How to back up and restore a Firefox profile on Windows 10
Firefox, like any browser, has to save files to your system. These files comprise of cookies, bookmarks, add-ons, your history, and more. Firefox can create and maintain multiple profiles and you will find folders for these profiles in the AppData folder. Firefox can be refreshed from a built-in option in the browser. If you’re doing a Firefox refresh, you might want to back up your profile so you can restore it later. Simple Firefox Backup is a simple GUI utility that can back up and restore a Firefox profile.
Back up Firefox profile
Backing up a Firefox profile isn’t hard. In fact, you can do it without a tool but it’s just easier with it. If you’re looking to back it up manually, open the AppData folder in your user profile folder, and go to the following location.
\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Copy the profile folders in this location to a safe place and the back up has been created.
If you prefer to use Simple Firefox Backup, download and run it.
Restore Firefox profile
If you backed up the profile manually, open your user folder and go to the following location again. Paste them here and restart Firefox.
\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
If you used Simple Firefox Backup, run the app again and click the Restore button. If you have Firefox open, you will have to close it before the profile can be restored. Once restored, you can open Firefox and you’ll find everything from your bookmarks, history, and even the speed dial has been restored.
Firefox has a data sync feature but if you prefer not to use it, you can take a back up of your profile locally.
With profiles and the data they contain, you do run the risk of adding back corrupt data to a fresh installation. If adding the profile data back results in problems with Firefox, you might have to forgo using the profile data. Try backing up just the essentials e.g, export your bookmarks from within Firefox.
If you’ve made changes to the Firefox preferences, you will lose them even if you back up the Profile folder. They aren’t always backed up but there are ways to sync it and it will require using Firefox sync.
Browsers have a lot of our data, even if it’s just stored locally. Bookmarks are important but there is also lots of autofill data, your browsing data, and in some cases, even cookies. If you use Firefox and have been holding off on using the sync feature, you should consider signing up for it. There’s too much data there to lose.
You did not mention having more than one profile. From what I’ve seen, I cannot identify which profile in the profile folder belongs to which profile. I use both Firefox and Waterfox, how do I know which is which?