What is Firefox Local profile for, if it is lost what do I lose ?

[Alan_B]

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate + SP1 and Firefox version 4.1 and am expecting to move to 5 after others have enjoyed it for a while and my Addons can take it.

 

My daily incremental system backup might be half the size and take less time if only the Firefox file urlclassifier3.sqlite did not update every time Firefox ran.

I do not understand why it needs to be twice the size of my first HDD just to classify URL's ! ! !

Does it now hold some other stuff ?

 

I know how to move the profile to another place that is backed up very much less frequently (when I remember) and to put in its place a folder junction so Firefox will run just the same.

 

I have a concern that upon disaster I have a good restoration of everything on C:\, including the folder junctions, but either a very old or non-existent *.sqlite etc.

If I lose *.sqlite does it just take a bit longer on the first launch of Firefox whilst it rebuilds or refreshes this file ?

 

I think LastPass not only looks after my passwords, but I think I remember seeing a configuration checkbox which told Firefox to avoid storing passwords.

And Xmarks is looking after my Bookmarks.

 

An alternative to the folder junction might be a reparse point for only the urlclassifier3.sqlite, but I do not yet know if that is possible or how to do it.

 

Using the folder junction I also put at risk the file XUL.mfl.

I also put at risk the folders startupCache and OfflineCache, which presumably will regenerate together with their contents startupCache.4.little and index.sqlite

Will these all quickly rebuild or refresh on the first launch of Firefox,

or will something useful be gone forever ?

 

Alan

[Andavari]

I don't know about everything you've asked however for backing up my profile alone I've always been able to restore my full Firefox settings.

[Alan_B]

I don't know about everything you've asked however for backing up my profile alone I've always been able to restore my full Firefox settings.

 

The problem is that an image of C:\ will not include the part of the profile I intend to put elsewhere,

and if I lose that part I know my password and bookmarks are taken care of by the servers at LastPass and Xmarks,

and I do not particularly care about losing any cookies,

But I am interested in any other losses,

and how long the initial regeneration from scratch would take on the first launch after loss,

and what may continue to be missing other than passwords, bookmarks, and cookies.

 

Regards

Alan

[Nergal]

If you have Firefox 4.x+ you can use Firefox Sync (built into 4.x+ addon for 3.whatever) to sync your passwords, history, Prefs, bookmarks and even tabs to the cloud. Thne when the new p.c. is setup open firefox and resync to your account

[Alan_B]

I would prefer to minimise my use of the cloud.

 

I briefly tried DropBox so my wife could see grandaughter's photos.

 

I found great difficult finding any context menu anywhere, and some places were much worse than others.

A right click and hold produced a frantic shimmering menu that fluttered about 20 times a second.

 

Autoruns found that Dropbox had hooked into Explorer with 10 hooks.

It might not have been with malicious intent, I think it was just the incompetence of the developers.

 

I will probably relocate relevant parts of the Firefox profile to a different partition that gets backed up less frequently.

 

Going through the things you listed :-

passwords :- Already backed up by Lastpass;

history :- Much of that is zapped by CCleaner, It just means a little Google effort to track where a download came from - I will risk it;

Prefs :- I rarely change the appearance of Firefox. I can live with a 1 month old backup. I have seen about:config and decided it was not for me ! ! !

bookmarks :- I have Xmarks;

tabs :- They get purged by CCleaner.

 

Conclusion thus far

I will live with a monthly backup of the profile, depending upon Lastpass and Xmarks to backup the only aspects that seem important.

 

Regards

Alan

[Nergal]

Firefox SYNC is much much different from cloud.

My guess as to how this works is:

Each Firefox user has a "Key" (it used to be a "create your own" but once FF incorprated it, it became a long key such as "w-ive3j-fs8df-n4ztn-effhp-u7nwy"¹)

when paired with a Key on Mozilla's server, the above information is rewritten into what I would suppose is a small textual document of gooblty-gook; this key contains what possibly is a filelocation address as well, allowing the sync server know where to go

When you enter your key in the second firefox it accesses the file and decrypts it into your information

 

I assume this information in only accessable if they have your key, and if that's true it's no different from your email (except more secure for the majority of people)

 

¹No this is not my real key, it is however in the form that the keys are presented.

[Alan_B]

Thanks

[Nergal]

just to tie up any lose ends my off-cuff-response above may have left

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/what-firefox-sync#w_wheres-all-my-data