Mozilla Profile FAQ

1. Where is my profile located?
2. What are each of the files in my profile folder for?
3. What's the SLT directory, and why is it there?
4. How do I create a profile without the SLT directory?
5. How do I import my profile info from Netscape Communicator 4.x?
6. How do I import my profile from Netscape 3.x?
7. How do I export my profile back to Netscape Communicator 4.x?
8. How do I import/export my address book to/from a file type not supported by Mozilla?
9. How do I backup, restore, or transfer my profile from one computer to another?
   [Bookmarks, Mail, Address books, Newsgroups, Saved password data, Saved Form data, Junk mail filter, Message Filters, Cookies, Customization files]
10. How do I make two or more profiles share information?
11. How do I make two or more operating system accounts share the same profile registry?
12. Can I set Mozilla to prompt for a password in order to use a certain profile?
13. Can I set up Mozilla to automatically open in a specific profile, thus bypassing the choose profile screen?
14. Can I set the number of prefs.js backups?

1. Where is my profile located?

The default location is dependant on which operating system you are using. Mozilla will use the system designated folder for application data specific to a system user.
Note: %USERPROFILE% stands for your operating system user name.
Note: On Windows, Application Data is a hidden folder. In order to see it, you need to enabled both viewing hidden and system-protected files and folders in your Windows Explorer options. [More info]

2. What are each of the files in my profile folder for?

Directories

Files

Other Files

3. What's the SLT directory, and why is it there?

Within your profile folder, there is a folder with 8 random characters followed by the extension "slt", which contains all of your profile data. This is referred to as a salted directory. When you first create your profile, the salted directory is created with a randomly generated name. Mozilla does this as a security measure to prevent outsiders from being able to predict the file paths of your profile information.

4. How do I create a profile without the SLT directory?

First, create a folder in the location you plan to have the profile. Make sure you give that folder exactly the same name you plan to give the profile.
Second, open a text editor, and create a file named prefs.js in the folder you just created. You can add a few blank lines to the file, so there is something to save.
Now, use the Profile Manager to create a profile in the location of your new folder of the same name as that folder.
When Mozilla goes to create a profile, it will see that there is already a folder of the same name, and assume that the profile already exists. It will verify this by looking for prefs.js.

5. How do I import my profile info from Netscape Communicator 4.x?

The Profile Manager should detect and import a profile from Netscape 4.5 or later automatically while installing, except for the address book and any security certificates. To import your address books, first export them to LDIF files, then import those LDIF files into Mozilla.

You can also use the Tools -> Import menu in the Bookmarks manager, and the mailnews window.

Here's how to import a Communicator profile manually:

Bookmarks
Copy bookmark.htm from your 4.xx profile directory into your Mozilla profile directory and rename the file to bookmarks.html.

Mail
Copy the mail files (the ones without extension) from your 4.xx mail directory into your Mozilla mail directory, for example
C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\YourProfile\Mail --> C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\YourProfile\xxxx.slt\mail\mailserver (Profile Location varies on each system) - mailserver is the name of your imap/pop mailserver, for example pop3.verizon.com or imap.netscape.com.

Address book
In Netscape 4.xx, export the address book into an ldif file and import it into Mozilla.

Cookies
Copy cookies.txt into your Mozilla profile folder.

6. How do I import my profile from Netscape 3.x?

Mozilla will not recognize Netscape 3 profiles, but you can still import it manually. See "How do I import my profile info from Netscape Communicator 4.x?" for how to import manually.

7. How do I export my profile back to Netscape Communicator 4.x?

Bookmarks
Copy bookmarks.html to your Netscape Communicator 4 user folder and rename it to bookmark.htm.

Address book
Export your address book in ldif format and import it into Netscape Communicator 4.

Mail
Copy the mail files containing your emails (the files are the one without extension) to your Netscape Communicator 4 Mail folder.

Cookies
Copy cookies.txt to your Netscape Communicator profile folder.

8. How do I import/export my address book to/from a file type not supported by Mozilla?

You can use a third party address book converter and manager called Dawn.

9. How do I backup, restore, or transfer my profile from one computer to another?
[Bookmarks, Mail, Address books, Newsgroups, Saved password data, Saved Form data, Junk mail filter, Message Filters, Cookies, Customization files]

Since transferring a profile from one location to another covers backing up and restoring a profile, I've decided to amalgamate the three into one.

