Can't import data from Firefox

[Docom]

Hey there,

I'm trying to import data from Firefox, but neither Vivaldi nor other Chromium-based browsers are showing FF in the "import from..." box. Is there a way of making VV aware of FF?

Importing only the bookmarks isn't an option; I want places.sqlite and everything else to get imported as well.

Thanks!

[SAJ13]

You can export your bookmarks in Firefox to an HTML file. Open Bookmarks and select export as HTML. Then just then import that file using Vivaldi's Bookmark Manager.

[Pathduck]

@Docom Hello and Welcome to the Vivaldi Community

From the looks of it, other browsers check the file:
%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini
to find Firefox profiles.

If your FF is installed differently (portable), other browsers have no way to detect the Firefox profile path. You'll need to work around that, maybe temporarily copy the profile into the place it expects to find it.

[DoctorG]

Bad Mozilla guys changed the Firefox profile structure many months ago. That broke Vivaldi's ability to detect and import the correct profile.
/edit: I now updated the relevant Vivaldi bug tracker entries to latest 5.3.2658.3 Snapshot.

[luetage]

@DoctorG Vivaldi changes its profile structure all the time… Firefox might be to blame, but what good does that do? They aren’t responsible for making the switch to Chromium browsers easy.

[Pathduck]

@DoctorG I don't know if that's true. It works fine here, even detects different profiles.

[DoctorG]

@luetage Yes, you should blame Vivaldi, too.

@luetage said in Can't import data from Firefox:

They aren’t responsible for making the switch to Chromium browsers easy.

Hug the poor Mozilla victim, let us protect the little Fox.

[luetage]

@DoctorG Well yeah, I wholeheartedly agree.

[Docom]

@Pathduck My FF is installed locally and profiles.ini is set as expected (I doubt FF would've worked if that wasn't the case anyway).

@DoctorG My profile folder doesn't look any different. What did they change?

Thanks!

[Pathduck]

@Docom said in Can't import data from Firefox:

profiles.ini is set as expected

Well, what is the location of profiles.ini?
What path does Vivaldi detect?
What do you mean by "as expected"?

I also gave you a possible solution you should test. If you do that is up to you of course.

[Docom]

@Pathduck %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini exists and contains the name and path of the profile subfolder that I want imported, but VV doesn't recognize it.

[Pathduck]

@Docom How does the import dialog look? A screenshot might help here.

For reference, mine contains:

[Profile0]
Name=Stians
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/Stians.default
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2

[InstallD1AA81F4E42E4F4B]
Default=
Locked=1

[Docom]

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/default
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2

[InstallE020BA2ACACF116C]
Default=Profiles/default

[DoctorG]

@Docom Is Firefox installed on Windows?

[Pathduck]

@Docom I have no idea. What is your OS? Win10 or older?

Try using Process Monitor to investigate what Vivaldi looks for. Try to capture a log from starting Vivaldi clean, then filter on path contains "Mozilla" for instance.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Looking at my log, it also does some registry queries:

HKCU\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications\Firefox
HKCU\Software\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox
HKCU\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\FIREFOX.EXE\Capabilities\UrlAssociations
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox\CurrentVersion

Maybe it needs these registry keys as well. A reinstall of Firefox might help, just overwriting your current install.

[Docom]

@DoctorG FF is installed, updated and running correctly.

@Pathduck Win10 Pro. PROCMON (excellent idea, BTW) shows VV accessing both profiles.ini and several registry keys successfully, except for HKLM\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\FIREFOX.EXE\Capabilities\Hidden and HKCU\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Firefox-<key>\Capabilities\Hidden (where <key> is some alphanumeric string, I'm not sure for what purpose). Reinstalling FF didn't solve the problem.

[Pathduck]

@Docom

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\FIREFOX.EXE\Capabilities\Hidden

I get the same for this key.

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Firefox-<key>\Capabilities\Hidden

Interesting, might be a clue. But then again, if it finds profile.ini and reads it correctly it should be enough to find a FF profile.

Check:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications
For any Firefox entries.
I have two:
Firefox: Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\FIREFOX.EXE\Capabilities
FIREFOX.exe: Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet\FIREFOX.EXE\Capabilities

You might have some broken FF install from earlier. It's silly if the detection is so finnicky about this it fails just because of some duplicate registry entries though...

[Docom]

@Pathduck I have only one key there. What I find most curious is that VV does find Thunderbird, which I haven't had installed for years, but still keep the data for - it and FF have similar profile structures.

[Pathduck]

@Docom And what does the key point to?

[Docom]

@Pathduck Back to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Firefox-<key>\Capabilities (which exists and looks as you'd expect).