Reinstaling Firefox (but keeping bookmarks etc.)

[macstatic]

Firefox (3.x) has been acting strange for a while, and I'm suspecting corrupted preference files or something like that. How do I reinstall Firefox from scratch, while keeping my bookmarks, passwords etc?

 

[zrbecker]

Here is a tutorial on ehow for backing up your bookmarks in firefox on a mac.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4779233_back-bookmarks-mac-os-x.html

 

[old-wiz]

The ehow tutorial only covers bookmarks.

The firefox website has more details.

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles?bl=n&s=backup profile

 

[macstatic]

Thanks.
So basically you just back up the following files from your Firefox profile:

places.sqlite (bookmarks)
key3.db (key database for passwords)
signons.sqlite (passwords)
cookies.sqlite (cookies)

Remove Firefox along with the profile, download and reinstall a fresh copy of Firefox, then run Firefox for the first time (creating a fresh profile).

Then it's just a matter of copying the backed up files into the new profile, replacing those already there.

 

[-Ryan-]

Thanks.
So basically you just back up the following files from your Firefox profile:

places.sqlite (bookmarks)
key3.db (key database for passwords)
signons.sqlite (passwords)
cookies.sqlite (cookies)

Remove Firefox along with the profile, download and reinstall a fresh copy of Firefox, then run Firefox for the first time (creating a fresh profile).

Then it's just a matter of copying the backed up files into the new profile, replacing those already there.

Correct. You could even try *just* deleting your profile and preferences and then restarting Firefox to see if that fixes the problem, without redownloading.

 

[macstatic]

Yes, but remembering to rename the existing Firefox folder first so you can always revert.