> Network. (I say "group of newbies" as opposed to "group of users" because the real location is easily located.) That's the problem with stickies. Information gets updated, they don't.
In any case, the problem's been solved. We're just arguing semantics at this stage, which is a great mental exercise, to a point. While if the user came back and said "thanks guys... but I am actually using XP", score one for you, the fact remains the help file's outdated. Maybe we can talk to the powers that be about getting it updated?