Firefox sync vs Firefox copy profile AND sync

[bookmarkimport]

I've used Firefox sync before but it's never 100%. The about:config tweaks don't transfer for example.

Is there's any downside to copying my current profile to another computer and then syncing?

[the-edmeister]

None that I have experienced. I tend to use a computer for 6 to 8 years and the last time (3 years ago) I built a new computer I was horrified at how much Sync didn't transfer to the new PC. After wasting 3 weeks attempting to make the new PC equal to the older one - one piece at a time, I just quit and settled for copying the entire "old" Profile contents into a brand new Profile on the new PC. and forgot about trying to make the 1st Profile that had been sync'd the same as I had been using om the older PC. IMO, Sync was too limited with what it did. OK for bookmarks and maybe Login / Passwords data, but the rest was too damn flakey for my tastes. And that wasn't because I was an inept user of Sync, I began using Sync when it was the Weave extension during Firefox 3.5 / 3.6, before Sync was made a standard feature built into Firefox. I knew going in that Sync had its limits, but I was shocked at how limited it turned out to be with a fresh installation on a new PC.


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[bookmarkimport]

None that I have experienced. I tend to use a computer for 6 to 8 years and the last time (3 years ago) I built a new computer I was horrified at how much Sync didn't transfer to the new PC. After wasting 3 weeks attempting to make the new PC equal to the older one - one piece at a time, I just quit and settled for copying the entire "old" Profile contents into a brand new Profile on the new PC. and forgot about trying to make the 1st Profile that had been sync'd the same as I had been using om the older PC. IMO, Sync was too limited with what it did. OK for bookmarks and maybe Login / Passwords data, but the rest was too damn flakey for my tastes. And that wasn't because I was an inept user of Sync, I began using Sync when it was the Weave extension during Firefox 3.5 / 3.6, before Sync was made a standard feature built into Firefox. I knew going in that Sync had its limits, but I was shocked at how limited it turned out to be with a fresh installation on a new PC.


.

Thanks, sounds good.

[bookmarkimport]

Using the copied profile... works great!

[bookmarkimport]

I did have to log out of Sync as both computer were showing up as the same one, even when renamed.

[dfoulkes]

I did have to log out of Sync as both computer were showing up as the same one, even when renamed.

Did you just rename that profile using the File explorer? .. or use the profile manger?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

[bookmarkimport]

I did have to log out of Sync as both computer were showing up as the same one, even when renamed.

Did you just rename that profile using the File explorer? .. or use the profile manger?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

I created a new profile on the new computer with the profile manager (run -> firefox.exe -p). However, I named it the same as the old profile folder (and pasted the old files in). Maybe that was it.

The logout and relogging in solved whatever issue and Sync recognizes both as different computers.

[lovemyfoxy]

Gave up on Sync long ago. I have my 2 machines networked, and I just copy the profile from one to the other. Except for places.sqlite, not much changes.

[dickvl]

Note that some files can contain absolute paths to the profile folder and can cause problems when you rename the profile.
One known file is pkcs11.txt for the software security device.
The prefs.js file can also store file paths.

[lovemyfoxy]

I don't rename it. I extract only the contents and send them over.