Closed Bug 274897 Opened 20 years ago Closed 20 years ago

Add Q&A "How do I move my profile?"

Categories

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect)

defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED FIXED

People

(Reporter: david.balazic, Assigned: djst)

References

()

Details

Index: mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/faq.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/faq.html,v
retrieving revision 1.13
diff -u -r1.13 faq.html
--- mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/faq.html	16 Dec 2004 13:09:10 -0000	1.13
+++ mozilla-org/html/support/firefox/faq.html	16 Dec 2004 13:32:15 -0000
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
     <li><a href="#profiles">Where are my bookmarks, passwords and other
personal information saved?</a></li>
     <li><a href="#profilemanager">How do I start the Profile Manager?</a></li>
     <li><a href="#talkback">What is Talkback?</a></li>
+    <li><a href="#moveprofile">How do I move my profile?</a></li>
   </ul></li>
   <li class="newsection"><a href="#plugins">Plugins</a>
   <ul>
@@ -291,6 +292,26 @@
   remember that we can't fix the bugs we can't identify. If you're happy seeing
   the same crash over and over then don't worry about sending in that report.</p>
 </dd>
+
+<dt><a name="moveprofile">How do I move my profile?</a></dt>
+<dd><p>
+
+  <ol>
+    <li>Move the profile dir (C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Default User) to where you want it
(d:\stuff\Default User).
+</li>
+<li>Change the Path= in C:\Documents and Settings\stein\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini : 
+<li> Path=d:\stuff\Default User
+</li>
+</li>
+
+<li>Change IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0
+</li>
+</ol>
+
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+
 </dl>
 
 <p class="toplink"><a href="#">Back to Top</a></p>
a few .02c comments, I'm in no way involved with the faq pages:
  - the paths shown are windows-specific, should instead refer or be adjacent
    to information regarding the profile folder locations on various platforms,
    or at least mention that the specified paths apply to (recent) windows only
  - the term 'dir' is not used elsewhere in the faq; 'folder' is used to refer
    to file system directories on windows
  - these instructions would seem better placed on
    http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile (which is linked as 'How To
    Manage Profiles' from the faq)
  - moving the profile is a bit of a manual procedure perhaps not in line with
    the general disposition of the faq, with perhaps the exception of
    http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/edit -- perhaps this is better
    suited for, say, http://kb.mozillazine.org/ ?
> perhaps this is better suited for, say, http://kb.mozillazine.org/ ?

No, this is one of the most frequently asked questions and should be on mozilla.org.

re comment 0
>+    <li>Move the profile dir (C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application
This needs to link to the relevent FAQ entry. We don't want to repeat
information; it makes maintainence difficult.

There are two possible scenerios. One is that the user want to move his default
(and only) profile to a different machine. In this case, it might be easier to
delete the default blank profile in the target machine, copy over the files, and
restart Firefox. Can someone test if this works?

The second scenerio is that the user want to have multiple profiles. (This might
be more relevent to Mozilla users). In this case, the easiest way might be
starting up the profile manager, create a new profile and point the path to the
copied-over profile.

We also need to put a warning on putting the profile in the application
directory. This can cause profile to be lost when the user upgrade (Firefox
installer will ask the user to delete the directory first)

Don't forget about the Mozilla FAQ (does anyone care?) (bug 66387)
http://wangrepublic.org/mozilla_faq_beta/official/faq/profile#transport
Assignee: mozilla.webmaster → bugzilla
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
QA Contact: danielwang → mozilla.webmaster
Should this be supported?  Are all the bugs about storing absolute paths in
profiles fixed?  What about older profiles?
I wrote the answer in a hurry, that's why it is not "perfect".
Should I take any furhter action or will this be handled by others ?
( I am just a FireFox user )
Fix checked in. Thanks David Balažic for the suggestion.

Actually, the answer to the FAQ is in /support/firefox/profile, where I also
added information about backing up your profile.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 20 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Oh, and to answer Daniel's question, it is possible to just delete the contents
of the default profile and replace it with a backup profile. But I won't put up
instructions that tells the user to delete files on mozilla.org. And besides,
the instructions would be almost as lengthy as the current procedure.
Product: mozilla.org → Websites
Component: www.mozilla.org → General
Product: Websites → www.mozilla.org
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.