Firefox profiles

[peasblossom]

I should be getting a new laptop soon and I want to transfer all the settings, passwords, bookmarks etc from Firefox onto the new machine. I can find instructions for this but I'd like to ask if anyone here has done this. Is creating a profile the simplest method? Would that work for Thunderbird too? And what size usb stick should I get to store it on?

[Simon]

I've done it several times with Sea Monkey, which is basically the same as Firefox.  You find your Firefox profile on the old device, and copy everything within the randomly named profile folder.  Then go to the new device, find the profile folder, which will be named randomly again, then overwrite everything within it with the data you copied from the old device, but leave the folder on the new device named as it is.  It's a one hit copy and paste, making sure you replace all the files with the copied ones.  Make sure Firefox is closed before you overwrite the profile data. 

You should be able to do the same with Thunderbird, but I've not done it as a separate app as mail is all in one in Sea Monkey.  If you want to retain all settings, make sure 'prefs.js' is also copied and overwritten on the new device. 

Is suggest you follow the instructions you've found though, in case I've forgotten something. 

[peasblossom]

Thanks, Simon.

Forgot to add this to my opening post. I also want to save and copy over all the old emails stored on the laptop. (Where I put them when I'm running out of space on IDNet's set up.) How do I do that?

[Simon]

They should be in the Thunderbird profile folder, so they should transfer with all the other data.

[peasblossom]

Can someone confirm that?

[Simon]

I assume you've read THIS?

[peasblossom]

Yes I have. Sorry, what I meant was can someone confirm that the old emails will travel too? I just want to be sure before diving in.