Easily Backup Mozilla Firefox “about:config” Settings
If you want to tweak Mozilla Firefox to the extreme, then about:config is where you should look out for all the advanced settings. But tweaking about:config without any knowledge of what the settings does, may be very harmful for Firefox’s health. So it would be a good idea to backup about:config first. This backup will help you very much. Even if anything goes out of your hands. You can easily restore everything back to normal.
It’s also a good idea to backup about:config if you have customized Firefox a lot. So, the next time you reinstall Firefox, you can replace the default settings with your customized one.
How to backup about:config settings in Windows Vista or Windows 7?
Here is how you can easily backup the about:config settings and save yourself some trouble.
- First and foremost, if Mozilla Firefox is running, exit it.
- Click on the Start button. Click on Run… Alternatively, you can press the Windows + R keyboard shortcut.
- Type
%appdata%\mozilla\firefox\Profiles
and click on OK or press Enter. - In the window that opens, you will see your Firefox profile folder:
<some random characters>.default
, e.g.l4aknmw.default
. - Open the folder and search for a file called
prefs.js
. This is the file which has allabout:config
settings. - Back up this file to a safe place.
- Now, you can safely change Firefox
about:config
settings. If you mess up something or Firefox behaves odd, simply close down Firefox and replace the existing prefs.js file with the backup file.
![%appdata%-mozilla-firefox-profiles %appdata%-mozilla-firefox-profiles](https://cdn.mytechguide.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/snap7911.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&resize=413%2C212&ssl=1)
![backup-firefox-aboutconfig backup-firefox-aboutconfig](https://cdn.mytechguide.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/backup-firefox-aboutconfig-500x2811.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1&fit=500%2C281)
How to backup about:config settings in Windows XP?
Just follow the above steps. Simply look for your Firefox profile in \Documents and Settings\<YourUsername>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
How to backup about:config settings in Mac OS X
You will find your Firefox profile at <YourUsername>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles
. Open your Firefox profile folder <some random characters>.default
and keep a backup of prefs.js
to a safe place.
How to backup about:config settings in Linux
Linux users will find their Firefox profile at ~/.mozilla/firefox/
. You’ll find your profile folder named <some random characters>.default
. Open it and copy the prefs.js
to a safe place.
Warning! Always shut down Firefox before making a copy of prefs.js
or moving a copy back into the profile folder.