Can't restoreFirefox settings with .mozilla directory[Linux]

[yazm894]

Hi!

The answer to this might be something really simple and embarrassing, but here goes...

I'm using Linux, and for the last couple of weeks I haven't been able to restore Firefox settings by copying the .mozilla directory from backup to the home directory when installing a new distro. I've tried it with several distros and machines. Has it been changed somehow?

I thought maybe there was some permissions issue since I copied the directory from another machine but I _think_ they're all in order.

Help please? I'd love to get this working again since it's such an awesomely easy way to back up and restore your Firefox and Thunderbird settings.

[gdot179]

All that is Firefox, is in .mozilla.

All the profiles in .mozilla are in seperate folders.

I have moved, as in copy/paste, .mozilla and individual profiles as well as the various components in the profiles, 100's of times.

You might want to describe exactly what the problem is and what versions you are dealing with.

If you now have different settings than what you expect from a copied profile, that would point to a different profile in use.

[yazm894]

Oh yeah, sorry... So I've backed up my .mozilla and .thunderbird directories so I can paste them to my home directory when I try new distros or reinstall. In the past it's worked perfectly: on Firefox all the windows I had open when I last used it spring open, all my bookmarks and settings are there. Same with Thunderbird.

During the last installations, however, Firefox always opens as a fresh version, with just the start page and with the default bookmarks and settings, even though I've got the backup of my .mozilla directory copied to my home directory.

I'm using Firefox 99.0.

It occurred to me that I signed in to Firefox Sync a couple weeks back, and the problems started after that. It could, of course, affect the settings on all my devices, couldn't it? After I logged out of Sync, I was able to restore the Thunderbird settings from a backup, but not Firefox settings, which I thought was weird. I'm going to try other backups and not log into Firefox Sync, let's see what happens.

[yazm894]

Hi

For some reason copy-pasting the .mozilla directory to my home directory has worked again for the last couple of times. This was after a few "nuke and paves". I haven't used Firefox Sync now for a month or so. Can that affect this somehow? Can the syncing affect the portability of the .mozilla directory somehow? I reeeeally dont understand this, but at least it seems to work again.

[yazm894]

Could it be that distros where Firefox is a flatpak or snap give me trouble? Today installed Linux Mint and restored the settings fine with the .mozilla directory (although it was an old version but that could be due to some flaw in my backing-up script), but yesterday it didn't work with a fresh install of Fedora.