[ale] AARG Firefox devs delete several important UI options

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

I finally figured this out.

If you're copying a firefox profile to another pc with xmarks involved, 
you must delete xmarks from the profile on the destination pc and 
reinstall it from scratch.  This is the only way each machine will have 
a unique machine id and name.

Here's how:

01) Upgrade firefox on the first pc to v 23, for example.
02) Set up firefox on the 1st pc the way you like it.
03) Go to about:config and search for the string   machineid
04) This should be an xmarks config line.  Write down the string for the 
1st pc.
05) Shut down firefox and copy the profile folder contents (not the 
cache folder) to a memory stick.
06) Open a text editor in the same os that firefox came from and edit 
the prefs.js ON THE MEMORY STICK.
07) Delete all lines that contain user_pref("extensions.xmarks ...
08) Save the file back to the memory stick, replacing the original.
09) On the 2nd (destination) pc, before upgrading firefox, if you can, 
open the xmarks settings and note the exact name for this computer under 
the sync tab.
10) Close the xmarks settings.
11) Remove the xmarks extension and restart.
12) Upgrade firefox on the 2nd pc to v 23, for example.  Shut firefox down.
13) Find the profile folder for firefox (not the cache folder) on the 
2nd pc.
14) Copy the contents of the memory stick to the profile folder.
15) Start firefox.
16) Install the xmarks extension and configure it from scratch.  In the 
settings screen, in the sync tab, enter the same name for this computer 
as the 2nd pc had before.
17) Go to about:config and search for the string   machineid
18) This should be an xmarks config line.  Write down the string for the 
2nd pc.
19) Verify that the string from the 2nd pc is different from the string 
for the first.

Firefox should now be configured identically on both pc's with the 
exception that each install of xmarks is unique where it needs to be.

Something similar may apply to firefox sync, but I don't know.

Sincerely,

Ron


On 8/8/2013 6:30 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> WARNING, problems with xmarks after copying ff profile.
>
> I tried the copying the firefox profile trick.  It generally worked 
> except it caused problems for xmarks, which synchronizes bookmarks, 
> passwords, and open tabs between computers, if you want it to.  The 
> problem is that the xmarks extension has both a pc name, which you 
> provide, and a machine id, which it creates when you install.  On the 
> second computer that you copied the profile to, this name and id will 
> be the same as the first computer, and this can screw up xmarks sync 
> on both machines.  I almost completely lost 70 open tab urls that I 
> had saved when I deleted the list for one machine and it deleted it 
> for both machines.  Fortunately, I still have the tab list stored for 
> one more machine which hasn't received the upgrade yet.
>
> I am looking into how to wipe out the xmarks profile on the machine 
> with the copied profile.  I haven't found out how.  Uninstalling the 
> extension does not remove the xmarks entries from the about:config 
> database, and the ui does not provide any way to delete lines in the 
> database.
>
> Thus far, the firefox on the machine I copied the profile to, in and 
> of iteself, is working ok.  However, my xmarks is screwed up and 
> cannot be used.  I have to figure out a solution to this before I can 
> continue using firefox to any great extent on the machine.
>
> If anyone knows how to COMPLETELY remove all "xmarks" entries from the 
> about:config database, please let me know.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> On 8/8/2013 2:10 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>> Hi Brian,
>>
>> I was aware of sync, but didn't know it synced profile data.  That's 
>> good to know.  However, I was using it to sync bookmarks in the past 
>> and they got munged all up.  I had to restore them from other 
>> machines.  Ever since, I use only xmarks and pay for their xmarks + 
>> lastpass pro service for $ 24 / year or so.  But, it's good to know 
>> sync can be used for other purposes.
>>
>> Hi Sparr, Scott C, JD, Michael T,
>>
>> Thanks for info relating to copying the firefox profile from one pc 
>> to another.  I'll probably try that, at least within each os.  For 
>> linux, one person mentioned ~/.firefox and one mentioned ~/.mozilla.  
>> Does anyone know which it is, or should I copy both.  I use Eudora 
>> OSE for email, which is based on thunderbird.  I specifically don't 
>> want to copy the thunderbird profile data as each machine is slightly 
>> different.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ron
>
> -snip-
>
>

-- 

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Ron Frazier
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