Hello Vivaldi team, please help me with restoring files from a backup.
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I have a problem. I was gifted a used laptop because my old one could no longer function properly. My old laptop had an SSD, which I decided to install in the new one. Before doing so, I copied the entire User Data folder, hoping everything would transfer fine. After installing the SSD into the new laptop, I installed Windows and then replaced all the User Data files. Initially, I tried copying just the Default folder, but it didn't restore my browsing history or open tabs. After transferring everything, it seemed fine, but the file with my passwords is encrypted and locked. Please help me recover the passwords! It’s very important. I have all the files; please tell me how to recover data.
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@GVitally The passwords are encrypted based on the O.S. and computer hardware.
Moving across P.C.s, obviously the hardware/O.S. is different.Normally, we would recommend "Sync" to transfer data - https://help.vivaldi.com/tutorials/vivaldi-desktop/vivaldi-sync-on-all-your-devices/
However, it has been down for a while and may not have the data saved in your case.So you should copy your data files back onto to your old PC and launch Vivaldi on that. You could then use "Menu/File/Export" for your passwords (and any other data you want).
Then on your "new" P.C. use "Menu/File/Import from Applications and files".
See https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/import-and-export-browser-data/
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Thank you for your help, but the SSD drive is now in the new computer and has been formatted, so I no longer have the old Windows installation. If I will install a new Windows on the old laptop, as I understand, it wouldn’t help? Does this mean I have no chance of recovering my passwords from the User Data folder?
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@GVitally said in Hello Vivaldi team, please help me with restoring files from a backup.:
install a new Windows on the old laptop, as I understand, it wouldn’t help?
New Windows install means new O.S. (even on old hardware) so yes, unfortunately, that is my understanding.
Did you have sync active on your old PC?
If so, maybe waiting until all the "problems with sync" are sorted out - then you could try that.Follow https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/103964/21-12-24-sync-d-data-lost-new-encryption-key and wait for people to confirm that all is OK before trying it!
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On the old computer, Windows was installed on the SSD, which is why I made a backup of the User Data folder. After that, I installed this SSD into the new computer and installed Windows on it.
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When I looked up how to transfer a profile, there were no warnings, so I carried out the above-mentioned actions without any doubts. I got all the information from this article: https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/import-and-export-browser-data/
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Important! Saved passwords and cookies will not be transferred when moving the profile between computers or users on the same computer. You must only move — and not make a copy — of an existing profile. Two copies of Vivaldi cannot run from the same profile — even on different computers! The profile contains identifiers that must remain unique between your installations. Services like Sync and Mail Accounts with OAuth will not work when two instances of the same profile is used. - This text is absent in this article in both Ukrainian and Russian languages.
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@GVitally Have you ever exported your logins/passwords before you reinstalled Windows?
Have you ever used Vivaldi Sync before you reinstalled Windows? -
I have been following the Vivaldi project almost from the very beginning. I didn’t export passwords and bookmarks because they were stored in the cloud. About three or four years ago, I reinstalled Vivaldi, and everything worked fine. However, I wasn’t using it as my primary browser back then. It was only about a year ago that I started using it as my main browser. I never had any issues with synchronization, plus everything was stored in the cloud. Virtual servers, which are backed up daily, run on those servers, and this technology is highly advanced.
Because of this, I never thought something like this could happen—that the servers and backups could fail simultaneously. Although, if they are located on the same physical server, then it’s understandable. But with mirrored RAID setups, such a failure seemed impossible to me.
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And the days when everything had to be manually backed up are long gone. Clouds are very reliable, and they are now widely used for backups. I have been using Opera for a very long time, and later Opera and Vivaldi, and everything was fine. I never encountered such situations at all.
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@GVitally said in Hello Vivaldi team, please help me with restoring files from a backup.:
I didn’t export passwords and bookmarks because they were stored in the cloud.
Then login at Settings → Sync to get all logins back.
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@DoctorG I don't understand what you mean. I enabled synchronization a long time ago, and there is no data there.
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@GVitally I feel sorry for you - you have been very unlucky that the sync service reset just when you were doing the transfer.
On the other hand I think it is quite well known that secure data can not be copy/pasted between machines without sync - and if I was only using one instance of Vivaldi I would definitely have made a backup and exported the data as mentioned in https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/import-and-export-browser-data before attempting such a major transfer. In fact, I would have waited for sync to be running again and made sure I had a working copy of my data on another device before deleting anything.
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@mossman Thank you for your sympathy, I just didn’t know that passwords are encrypted. Please add this warning to the article https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/import-and-export-browser-data/ for both Ukrainian and Russian versions:
Important! Saved passwords and cookies will not be transferred when moving the profile between computers or users on the same computer. You must only move — and not make a copy — of an existing profile. Two copies of Vivaldi cannot run from the same profile — even on different computers! The profile contains identifiers that must remain unique between your installations. Services like Sync and Mail Accounts with OAuth will not work when two instances of the same profile is used.In the future, I will read all important articles only in English. And from this time, I will back up all passwords in the cloud.
Thank you for your help!
