Solved How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?

[Tomerikoo]

Recently, the IT department in my work decided to block any browser that is not FF, Chrome or Edge on their laptops. They didn't give any notice and one morning I just can't use my favorite browser anymore (that's Vivaldi of course).
Now as hard as it is, I accept my dire fate of using another inferior browser, but I want at least to have my bookmarks, passwords and any other salvageable data from Vivaldi. Problem is - I can't access the browser to download the data (side note - in an attempt to fix the problem, I uninstalled Vivaldi and now can't reinstall it as the installer is blocked as well).
So, my question is - is there a way to download the data without accessing the browser itself? I do have and use Vivaldi on mobile (Android) and have an active account with Sync activated.

[Tomerikoo]

Thanks everyone for the help. Specificaly @TbGbe 's tip got me in the right direction!
Under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default there are a bunch of related files. Specifically Bookmarks. I saw that it is in some JSON-looking format and Chrome and Edge both only know how to import an HTML bookmarks file.
So I searched how to convert the JSON to HTML and got to this SO question. The simple solution was just to copy-paste that file to the matching Chrome folder: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default and voila - all bookmarks are there (using Chrome browser)!
I couldn't figure out the passwords but I guess that would be a bit more complicated due to encryption but at least I have those in my phone. So a bit manual work, but when I enter a site for the first time I can check the password in Vivaldi on my phone and then just resave in Chrome.
So good enough for me for now. Thanks everyone!

[DoctorG]

@Tomerikoo said in How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?:

is there a way to download the data without accessing the browser itself? I do have and use Vivaldi on mobile (Android) and have an active account with Sync activated.

The Vivaldi you had on your work PC had Sync activated? If yes, then Install Vivaldi on your Home PC and activate Sync, you will get your important data back..

[Tomerikoo]

@DoctorG Thanks a lot for your reply! Maybe I should have mentioned it, but I don't actually have another personal PC at home. As funny as it might sound, I simply use the work PC as my personal. I was hoping there is some way to download the data through the Vivaldi website or something similar assuming the Synced data is available somewhere...

[DoctorG]

@Tomerikoo said in How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?:

I was hoping there is some way to download the data through the Vivaldi website or something similar assuming the Synced data is available somewhere...

No, there is no way to do this.

@Tomerikoo said in How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?:

I simply use the work PC as my personal.

Sad, that your IT disallows and blocks Vivaldi browser. Any chance to talk to them?

[mib2berlin]

@DoctorG
Hi, is the vivaldi.exe not a simple self extracting file?
With portable Win7zip it should be possible to unpack the exe and start Vivaldi without Admins OK, except they block all executables.
Me should test this on Windows.

Cheers, mib

[DoctorG]

@mib2berlin Unpack and start vivaldi,exe should work.
But i guess IT may use some software block list to suppress start.

[mib2berlin]

@DoctorG
Haha yes, rename it to explorer.exe.

[DoctorG]

@mib2berlin said in How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?:

rename it to explorer.exe

Should work for dumb "security snake-oil" software.

[Tomerikoo]

@DoctorG I'm trying. For now the response I got what that due to security measures they blocking all but major browsers. I doubt they will make any exception for me. But what is mostly annoying is that they just decided to do it one morning. If they would at least give a notice in advance I could take care to set up another browser with all my settings and preferences...

[TbGbe]

@Tomerikoo said in How to export data (bookmarks, passwords) without access to the browser?:

in an attempt to fix the problem, I uninstalled Vivaldi

Is the profile still on the PC? Maybe look for files:- https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/install-update/full-reset-of-vivaldi/#:~:text=before you proceed.-,Backup Vivaldi data,-One option to

[Tomerikoo]

Thanks everyone for the help. Specificaly @TbGbe 's tip got me in the right direction!
Under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default there are a bunch of related files. Specifically Bookmarks. I saw that it is in some JSON-looking format and Chrome and Edge both only know how to import an HTML bookmarks file.
So I searched how to convert the JSON to HTML and got to this SO question. The simple solution was just to copy-paste that file to the matching Chrome folder: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default and voila - all bookmarks are there (using Chrome browser)!
I couldn't figure out the passwords but I guess that would be a bit more complicated due to encryption but at least I have those in my phone. So a bit manual work, but when I enter a site for the first time I can check the password in Vivaldi on my phone and then just resave in Chrome.
So good enough for me for now. Thanks everyone!

