Firefox and Thunderbird Firefox users need to regularly back up to guard against the possibility that their profile gets corrupted or wiped after installing a new extension or a new version of Firefox. If you use Thunderbird then it's even more important that you backup to ensure you don't accidentally lose your email correspondence and account settings.
There are two ways to backup: use a backup utility or do it yourself manually.
Backup Utilities
MozBackup is a free utility written by Pavel Cvrcek that will automatically backup Firefox and Thunderbird as well as Netscape and the full Mozilla suite. In fact the most recent versions will also backup Mozilla Sunbird, Flock and Spicebird.
It works like a charm - the whole process is driven by a Wizard so easy to use that even raw beginners will be able to set up automatic backups. It also offers encryption of the backup files and a complete push-button restore option.
MozBackup only backs up the essential information rather than all the information in your Mozilla profile but that's fine for most users. You can get MozBackup here: http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
If you only need to backup Firefox an excellent, perhaps superior, alternative is the free FEBE Firefox extension. Initially designed for backuping up extensions it now offers the options of backing up various sections of your profile such as bookmarks, cookies, auto-complete etc. Most importantly, it allows you to backup your entire profile just by checking a single box. Full or selective restore is available. Thanks to site visitor Anupam Shriwatri for the suggestion. FEBE is available from here: http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions/febe/febe.html
There are also a couple of commercial utilities that will backup Firefox and Thunderbird. I've not used them but you can find details at http://www.rinjanisoft.com/
Manual Backup
Backing up Firefox and Thunderbird manually is as simple as copying their respective profile folders to another location. If you do that, you’ll have a full backup with all your setting and personal data saved.
An advantage of manual backup is that you don't need to have Firefox or Thunderbird functioning in order to restore your backup; it's just a case of copying the backup profiles. That's a good thing because the most common reason you want to restore is because your Firefox or Thunderbird installation is not working!
The hardest part is finding the profile folders. First up, they are not located where you would expect to find them. Secondly, they are located in different places for different versions of Windows. Thirdly, they may be assigned random file names that make them difficult to recognize.
On Windows 2000/XP machines the locations for your Firefox and Thunderbird profiles are respectively:
- C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
- C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\
On Windows 9x/Me PCs they can usually be found at:
- C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\
- C:\Windows\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\<Profile name>\
If you can't locate your profiles then check out this document for more information: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#What_is_in_my_profile?
On my XP laptop the profiles are:
- C:\Documents and Settings\Ian\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.ebq
-
C:\Documents and Settings\Ian\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\25ve0lz5.default
To back these up I copy the profiles to an external USB drive. It's as simple as that. I do it manually but you could also use Windows Scheduler or a backup manager to do the job automatically. Make sure, though, that Firefox and Thunderbird are not running before you backup.
