Transfer to a new computer

barbudo2005

How many tabs do you have?

mib2berlin

@bellist
Hi, you can try to copy the folder Sessions from your old system over to the new but you have to delete the folder on the new system first.
If you simply copy the old folder over the new one it doesn't work.
So you loose existing tabs on the new system.
Then use your exported files and import it to the new.

bellist

@barbudo2005
More than 100 tabs.

bellist

@mib2berlin
Yes, I'm expecting to lose the tabs I've accumulated since I've been on the new computer. So I won't accumulate many.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it tomorrow.

mib2berlin

@bellist
I forgot, if something went wrong you can still export open tabs as bookmarks on your old system.
Vivaldi save them in a separate folder in the bookmarks file.
You can open simply the whole folder to open all tabs, 100 is not much.
We have user with 4000 tabs here in the forum.

Cheers, mib

bellist

@mib2berlin
I found the session file on my old computer (Windows 7) easily. This new computer is Windows 11, which I don't know well. I haven't found where Vivaldi puts its files, including its session files that I'm supposed to replace.

In Windows 7 I found the c:\Users<id>\AppData folder and could work down from there. On this computer I don't see a comparable folder. Does Windows 11 hide such things? Where do I go to find it?

mib2berlin

@bellist
Yes, the folder App Data is hidden by default, you can unhide it in the Explorer.
I am on Linux at moment but I guess you can find something in the web how to do it on Windows 11.

Pathduck

@bellist AppData is hidden. But you don't need to "see it".

You can just open the browser, go to Help > About, find the Profile Path and copy+paste that into explorer.

Or just paste the following:
%localappdata%\Vivaldi

I recommend you keep AppData hidden as well, to avoid "accidents" with the Del key. It's hidden for a reason after all.

bellist

@mib2berlin
A progress report. While Vivaldi wasn't running I copied my backed up session file to the Vivaldi path\Session Storage. Restarted Vivaldi and tried Open Saved Session. It found no saved session.

I repeated that after moving the saved session file to \Session and then to the Vivaldi path folder. All three times Vivaldi found no saved session. I could try moving the file to other places if you can suggest another folder. If not, I'll look to a couple of the other ways I might resolve this.

mib2berlin

@bellist
Did you delete the existing Sessions folder before you copy?
You don't need to to copy the Session Storage folder, just delete both folders.
Vivaldi create a new Session Storage folder at next start.
Windows copy the content in an existing folder resulting in a mixed content of old and new files, this doesn't work.

bellist

@mib2berlin
Thanks for the suggestion. Alas, it didn't help.

Perhaps I need a bit of clarity or maybe more exact steps. You said to delete the Sessions folder. Also delete the Session Storage folder? Do I recreate either one? Where do I put my saved session file?

mib2berlin

@bellist said in Transfer to a new computer:

You said to delete the Sessions folder. Also delete the Session Storage folder?

Yes, then copy your Session folder from you backup over to \Default
The Session Storage folder is recreated from Vivaldi at next start.

I am sorry but I forgot you need to copy the file Preferences, too.
If you don't all workspaces are named "Restored Workspace 1" "Restored Workspace 2", and so forth.

mib2berlin

@bellist
I just realize you are copy files from a Windows 7 system.
The last Vivaldi version was 5.6 or something, I am not sure if it even possible to use these old sessions files in Vivaldi 6.8.

bellist

@mib2berlin
It worked! All of my tabs are restored! Thanks for the assistance and persistence in guiding me through all this.

I forgot to copy the Preferences file. This version of Vivaldi has no listed workspaces so naming them "restored" apparently isn't an issue.

Thanks, again.

mib2berlin

@bellist
I am glad it is working for you.

Cheers, mib

bellist

@mib2berlin
I turned off my computer to use the monitor on the old computer. Turned the new one on again and the now Vivaldi won't start. A couple times while clicking on the icon (in the taskbar then on the desktop) a box popped up to say "Please wait" and a thick green bar got longer. But it didn't stay up long enough to see what else it might say. Tried to click on either icon more times and nothing happened.

How do I figure out what happened?

In the meantime I'm stuck with Edge.

mib2berlin

@bellist
Hi, does it look like this?

Check in the task manager if a Vivaldi process is still running.
We have a thread about users with the same issue lately.

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/100519/cannot-fix-vivaldi-please-wait-to-close-vivaldi-popup

bellist

@mib2berlin
I can't vouch for any more than the "Please wait" and the green bar. It doesn't stay up long enough for me to see anything else.

Thanks for the link to the other thread discussing this same problem. Because of that I checked the Task Manager -- nothing labeled Vivaldi.

Then I tried rebooting. And that worked. I'm using Vivaldi as I type this. I even have all 100 old tabs.