589589 - [meta] Breakdown: Chrome profile migration for Import Wizard and Migration Assistant - passwords, form data, and settings

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Migration, defect)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

New Firefox profiles should offer to migrate Google Chrome settings and data including at least bookmarks, passwords, history, form data, & cookies, and if possible also search services, keywords, tags, pop-up settings, cookie settings, page zoom levels, geolocation permissions, storage permissions, window size and position, toolbar visibility and ordering, proxies, malware settings, and tab opening order/position settings.

(This is not a duplicate of bug 505192 which is about the Import feature and specific to Chrome bookmarks.)

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The patch in bug 505192 covers a chrome profile migrator (it does more than just bookmarks), so I think this can probably just be a dupe.

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Does that other bug also cover making it a migration feature and not just an import feature?

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

I'm not sure the distinction you're drawing - we only have "migrators", and that list determines the sources available from both the "File->Import" and first-run auto-import features. That bug is about adding a Chrome migrator.

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

There are two features that depend on migrators, Import, and Migration Assistant. I don't care about the Import Wizard feature (I'm sure someone does, though) but the Migration Assistant needs to include Chrome.

If that bug is about creating the migrators, then we probably need two additional bugs, one for adding Chrome to the Migration Assistant (this bug) and one for adding Chrome to the Import Wizard.

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

All migrators are included in both the "Import" and "Migration" wizards automatically, there's no need to "add" them.

Comment 7

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

[e-mail] says the other bug is just for cookies, bookmarks, and history. We have to have passwords too and if at all possible we should also get form data and common prefs too.  Re-opening this to cover those.

Comment 8

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

password is into "Login Data".  But password value into this SQLite database is encrypted by 3DES.  I don't investigate how to get master key yet.
settings is into "Preferences".  It is JSON file, but I don't have mapping Firefox settings vs Chrome settings.
forms is into "Web Data".

After landing bug 505192, I will take this bug.

Comment 9

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Makoto, is this something you're still working on? These are important migrators, especially passwords. We can leave off the "settings" migrator until later (I want us to migrate a few key settings like "Always show the bookmarks bar", pinned tabs, and download location.)

Comment 10

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

(In reply to Asa Dotzler [:asa] from comment #9)
> Makoto, is this something you're still working on? These are important
> migrators, especially passwords. We can leave off the "settings" migrator
> until later (I want us to migrate a few key settings like "Always show the
> bookmarks bar", pinned tabs, and download location.)

password is bug 707044.   I can import http auth, but form login doesn't work correctly.  I am still investigating this...

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

btw, please wait for bug 718608 to land, or we are going to do the work twice.

Comment 12

[x.redir]

Dear Mozilla,

The day my HDD crashed a couple of years ago, I lost all my Firefox data, including bookmarks, history, passwords, form fills, settings, addons, etc. I lost YEARS of browsing data.

When I got a new HDD the day after and re-installed my system, I looked for a backup solution to avoid this kind of situation in the future. Firefox Sync didn't exist at the time. Chrome was here, offering full cloud backup and sync, and also offered me to import all my data from Firefox, including passwords (even though my Firefox profile was empty because of HDD crash).

It's been now a couple of years that I'm using Chrome, and I have cumulated hundreds of passwords saved in Chrome, including credit card numbers, passport number, addresses, extensive form fill data, usernames and passwords for PayPal, banking sites, eBay, Skype, etc. literally HUNDREDS of logins all different from another that no human being could remember.

Today I can see that Firefox has implemented a similar Sync feature as Chrome, and I would like to switch back to Firefox. How could I do that without loosing the past 2 years of browsing data?

I have found this tutorial suggesting to do the import manually by visiting each site separately on Firefox and login-in on each site and then clicking "Save password" for EACH SINGLE SITE: http://techlogon.com/2011/12/02/how-to-import-google-chrome-data-into-firefox/

This operation would take me a week of work, therefore I will remain on Chrome for the time being.