First, we'll go through transferring an entire profile, then we'll go through selectively transferring certain data.

Your entire profile
If you'd like to backup your entire profile, the easiest way to do it is to simply copy your entire profile folder to a safe location. You may want to clear your cache before doing so.

Note: If you copy your profile to any optical media (CDR, CDRW, DVD-R, etc.), your folder and all files and folders within it will become write-protected. This is due to the "read-only" nature of the medium. To combat this, zip up your profile folder with a file archival program, such as WinZip or WinRAR.

If you're restoring from Mozilla 1.7 or above, just create a new profile, close Mozilla, and replace the contents of the new SLT folder with the contents of your old one. (Be sure not to change the name of the new SLT folder.) Mozilla will recognize that the files do not exist in the original location, and use relative paths to determine the new location.

Mozilla 1.6 (and below) users, do the following:
If the file path of the new location is exactly the same as the backup profile,
1. Copy the folder to the location you'd like to restore it to.
2. Run the Mozilla Profile Manager, and create a new profile of the exact same name and location as the one you just restored. Mozilla should recognize that a profile already exists, and use that.

If the file path of the new location is not exactly the same as the backup profile,
1. Copy the folder to the location you'd like to restore it to.
2. Using your text editor, open both the prefs.js file and the panacea.dat file. Both reside in your profile folder. There are a number of file paths that need to be edited to reflect the new file path, so change those. Remember to to use two back slashes instead of one.

Selectively transferring certain data
Bookmarks
In your profile folder, there is a file called bookmarks.html. That file contains all of your bookmarks. When you create a new profile, let Mozilla create its own bookmarks file. While Mozilla is closed, copy your real bookmarks.html file into the new profile to replace the newly created bookmarks.html file.

Mail
When you create a mail account, a folder named after the mail server is created to hold all data pertaining to that account. (For example \default\1a2b3c4d.slt\Mail\pop.mail.yahoo.com\) Your mail folders are contained in UNIX mbox format. They are the files without extensions (Inbox, not Inbox.msf). So what are the MSF files for? They are index files Mozilla uses to display header information. You can delete those while Mozilla is closed, and Mozilla will recreate them, when need be. To backup your mail, copy the files without extensions to a safe place. To restore them in their new location, first create the account in Mozilla, so the folder is created. Delete the contents of the new folder, and paste the backed up mail files in their place.

Address books
Your address books are contained in files with MAB extensions in your profile folder. abook.mab is your personal address book. history.mab is your collected address book. Any other address books you have created will be named accordingly, with the *.mab extension added on. You can save the abook.mab file to a safe location, but it is best to export additional address books to LDIF files. To restore that data in a new location, open the Mozilla address book window, so Mozilla creates it's own abook.mab file. Close Mozilla and replace the newly created abook.mab with your saved one. To restore additional address books, use the Import menu to import the LDIF files you saved.

Newsgroups
When you create a news account, there are two files and a folder, named after the news server, created in your profile's \News\ folder.
For example:
\default\1a2b3c4d.slt\News\secnews.netscape.com\
\default\1a2b3c4d.slt\News\secnews.netscape.com.rc
\default\1a2b3c4d.slt\News\secnews.netscape.com.msf
The only file you need to backup is the *.rc file. That file contains your list of subscribed newsgroups, and the count of read messages. To restore that data in a new location, first create the account in Mozilla, so the files/folder are created. Then close Mozilla and replace the newly created RC file, with the one you saved (The name has to be the same). When you access the account in Mozilla, you will be asked to redownload headers; but Mozilla will know which newsgroups you are subscribed to, and which messages are read.

Saved password data
When you first use the password manager, Mozilla will create a new file with an *.s extension and give it a name of 8 random digits (For example 12345678.s). To save that data, just save that *.s file. Since the name is randomly generated, restoring it in a new location is a little more tricky. First use the password manager in your new profile at least once, so Mozilla creates an *.s file. Close Mozilla, and replace the new *.s file, with the one you've saved. Then open the prefs.js file in a text editor, and find the line (near the bottom of the file) that looks like: user_pref("signon.SignonFileName", "nnnnnnnn.s"); Change the "nnnnnnnn" to the random number of your old password file.

