How to transfer all tabs from Firefox on WinXP

[Libertine Lush]

Hi All,

My first Apple, an iMac, should be arriving in the mail any day now. In anticipation I'm wondering, among many other things, how you can transfer all the tabs that you have in Firefox from a Windows XP PC to Firefox in Snow Leopard?

I see in Firefox that I can "Bookmark All Tabs." I did that and saved it to the Bookmarks Menu. Am I right to guess that when I export all my bookmarks into HTML using Firefox's export action that those tabs will be exported as well? And I can then simply import them into Firefox on Snow Leopard and all those tabs and the 50+ pages within them will be restored exactly as they were in the WinXP computer?

Thanks for any help!

 

[madog]

There is a FireFox plug-in I use called FoxMarks, or Xmarks (they changed the name recently from one to the other) that will do the job. All it requires is a free registration (for obvious reasons). You install on any OS in FireFox, login on each computer, and it will sync your bookmarks. After the first sync when you sync an additional computer, it will ask if you want to merge or replace the data. Simple and intuitive.

I use it and it successfully syncs between my 2 Macs, my BootCamp partition, and a PC.

I don't know about the tabs by themselves, but if you "bookmark all open tabs", then those bookmarks will surely transfer over.

Exporting should also work as well, but would require the physical transfer. I'm sure FF is smart enough to be able to transfer that info from the Mac/Win versions, but I'm not positive.

 

[Libertine Lush]

There is a FireFox plug-in I use called FoxMarks, or Xmarks ...it will sync your bookmarks. After the first sync when you sync an additional computer, it will ask if you want to merge or replace the data. .

Hi Madog. That's an interesting plugin. I couldn't tell from its site but I gather the synch occurs when you tell it to?--it's not an automatic or real time process?

Thanks.

 

[Huntn]

Hi Madog. That's an interesting plugin. I couldn't tell from its site but I gather the synch occurs when you tell it to?--it's not an automatic or real time process?

Thanks.

I'm using Xmarks and like it a lot! I keep bookmarks synched between my G5 (firefox), my MPB (firefox, and safari), and my 3.1Ghz PIII (firefox). I don't think it supports the Windows version of Safari. It updates bookmarks automatically on a schedule, not immediately when you add a bookmark. If you shut down your browser and bookmarks are not synched, it will prompt you, or you can do it manually as in manually select it. It may be there, but I've not seen a mode where it works totally by manual synch.

 

[madog]

I'm using Xmarks and like it a lot! I keep bookmarks synched between my G5 (firefox), my MPB (firefox, and safari), and my 3.1Ghz PIII (firefox). I don't think it supports the Windows version of Safari. It updates bookmarks automatically on a schedule, not immediately when you add a bookmark. If you shut down your browser and bookmarks are not synched, it will prompt you, or you can do it manually as in manually select it. It may be there, but I've not seen a mode where it works totally by manual synch.

Yeah I've honestly never paid any attention to it. The only time I have seen XMarks prompt me is when I sync a new computer with it. Otherwise, I have never changed any settings, it's never bothered me other than when it gets updated, and all my bookmarks to my knowledge have always been up to date (at least my bookmarks toolbar which is what I mainly use).

I haven't even been into the settings before, which is unusual for me, but it's worth downloading and checking out yourself. I'm sure you could inspect those settings without registering if you are interested. Firefox makes uninstalling plug-ins easy too.

 

[Libertine Lush]

Thanks for the clarification guys!

 

[steve-p]

If you only want to move Firefox to a new machine rather than keep both in sync you can just copy the contents of the profile directory over and it will retain everything including plugins, bookmarks, settings, saved form information, history and passwords. That's what I do every time.

 

[Libertine Lush]

If you only want to move Firefox to a new machine rather than keep both in sync you can just copy the contents of the profile directory over and it will retain everything including plugins, bookmarks, settings, saved form information, history and passwords.

Ah! That's a great idea! Thanks Steve.

So I looked up the profile folder, I see that there's some folders in there that maybe shouldn't be anymore--plugins that were uninstalled but with left over folders/data, etc. Because of that I'm gonna decide not to transfer the entire profile folder, since it's a new iMac and I wanna make sure it's a good, clean, fresh start.

However, because of your idea, I decided to poke around the profile folder and found that there is a folder, "sessionbackups," for a Firefox addon I use called Tabmix, which enhances Firefox's tabs and also saves the tabs. Judging by the name of that folder and it's content (tabmix_sessions-2009-12-03.rdf), it looks like that could transfer my tabs if my idea in my initial post doesn't. Any chance anyone could comment on this as a possible solution? Thanks.

 

[Libertine Lush]

I decided to poke around the profile folder and found that there is a folder, "sessionbackups," for a Firefox addon I use called Tabmix, which enhances Firefox's tabs and also saves the tabs. Judging by the name of that folder and it's content (tabmix_sessions-2009-12-03.rdf), it looks like that could transfer my tabs if my idea in my initial post doesn't.

My first Apple arrived just last night. I tried the idea I posted above today and it didn't work. It only transferred the top page in each tab I had open and none of the many sites deep within each tab.

Does anyone have any idea how to transfer tabs in their entirety? Thanks.