Firefox has become the defacto standard for web developers across the globe. Through easily available extensions it is a indisposable tool for professional web workers.I didnt realise how much of my productivity was tied into firefox until my Mac went bust and I had to re-install firefox. Like all developers, over time I had accumulated quite a few nifty time-saving Firefox Extensions and bookmarklets like The Web Developer Toolbar, ColorZilla color picker, Firebug debug console and the Tiny HTML validator.

My Fresh Install of firefox was lacking all these extensions and i spent quite a bit of time finding and installing them again and syncing my bookmarks [ which existed across Foxmarks and Delicious ] only to find that I had neglected to manually backup my saved passwords, Having being born with the attention span of a goldfish i struggle to manage passwords and ids across multiple websites, so the loss of my auto-filled passwords had made life hell.

Hoping to avoid this scramble next time around I decided to investigate the various options available for backing up firefox profiles.

Firefox Backup Options

Mozilla KB: How To Manage Profiles

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile (Free)

This method involves manually clearing the cache and backing up the profile folder created by firefox under %AppData% on PCs, and /~Library/ on the Mac.
It’s not impossible to do but aimed at more advanced users not amateurs.

EZ Backup Firefox Basic (PC Only)

http://www.rinjanisoft.com/ezfirefoxbackup.html $9.95

The EZBackup Firefox tool makes backups of your Firefox Profile to local, network or removable drive.Createing a self-restoring backup wizard interface that guides you through restoring your data.
The Software costs $9.95 with free upgrades, and they also offer a $30 pro version that includes the ability to backup to CD/DVD and over FTP with 128-bit security.
This method is easier than the Knowledgebase article but not Free.

Firefox Environment Backup Extension [ FEBE ]

http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions/febe/febe.html (Free)

The Firefox Environment Backup Extension {FEBE} is aimed at more professional users and offers very advanced backup and restore options.
Its counterpart CLEO (Compact Library Extension Organizer) creates a single .xpi file from the backup, that you can install on any machine.
Highly recommended for professional developers but it will confuse regular users with the hundreds of sub-menus and options.

MozBackup Utility (PC Only)

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/download.php (Free)

The MozBackup Utility is a very easy wizard based backup solution. It makes single file backups of your entire profile including bookmarks, passwords and extensions.
The Wizard itself is easy to use and recommended for all users. It allows a simple backup of the profile without inundating the user with endless confusing option screens.
It PC-Only so Mac users will have to stick to FEBE for their profile backup needs.

Using MozBackup: Step by Step

This tutorial will guide you in using free software to backup your Firefox Profile. This includes all your personal settings, such as bookmarks, passwords and extensions, which firefox stored on your hard drive in a profile folder.
Firefox Extensions Backup

1. Installing and Launching MozBackup

You can find links to download the MozBackup utility on their download page. (direct link).
The Installation itself is simple and once complete it launches the program.

Installation ScreenshotsBacking Up FirefoxBackup Firefox PasswordsSNAG-0006SNAG-0007

Installing and Launching MozBackup

2. Select Your Firefox Profile

Once you get past the Initial Launch Screen MozBackup will ask you wether you want to backup or restore a profile and show you your locally installed programs that it can backup/restore.

Installing and Launching MozBackup

Along with Firefox Mozbackup also supports flavors of ThunderBird(2.0) SeaMonkey(1.1)
Mozilla Suite(1.7) and Netscape(7.x). Select ‘Backup a Profile’ and your local copy of Firefox.

3. Did you see this Alert?

Did you see this Alert?

If you did then remember to close all open firefox windows before attempting to create a backup.

In the next Screen you will be presented wih a list of available profiles to backup, select yours and select the location for the backup.
This can be anywhere on your local machine(like My Documents).

select the location for the backup

4. Password Protecting The Backup File

This is optional, But If you are backing up saved passwords I recommend adding this security layer.

I recommend adding this security layer

5. Selectively Backing Up Components

You may not want to backup everything that MozBackup offers, items such as cookies, history and cache will needlessly increase the size of the final backup file.If you are confused about what components to backup, leave the default boxes checked, they offer a good mix of options.

Select the individual components you want, remember you can select as few or as many as needed.

I recommend adding this security layer

6. Note on backing-up Extensions

Note on backing-up Extensions

A list of supported entensions is available on the MozBackup download page. Besides these MozBackup also works with other extensions but they may lose settings and have to be reconfigured after restoring. In my testing all extensions have restored fine so far.

7. Finishing Up

Finally, the program runs through your options and creates a backup of your profile to a single file which is saved in the location you specified earlier.

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8. Restoring a Backup

Restoring a backup is simple and involves following the wizzard in the same order, with the last step being writing to the profiles instead of reading from them.

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