Mac migration from standard release to ESR
I am looking for suggestions/work flows for migrating existing Mac's from the standard firefox release to the ESR version. I am looking to manage these all under 1 update cycle. A couple of current problems:
- On a system with the standard version already installed, I can't find a way to upgrade to the ESR version without uninstalling first.
- Once I would do an uninstall and then an install of the new version, I am prompted that I have launched an older version of Firefox and that I must create a new profile. How can I do this without loosing all users bookmarks, extensions, etc?
Thanks!
All Replies (2)
Is this only about migrating one device or about migrating multiple devices like in an organization ?
You normally change the update channel by installing the full version of the new update channel. Best is always to first uninstall the current Firefox version to ensure that there are no leftover files remain for the previous version. Installing an older Firefox version like in your case will cause Firefox to complain if you keep using the same profile as downgrading a profile can cause issues, especially if you would upgrade this profile in the future (e.g. to the next ESR) and migration might not be working properly. So best would be to create a new profile for the ESR version like proposed by Firefox.
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.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
- 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)
See these article for more information about dedicate profiles and a possible profile downgrade.
"Blocking downgrades" and "Disabling the changes" ->
You should backup the profile. Files can be recovered from it as posted above.