Firefox is a good browser, particularly in case you care about open supply, software program freedom, and the open web. Regardless of all the good issues that may be stated about Firefox, there are nonetheless some minor annoyances that exist. The one greatest one is that there nonetheless isn’t a local solution to again up and restore a Firefox profile. As a substitute, they insist customers use “Firefox Sync”.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial on the finish of this text.
Firefox Sync is good, particularly when establishing the browser on a number of computer systems. The difficulty is, it doesn’t have the power to save lots of a profile that exists, and can solely obtain information to a brand new one. That is extraordinarily annoying in case you simply wish to keep away from sync, preserve every little thing and restore it later.
Fortunately, with somewhat know-how, it’s potential to again up a Firefox Profile by way of the Linux terminal.
Again Up Firefox Profile – Terminal
The Firefox net browser shops all profile data instantly in ~/.mozilla, within the house listing, for every person. To again it up, you’ll first have to open up a terminal window and use it as a traditional person. Don’t attempt to acquire a root shell throughout this course of, because it’s very probably any backup archives you make could possibly be owned by the foundation person and never common ones. To create a easy Firefox backup, first, shut the Firefox browser. After that, go to the terminal and enter the compression command.
tar -jcvf firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2 .mozilla
Tar will compress any information inside ~/.mozilla and output firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2. When the method is completed, you will have a primary, unlocked backup of Firefox. Be happy to place it in your NextCloud server, Dropbox account, exterior onerous drive and and many others.
Observe: in case you select to not encrypt your Firefox profile Tar archive, remember the fact that you’re making your self weak. Anybody that will get their fingers on the firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2 archive can extract it, restore it and open up Firefox. From there, they’ll entry passwords, historical past, e-mail addresses, bank card data, and many others.
Make certain that in case you are planning to skip the encryption step beneath that you simply add your backup to an account with a safe password that solely you realize!
Restore Firefox Profile Backup
Wish to restore the backup of your Firefox profile? To begin, delete the unique ~/.mozilla folder. It will stop file conflicts and failures.
rm -rf ~/.mozilla
Then, extract the archive on to the house folder, with:
tar -xvf firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2
Encrypt Firefox Profile Backup
Doing a primary backup of the Firefox profile listing utilizing Tar is fast and straightforward, nevertheless it’s not protected. Anybody that will get their fingers on that backup archive can simply extract it themselves and get complete entry to passwords, historical past, and every little thing. That’s why it’s tremendous essential to encrypt your backup. On Linux, the simplest (and quickest) solution to encrypt a Tar archive is through the use of GPG encryption.
Observe: to make use of GPG, you’ll want to put in GnuPG in your system. Discover it by way of the Gnome Software program app, KDE Uncover Retailer and and many others.
After creating the backup archive above, go to the terminal and use GPG to encrypt it:
gpg -c firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2
Operating gpg -c will begin the encryption course of, and ask you to set a password. Enter a safe and memorable password.
When the method completes, you should definitely delete firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2, because it’s not encrypted. As a substitute, you’ll have to preserve firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2.gpg because the backup.
Decrypt the file at any time with:
gpg firefox-browser-profile.tar.bz2.gpg
Again Up Firefox profile With Deja Dup
Utilizing a Tar archive to backup the Firefox browser profile works in a pinch, however if you would like an answer that’s simpler for the typical person, you must think about using the Deja Dup backup instrument for Linux. There’s a ton to like in relation to this app. Listed below are some causes you might wish to think about using this as an alternative in case you discover the backup methodology above too tedious.
- Helps computerized weekly and each day backup. This can be utilized to all the time have a present backup of your Firefox Linux profile.
- It helps backup on to exterior onerous drives, SD playing cards, and USB flash drives, guaranteeing you’ll be capable of rapidly take your profile backup with you anyplace even in case you are new to Linux.
- Can backup instantly over NFS, Samba, and even FTP/SFTP.
- Has GPG encryption assist to verify your profile is protected and locked down with no effort.
- Can restore backups instantly, within the right location simply. One thing good for brand spanking new customers seeking to backup and restore browser settings.
- Saves all the /house/person/ listing, moderately than simply ~/.mozilla, so customers will be capable of backup all settings, not simply the browser.
The normal methodology of backing up the Firefox browser profile is straightforward to do in case you’re proficient with the terminal, and don’t thoughts getting into instructions right here and there. Nevertheless, in case you hate getting into terminal instructions, and also you’re on the lookout for one thing simple and computerized, Deja Dup is the right various. Don’t know the best way to use the Deja Dup backup instrument on Linux? Try our information right here to study precisely the way it works!
Should you choose to make use of Chrome and wish to discover ways to again up your Google Chrome Profile, we’ve received you lined.