It's 2014, it's been 4 years since you have this issue open, and you just lost another user.

Here is a screenshot of the Chrome Import tool:
http://i.imgur.com/TAOW4xf.png

Comment 13

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to x.redir from comment #12)
> Today I can see that Firefox has implemented a similar Sync feature as
> Chrome, and I would like to switch back to Firefox. How could I do that
> without loosing the past 2 years of browsing data?

The current Chrome migrator, that you can reach on first run of Firefox or from the Library (Show All Bookmarks) window, can currently import cookies, bookmarks, and history (bug 946757 seems to point out we are missing some, but I didn't have a chance to check yet), at least from 2011. Surely it would be nice to import other data as requested here, that's planned, but I can't give you an eta, our resources are limited.

Comment 14

[x.redir]

(In reply to Marco Bonardo [:mak] from comment #13)
> (In reply to x.redir from comment #12)
> > Today I can see that Firefox has implemented a similar Sync feature as
> > Chrome, and I would like to switch back to Firefox. How could I do that
> > without loosing the past 2 years of browsing data?
> 
> The current Chrome migrator, that you can reach on first run of Firefox or
> from the Library (Show All Bookmarks) window, can currently import cookies,
> bookmarks, and history (bug 946757 seems to point out we are missing some,
> but I didn't have a chance to check yet), at least from 2011. Surely it
> would be nice to import other data as requested here, that's planned, but I
> can't give you an eta, our resources are limited.


My logins information (i.e. my saved passwords) is the only data that I really need to import, all the other things are secondary.

I don't want to be mean or anything, but not fixing this 4-years-old issue is like a guarantee for you that you will never see again any of the dozen of millions of current Chrome users back to Firefox. If you're gonna compete in this world, you should probably review the resources that you have and use them efficiently, otherwise just stop fighting and drop the Firefox project altogether. You're only surviving because of your past reputation, certainly not because of today's Firefox quality anymore.

Sincerely yours,
Pascal Reth

Comment 15

[:Paolo Amadini]

Marco, do you think this should be on the desktop backlog?

Comment 16

[x.redir]

Hello,

It's been 3 weeks since my last comment. Any news on this? Am I still locked out of Firefox (as a Chrome user)? 

I would like to switch back to Firefox but still cannot as I have thousands of passwords that are holding me back.

Looking forward to good news from you.

Comment 17

[Tyson]

This is holding be back from using Aurora (which I prefer over Firefox). Some very important passwords which I am thus far unable to retrieve are only saved in Chrome. I need them in Mozilla!!

Comment 18

[x.redir]

I was hoping to switch to Firefox 29 which is now released, but I am still unable to retrieve my thousands of passwords from Chrome!

You suck.

Comment 19

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

I'm thinking we should split this into separate bugs. Bug 707044 covers passwords on Windows (and Linux?), I have an investigation bug open for passwords on OS X (bug 1018667), and I think form data and settings can be split into their own bugs (or morph this into one of them).

Comment 20

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to Matthew N. [:MattN] from comment #19)
> I'm thinking we should split this into separate bugs.

very likely, this needs a breakdown.

Comment 22

[nils]

There is a way to import your Chrome passwords to Firefox: https://github.com/louisabraham/ffpass
A tutorial can be found here: https://dev.to/thebabscraig/from-chrome-to-firefox-quantum-in-4-easy-steps--5572

But it would be very nice if this would be easier - the normal user will struggle using the terminal. Chrome can export the passwords into a .csv file, why is there no easy way to import this simple file into Firefox on Mac? As I understand it is possible on Windows.

The switch to Firefox from Chrome should be as easy as possible in my humble opinion.

Comment 23

[Lina Butler [:lina]]

Chrome can export the passwords into a .csv file, why is there no easy way to import this simple file into Firefox on Mac?

There is now! 😅 You can import passwords from Chrome on macOS in Nightly and Beta; Matt implemented that in bug 1423714. It'll be available in Firefox 70 release on October 22!