How to backup a websites cookies in case of accidental deletion
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I hope I'm doing this right, it's my first time posting here... and let's kindly refer to me as "recently retired", so I'm not as tech-savvy as I used to be. :^)
Anyway, I download a lot of ebooks from a website that tracks what I have and haven't downloaded via cookies.
I've accidentally cleared my history, and lost all record of the books I already have. Is there some way I can back-up cookies from that website and restore them in case of loss?
Thanks for your help (and your patience)! -
@Crewman6 Hello and Welcome to the Vivaldi Community
Not sure how clearing History relates to loss of Cookies. These are two different things. Unless you also deleted Cookies in the Delete Browsing Data dialog?
There are ways to export cookies, but you'll need an extension. I use "EditThisCookie" occasionally to export cookies. It copies all cookies from the current site into clipboard, to be pasted/saved in a text file, for later restore if needed.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/editthiscookie/fngmhnnpilhplaeedifhccceomclgfbg?hl=enVivaldi's cookies are saved in a file called (naturally)
Cookies- located in your Vivaldi profile directory, underNetwork. You can find this path in Help > About. Usually it will be located somewhere like:
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default\Network\CookiesThis file can be copied somewhere as a backup of all saved cookies. Note that the cookie values are encrypted, so you can't copy it to another machine and if you reinstall your system or reset your OS user profile the values will be lost.
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Thank you for the very detailed reply. I think that's what I'm looking for. I may have used the wrong word (or made a wrong assumption) about the history. What actually happened was that I have Vivaldi pinned at the bottom of my screen, one iteration open, and working in another window. I meant to click on the active icon of Vivaldi but instead hit the icon that opened a new iteration. Without thinking, I clicked on the wrong window and closed my working iteration. Worse, I then closed the newer one. When I sorted out what happened and re-opened Vivaldi, my book downloaded markers were all gone, and I couldn't find any way to get them back.
I figured they must have been tracking my downloaded list locally via cookies. Since then I've been very cautious, but yesterday accidentally opened a second Vivaldi again. Closed it correctly, and did not lose my "downloaded" markers, but it scared me into trying to find a way to backup just in case.
Thank you so much for helping me!!! -
@Crewman6 No problem
Just to clarify things - closing the browser will not delete cookies.
Unless you've explicitly overridden Cookies to be "Session Only" in Settings > Privacy > Cookies. Or you're always using a Private Window which of course will clear all history and cookies on close.
If accidentally clicking close on tasks is a problem, I recommend you keep the default setting of Exit Confirmation Dialog under Settings > General.
What site is this by the way, I'm curious to see if they do save download history as cookies. If so it's a Really Stupid Idea, but you never know with web developers... cookies were never meant to be permanent storage of information.
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It's Z-Library; sometimes the main url shows as
book4u.org, and sometimes as cc1lib.vip
I also use NoScript, but Z-Library is a site that I've given permanent permissions to. I don't bother with private windows. I do have the exit confirmation turned on... but I clicked too fast without bothering to read. Totally stupid move, but I was paying more attention to what I wanted to do, than to what was actually happening. I'd like to say I'll be more careful in the future, but there always seem to be new and creative ways to make mistakes.
I appreciate your interest, and hope you find some insight into how I managed to erase whatever it is that tracks downloaded books.Before the internet, I had a wonderful collection of several thousands of books, and wound up losing most of them to bad weather destroying the back wall of the shed they were in. Having found Z-Library, I'm slowly, and from memory, trying to re-collect all my favorites. It means a lot to be able to read them again.
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@Crewman6 Hi, I tried visiting those sites and download a couple books. I didn't really see any indication they use cookies to keep track of downloaded books. Unless you need to sign in first, which I'm certainly not planning to.
I'm not so sure those sites are legal. Seems it exists in sort of a gray zone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Library -
No idea otherwise how I lost my downloads markers; but at my age, I'm not as tech savvy as I used to be. You're probably right about the gray area, but as I'm trying to replace books I once bought, back in the 70's and 80's, I'm counting my blessings and not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