Note: if you have a master password set, you'll also need to move the file key3.db.

Saved Form data
Same technique as password data, except the file has an *.w extension, and the prefs.js line is user_pref("wallet.SchemaValueFileName", "nnnnnnnn.w");

Junk mail filter
When you first enable Junk Mail Controls, Mozilla will create a new file in your profile folder called training.dat, that will contain all training data. To restore that data in a new location, open Mozilla and use JMC at least once, so Mozilla creates its own training.dat file. While Mozilla is closed, copy your real training.dat file into the new profile to replace the newly created one.

Message Filters
When you create a mail or news account, there is a folder created for that account in your profile folder (see Mail and Newsgroups). Within that folder, the file named msgFilterRules.dat contains your message filters for that account. Filters specific to a newsgroup are dat files, named after the newsgroup (newsgroupname.dat). To restore that data in a new location, make sure the account is created in the new Mozilla profile, so the files/folder are created. While Mozilla is closed, copy your msgFilterRules.dat files and the newsgroup *.dat files to their corresponding folders, in the new profile.
Note: Are any of your filters set to move messages to another folder? That setting is not adapted, when moving msgFilterRules.dat. For instance, if you have a filter on accountA set to move messages to a certain folder within accountA, then move/copy your msgFilterRules.dat to accountB, that filter will still move messages to the folder on accountA. It may be a good idea to verify such settings in Mozilla [Tools -> Message Filters] after you've copied msgFilterRules.dat.

Cookies
When you first save a website cookie, Mozilla will create a new file in your profile folder called cookies.txt, that will contain all of your cookies. To restore that data in a new location, open Mozilla and go to a site that will place a cookie in your profile, so Mozilla creates its own cookies.txt file. While Mozilla is closed, copy your real cookies.txt file into the new profile to replace the newly created one.

Customization files
This refers to the user.js, chrome/userContent.css, and chrome/userChrome.css files talked about in the Editing Config files section. You can save them to a safe location and copy them to a new profile to transfer them. If your user.js contains any file paths, make sure to edit it accordingly.

10. How do I make two or more profiles share information?

With Mozilla, you can set up multiple profiles, and direct them to the same mail, news, cache, and bookmarks.

Sharing Bookmarks
Open the Bookmarks Manager [Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks], and go to Tools -> Open Bookmarks File. Open the bookmarks file you want to be used.

Special note: You can also use a bookmarks file of a different name. You can even set it to access a Netscape Communicator bookmark file.

Sharing Mail directories
Go to: Edit -> Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings -> <your account name here> -> Server Settings.
Under the "Local directory" field, you'll see a file path. You can make two or more more profiles share the same mail directory by setting each account to the same file path in the local directory field.

Sharing News directories
Go to: Edit -> Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings -> <news account name here> -> Server Settings.
Under the "Local directory" field, you'll see a file path. You can make two or more more profiles share the same news directory by setting each account to the same file path in the local directory field. Likewise, you must also set the same file path under "newsrc file."

Sharing a browser cache
Go to: Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cache. Select "Choose Folder". Choose the folder the you want to act as the shared cache folder.

Address books
Unfortunately, local address books cannot be shared.

11. How do I make two or more operating system accounts share the same profile registry?

Copy the registry.dat file, which resides one level above the default profile location, to the adjacent directory of the other OS user. For example:
copy C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\Application Data\Mozilla\registry.dat
to C:\Documents and Settings\Mary\Application Data\Mozilla\.
There should already be another registry.dat file in that location. You'll have to replace the existing file.

12. Can I set Mozilla to prompt for a password in order to use a certain profile?

No; Mozilla leaves that level of security to the operating system. See About profiles.

13. Can I set up Mozilla to automatically open in a specific profile, thus bypassing the choose profile screen?

Set the following command line argument:
-P profilename

Substitute the the name of your profile in place of profilename.
If you're profile name contains a space, you'll have to put your entire profile name in quotes. For example:
- P "profile name"

14. Can I set the number of prefs.js backups?

Mozilla 1.6 and below
Enter about:config in the location bar.
Search for backups.number_of_prefs_copies.
Modify the value to the number of copies you wish.