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feature request - ability to export/import custom settings.

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  • Last reply by rwernst

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Since I help a lot of folks to set up Firefox, and customize the settings a lot, it would be great to have a way to export and import those custom settings. Sync is no help as they don't have an account/setup to sync the settings FROM. But since sync CAN update the settings, how about giving us a separate way to do the same via an exported file????

Please? Sure would make my time to install and set up a LOT easier.

Since I help a lot of folks to set up Firefox, and customize the settings a lot, it would be great to have a way to export and import those custom settings. Sync is no help as they don't have an account/setup to sync the settings FROM. But since sync CAN update the settings, how about giving us a separate way to do the same via an exported file???? Please? Sure would make my time to install and set up a LOT easier.

Chosen solution

Firefox will read a user.js file in the profile folder and use it to initialize prefs set in this file via user_pref("<pref name>", value) (i.e. it is similar to what is stored in prefs.js).

Note the user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session. So you can use this user.js file once and remove it once done as you may forget what setting are in the file and get confused if you fail to change a specific setting.

See also 'User.js file overriding Firefox settings':

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Hi,

The people who answer questions here, for the most part, are other Firefox users volunteering their time (like me), not Mozilla employees or Firefox developers.

If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues.

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Hi.

Settings you make via Options/Preferences are stored in prefs.js in the profile folder. You can open this file in an editor and copy the lines you need to another file like. a user.js file that you can use to initialize a profile. Best is not use the full file as there are a lot of settings that Firefox uses internally.

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Thanks both, I realize this isn't the place for Mozilla to read (too bad, they'd learn a LOT), perhaps I should have asked if there was a way to do what I want.

Cor-El, thanks mucho, didn't know the settings were stored there.

Problem if I don't just use the same file, how can I make it easy to overwrite only the lines I want changed?

I use Textpad to edit all sorts of files and it shows the entries that are apparently changed with the true or false in blue in quotes at end of line, see attached clip.

Is the file parsed in order, and if I put duplicates in at the end, would they then alter anything previously set, do you know?

Hmmm, another thought. I could set up a dummy firefox sync account with the options to incorporate just add-ons and options, sign in with that account on a new installation so it sets everything up, then sign out/disconnect the system. Then use new account if wanted by the person actually using it.

Whatcha think?

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Chosen Solution

Firefox will read a user.js file in the profile folder and use it to initialize prefs set in this file via user_pref("<pref name>", value) (i.e. it is similar to what is stored in prefs.js).

Note the user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session. So you can use this user.js file once and remove it once done as you may forget what setting are in the file and get confused if you fail to change a specific setting.

See also 'User.js file overriding Firefox settings':