[tor-talk] copying old profile to new Aurora not working

[Joe Btfsplk]

1st, I guess some default settings in Aurora are actually stored in 
prefs.js (as in USER set prefs)?  If so, meaning the user prefs file 
isn't only user prefs - it has prefs set by Aurora devs?

Re:  shooting myself in the foot.  Maybe there's an issue w/ the 
prefs.js file - as mentioned - by copying the old prefs.js file into the 
new Aurora, which would be a valid concern.

There may be a good reason to extract newer versions the way you suggest 
because of prefs changes, but answering your question, most prefs I want 
to preserve are ones made by extensions.  I also don't use NoScript 
default settings, exactly as they come in Aurora.  There could be a 
white list of sites in NoScript, (for ex.), which might get wiped out if 
I just extract the new TBB over old one???  A few other similar 
situations.  This is an issue for me because stock Aurora doesn't block 
ads, or web trackers, block referrer headers or a # of other things.

I'm willing to try it your way, if it's not going to wipe out all 
extensions prefs / settings.   Ignoring the prefs issue you mentioned 
for the moment, I still don't see why copying the old profile into the 
new TBB profile folder shouldn't work (has in the past).  Again, maybe 
it's not a good idea because of what you mentioned.

I take it you're saying if users extract a new TBB into the earlier TBB 
version's folder, it WON'T wipe out extensions, their prefs, search 
plugins, etc., that you've already custom installed?  I think what it'll 
do is completely replace the previous prefs.js w/ all custom settings 
from extension.  If it overwrites any extensions' prefs, they'd have to 
be uninstalled / reinstalled.

But, as far as copying / restoring an older profile into a new Firefox 
(or just setting an older profile as default to use in new FF ver), that 
is an acceptable practice - even w/ Mozilla KBs how to do it (ignoring 
for the moment any issue w/ Aurora's prefs.js file).  It may be easier 
to allow a new ver to overwrite the old program files (assuming it 
doesn't mess them up as it sometimes does).

Since Aurora is just extracting vs installing, I didn't know how it 
would affect extensions, plugins (and user prefs) that were already 
installed in the previous TBB version.  An upgrade of Firefox 
automatically uses the old profile (even if installed to new folder), 
unless told otherwise.  It doesn't (normally) even touch the old 
profile.  In Firefox, it's easy just to tell it which profile (an older 
one) to use.  In Aurora, the profile is self contained w/ prgm files.

Thanks.




On 11/29/2011 2:09 PM, Mike Perry wrote:
> You're still doing it wrong, man.
>
> As I said the last time you shot yourself in the foot doing this
> copying the wrong way
> (https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2011-October/021772.html):
>
>    I would recommend just overwriting your old TBB dir with the new data.
>    Sometimes we change prefs+create new ones, which could cause bugs for
>    you when you copy old-over-new.
>
>    If there are a lot of prefs you need to change, you (or we) might also
>    be doing it wrong. Might I ask which ones you need to keep?
>
>
> Thus spake Joe Btfsplk (joebtfsplk at gmx.com):
>
>> I upgraded to latest TBB 2.2.34-3 in Vista.  I usually copy my profile
>> from previous version of TBB / Aurora into new version, so as not to
>> have to redo some custom settings or reinstall a few extensions I have
>> in TBB.
>>
>> This time, after copying the profile from older TBB&  replacing the
>> default profile in 2.2.34-3 (in path E:\Temp\Tor Browser\TBB
>> 2.2.34-3\Tor Browser\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile), none of the
>> extensions show up as installed when launching TBB.  Copying was done w/
>> all TBB versions closed.  I've never had a problem before copying or
>> restoring a previous profile into a newer version of Aurora (or
>> Firefox), where all the extensions didn't even show up in the Addons Mgr
>> of new version.
>>
>> But the extensions that don't show as installed in latest TBB Addons Mgr
>> - when it starts, ARE listed in the proper place in Explorer - as in the
>> previous TBB version.  So, the extensions ARE in the profile\extensions
>> folder, they just aren't showing up in Addons Mgr / Extensions in TBB
>> 2.2.34-3.
>>
>> Any suggestions?  Thanks.
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>
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