[josephj11]

@Tomerikoo Before you completely give up on Vivaldi, there used to be a setting somewhere that changed what browser Vivaldi says it is when asked. If your IT department doesn't object to having Vivaldi installed at all, you might be able to change that setting make the software happy again. It's under Network->User Agent Brand Masking.

[Tomerikoo]

@DoctorG Well I actually just tried that (extracted the exe, tried running the extracted one - didn't work, tried renaming and run again - didn't work) but I guess the blocking mechanism is smarter than that. I saw that the file properties still contain Vivaldi in the description and other fields and it has a digital signature signed by Vivaldi Technologies...

[Tomerikoo]

@josephj11 Thank you for not giving up! But sadly I already uninstalled Vivaldi in an attempt to fix the problem and can't seem to find a hack to install it (following other advices here). Apparently the blocking software IT is using are smart!
Indeed it is hard to give up on Vivaldi. Only one day with Chrome and I can't understand how a browser doesn't have stacked-tabs, workspaces and built-in ad-blocker! Lots of love to the Vivaldi team and I'll be counting the days until I am free to reunite with my favorite browser!!!

[pauloaguia]

At the company I work for they also have a fairly restrictive software policy. I had noticed a file being quarantined after every browser update but since the browser was working and nobody complaining, never gave it much thought.
Until about half a year ago I got someone from IT asking me if I knew what vivaldi.exe was for and if I used it for business purposes.

My answer was:

It's a web browser. I prefer to use it as opposed to other web browsers because of its productivity enhancements like tab tiling and stacking, vertical tabs, automatic translation, quick commands, fast page history navigation, web panels for quick common tasks, capability of defining chained commands (can think of them as macros to quickly perform complex functions), etc.

It also has a rather stringent policy on anything that is even closely related to "calling home" features (so many other Chromium based browsers keep sending information to Google, for example - in Vivaldi they remove most of those "privacy infringement" features from the Chromium base before adding their own code) or web tracking or ads, actively reducing the bandwidth spent on "background activity". But I may add that although I think this is a nice to have for the company in general, personally for me the productivity features are my main reason for using it.

You can find out more about Vivaldi's features at https://vivaldi.com/features/#essentials and https://vivaldi.com/features/#classic . Or about some of their privacy concerns/features on this other page https://vivaldi.com/features/privacy-security/ (I'll leave it up to you to do more research rather than trusting on the information I provide).

I also asked if the reason they were asking me about it might be related to high resource usage and added that might be expected as my work is very browser dependent - as long as it wasn't much higher than other browsers, it should be expected... They confirmed it was because of high resource usage but agreed it seemed consistent with normal browsing activity and the they'd check more on the subject.

About 3 months later I got a similar inquiry from another person at IT (this time about old_vivaldi.exe). I copy pasted the same response and said that was what I had told the first person at the first inquiry (and from whom I hadn't heard back since). The second IT person checked with the first one and IT added Vivaldi to the white list so I wouldn't be bothered again (this was almost 4 months ago).

In my case I did have a "heads up" notice that I could respond to. And luckily, the IT department was not very stringent and I was never cut off from Vivaldi. (And I also know several people in my office are using it, so it would have affected them as well, if they had blacklisted it).
@Tomerikoo Although in your case the evil has already been done, if you want to lower your arms and accept that dire fate so quickly, feel free to use my text above as inspiration to present your case to the powers that be... if you do nothing, they'll never allow it back; but if you do try, who knows?