[HOW TO] Manually Backup/Restore/Transfer your profile to another device 🖥↔💾↔💻

pafflick

@smerugu28 said in [HOW TO] Manually Backup/Restore/Transfer your profile to another device :

why there was a need to create this post to manually backup and restore things

This thread was created back in February of 2017, while there was no Sync in Vivaldi (which came around officially with the 2.0 update, back in September of 2018 - so more than a year later). We decided to leave this thread for those who wish to manually transfer or backup their profiles.

Meanwhile, Sync is still a work in progress - we're working on incorporating more settings into it, but it's not a cakewalk. For example, providing the ability to sync search engines requires some major rewrites of our code, but the added benefit is that we will still allow removing default search engines while our competitors will most likely not.

Although we haven't said the last word on Sync yet, it already covers most of our users' needs. I don't see the point of your complaints here - I'd say they're rather counter-productive.

mossman

@smerugu28 said in [HOW TO] Manually Backup/Restore/Transfer your profile to another device :

Try it by yourself and see how the sync works. Then only you will understand.

I have 9 synchronised copies of Vivaldi on 3 laptops, 1 desktop, 1 netbook, 2 phones and a tablet. I then manage another 6 synchronised copes of Vivaldi for my wife. I understand very well how sync works.

dynamix

One thing I hate with a passion with chromium browsers is the profile migration, it's way too tedious. Why can't it be like Firefox? Copy the profile folder (no matter the OS) and it's done. No messing around and exposing the passwords, and no need to reinstall extensions.

dynamix

@Zalex108 "Export links of all extensions" crashes the latest Vivaldi.

Zalex108

@dynamix

Contact the Extension's Dev and ask to fix it.

Or find another Extension to do it.
~~No other option.~~

dynamix

@Zalex108 It was discussed in another thread and fixed. Thanks.

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/79248/export-links-of-all-extensions-crashes-the-browser

Zalex108

@dynamix

Perfect,
Community Devs help a lot.

Great they did it.
And the Extension's Dev merged.

xelael

I don't know if this thread is still active, but I'd rather try it here before opening up a new one.

I've recently reinstalled windows. I kept all of my files (except what has to be deleted when you reinstall it), including my Users folder that had been moved to a different HD (E:).

I thought all I had to do now was reinstall Vivaldi and just copy the old folders back in to have my settings, bookmarks, sessions, everything back, but that's not really happening.

Not really sure what to do. I don't think I used Sync before, even though I did have an account. I probably just used an ordinary profile, but since I still retain my files locally, all I really want is to be able to access them here.

Anyone have any idea how I could do it? I've tried the Sync option, but it treated me as if I was a new user, with nothing to sync. My profile path is the same as the folder where all my stuff is, so I don't really understand why it doesn't recognize my files.

Zalex108

@xelael

Hi,
Welcome to Vivaldi's Forums!

Your new installation probably has assigned a new Encryption key and the previous files are partly recognised.

You will either Restore a System backup, do the previous steps like Sync and then Restore a Bckp up of the new and current installation.

Or go Mostly manually and from remembering some Extension Settings and other things.

Read the Signature Links below to start get in touch on what you will need to check and Copy/Paste.

For some files, Copy/Paste is enough.

--

Also,
Some useful links:

Forums	Community	Official Tutorials	Official Help

Forum Categories	Modding Vivaldi	Vivaldi Features	Vivaldi Help
Forum Markdown	Panels • Engines	Vivaldi Tutorials	Issues
Feature Requests ¿?	Menus • Guides • FAQ	Vivaldi How To	Bug Reports

--
Start a Backup plan if not done so yet.
Follow the Signature's Backup | Reset link.

Vivaldi Backup | Reset + Extra Steps

xelael

Thank you for your reply, but nevermind. What actually happened is windows, upon reinstalling, replaced my Vivaldi settings with fresh new ones, and put my old files under Windows.old/Users in the E: drive, where I already kept an even older version of Windows.old from a previous installation. Checking the modified dates on that was what revealed to me where my original files were. I very much panicked for a minute or two, here, thinking I had lost everything.

Anyways, thanks again. Sorry for the trouble.

Nathas89

As this fits onto this thread...

Dear all,
i have to do a new and clean windows install on my machine. I already did some tests to transfer all those data to another machine to check if this works as intended.
Because i have sorted my Browser to different "tasks", I made a lot of Users / "people" (as they are called)
I try to copy all the information, including every sessions, open tabs and so on....

First of all I did the implemented Synchronisation.

Next was copy the "Default" folder in the User Data from one PC to another, which helped a lot recovering my current session. But only from one of my users.

Last thing was copy the "Profile1" to ProfileX folder to the new machine.

But I was not able to access the Profiles/Users/People (what ever you want to call it) I have available on my main machine.

Zalex108

@Nathas89 Hi,
You need to backup/import the Local State for from your Main PC.

It's on the User data Root.

daysofnil

@pafflick said in [HOW TO] Manually Backup/Restore/Transfer your profile to another device :

C:\Programs\Vivaldi\User Data

When I backup my profile date, does it also backs up cookies and login data( no passwords) of all sites? I'm planning to go from vivaldi snap to vivaldi stable, I don't want to manually login every website, is there a way to avoid that?

Ayespy

@daysofnil If you stay on the same machine, same OS user, every data file will transfer intact and functional from snapshot to stable. Do not try to transfer the whole Default file intact, though, because there may be settings or structure in other (not data) files/folders in the snapshot that are not compatible with Stable. You can move over sessions, history, cookies, login data, bookmarks, icons, etc.

daysofnil

@Ayespy Another thing, if I just install stable version over the snap, and don't do any of the copy paste things, will It work?

I'm using same laptop, same OS

Ayespy

@daysofnil It might work, and it might break your profile. You don't know until you try. Installing 6.2 over a 6.3 profile is not recommended and if it breaks something, we don't have support for that. Then, too, if you try, your system may refuse because "you already have a newer version of Vivaldi installed.."

Ayespy

@daysofnil And shifting files over is a 5-minute task.

Rebuilding the looks and preferences of your browser the way you want takes more time. That takes me another 10 minutes.

daysofnil

@Ayespy Ok, so I just did this,

I backed up my browser data
Uninstalled vivaldi snap, Unchecked delete browsing data while uninstalling
Installed vivaldi stable
everything is working
login cookies and themes are also there

Ayespy

@daysofnil So you installed it over the Snapshot version profile after all. And so far, nothing seems to have broken. I would not have taken that chance, but as it seems to have worked out for you, then well and good.

mossman

FWIW, following one of the recent stable updates and after a period with few major changes in the snapshot inner workings (from what I could tell) I also decided to install stable over snapshot... no problems, but then I deliberately waited for a moment when I thought the versions shouldn't have differences in saved data.

This was a laptop which until a few months ago I most used for work, but it seemed pointless to keep updating the snapshot there as it's rarely used for Vivaldi these days.