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import firefox & thunderbird profile

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I used mozbackup to backup my profile on firefox & thunderbird using windows 8.1.

My computer crashed and had to get new harddrive & motherboard, have tried number of times to import my profile into your lateset firefox & thunderbird using windows 11.

The files are there but it does not show them when I try to import my profile into both programs, can you help me as I have lots of bookmarks in firefox and lots of folders in thunderbird I need to get access to.

I used mozbackup to backup my profile on firefox & thunderbird using windows 8.1. My computer crashed and had to get new harddrive & motherboard, have tried number of times to import my profile into your lateset firefox & thunderbird using windows 11. The files are there but it does not show them when I try to import my profile into both programs, can you help me as I have lots of bookmarks in firefox and lots of folders in thunderbird I need to get access to.

All Replies (3)

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To what folder did you restore this backup?

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).


  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)
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Mozbackup saved my profile as Thunderbird 2023-02-09.pcv file and it says when I restored ok but nothing has happened. I need my old profile so I can reply to some email. How can I export them to the new thunderbird 102.8.0 and using windows 11

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If I remember correctly then this pcv file is a ZIP archive, so you can use an archive manager to check its content and extract files.

For questions about Thunderbird, best is to ask on the Thunderbird support forum.