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Migrating custom settings from one Opera installation to another

Saturday, 8. January 2005, 20:37:56

, ,

If you want to transfer your customizations in one Opera installation (e.g. bookmarks, contacts, Wand passwords, custom toolbar and/or menu set-ups etc) to another (possibly newer, cleaner) Opera installation; the following steps describe how to do it.

The simplest thing to do is to make a back up copy of your Opera profile folder. Then in the new Opera installation, completely remove (i.e. delete or rename) the existing Opera profile folder; and replace it with the one you had backed up.

NOTE: If you are doing the above, I strongly recommend NOT migrating the opera6.ini file in the old profile. It contains path-specific information which may not work in your new installation.

All the information in this post is derived from the excellent Opera Support article. Following is a more condensed, step-by-step procedure (at the risk of duplication) to migrate specific settings.

º First read the aforementioned Opera Support article

º In your old Opera installation, look at Help > About Opera and note the path to your Opera directory -- this is your profile folder (alternatively, if you are using Opera 9 and above click here)

º Do the same for your new Opera installation

º Close all instances of Opera

º Copy the following files from your old Opera profile folder to the new Opera profile folder (copy only those files that you want to migrate)

  • Bookmarks: opera6.adr
  • Notes: notes.adr
  • Wand passwords: wand.dat (if you had set a master password, you will also need to copy the Certificates files -- and set a master password in the new installation)
  • Contacts: contacts.adr
  • Cookies: cookies4.dat
  • Certificates: opcacrt6.dat, opcert6.dat, opssl6.dat
  • Search preferences: search.ini (if upgrading to Opera 9, you will need to edit this file and change the version number to 8)
  • Blocked content preferences: urlfilter.ini (new in Opera 9)
  • Site-specific settings: override.ini (new in Opera 9)
  • Speed dial: speeddial.ini (new in Opera 9.2)
  • Widgets: widgets.adr (and the widgets/ folder) (new in Opera 9)

º Copy the following folders from your old Opera profile folder to the new Opera profile folder (copy only those folders that you want to migrate)

  • Favicons: images/
  • Keyboard (customized keyboard shortcuts): keyboard/
  • Menu (customized menus): menu/
  • Mouse (customized mouse gestures): mouse/
  • Sessions (saved sessions): sessions/
  • Skins (downloaded / custom skins): skin/
  • Styles (custom user style sheets): styles/
  • Toolbar (customized toolbar setup): toolbar/
  • Voice (customized voice setup): voice/
  • Widgets: widgets/ (and the widgets.adr file) (new in Opera 9)

º Start the new Opera

If you migrated a customized setup for toolbars, menu etc; make sure that in the new Opera you set Preferences to use the new setup (and not Opera standard).

Migrating email, news and feeds from one Opera installation to anotherOpera email client and user authentication

Comments

Grendel 8. January 2005, 20:37

Hi, a description how data (especially wand.dat) can be transferred to other browsers, i.e. Firefox would be very helpful.
regards,
Grendel

Rijk 8. January 2005, 20:37

Import in Firefox is Firefox functionality. Opera's .dat file formats are documented, and apparently the intrpid Firefox develoeps have used this infomation, because the Mozilla-spawn has a 'Import' function.

If Firefox detects the Opera install properly that is - if I recall correctly this fails when you use a single-user Opera setup. That is something Firefox would have to fix.

Freexe 8. January 2005, 20:37

Couldnt; someone write a program to copy these files over for us, and maybe back them up to a ftp as well :smile:

neeraj_deshmukh 8. January 2005, 20:37

Usually, I just zip up the entire profile folder for 'back-up' purposes. It is also handy to move from one place to another (including ftp); and then it is only a matter of copying the necessary files.

The process is sufficiently easy that writing a program that automates this is more effort than necessary. :smile: Especially because said program would have to worry about myriad profile locations and installation quirks that users inevitably introduce.

Freexe 8. January 2005, 20:37

I use opera in 3 locations, I would love if every time I open it(or run a program), it would first download and replace the bookmarks and notes and toolbars/menu files and when i close it (or run a program) it would upload these files.

At the moment I have alot of trouble as all my operas are slighty differnet and the small changes I make in one location tend to build up and become a pain to reintergrate into opera's else where.

I'm sure this would be an easy program to make, I'm temped to learn .net/c++ and do it myself but I have other things to do before i commit to learning a lanugage i have to compile.

tech10171968 8. January 2005, 20:37

Actually, this can be done in Visual Basic quite easily (as compared to c++, etc). In fact, you can use this as the core engine:

Dim fso
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
fso.CopyFile " (location of the original file)", "(new location)"
set fso = nothing
msgbox "Done!"

By using the CopyFile command you can even rename the file if you want.

hermen2048 8. January 2005, 20:37

Or .bat p:

copy src dest
@echo Done!

neeraj_deshmukh 8. January 2005, 20:37

While the ideas described by Freexe, tech10171968 and hermen2048 are sound; and making a program that does the actual copying is trivial; the bigger challenge is to determine automatically the source and destination folders.

Of course, if one is to ask the user to manually specify the location of the profile folders, then it is no biggie.

chaimav 8. January 2005, 20:37

Could these locations be harvested from about:opera ???
It should be a pretty stable (free from variations) source of the info. All the user would have to do is specify where the two main opera directories are.

Example:
Where is the old version of Opera?
[ ] [Browse]

Where is the new version of Opera?
[ ] [Browse]

Then the program could open each version and generate an about:opera page then harvest the info.

Please forgive me if this is not as easy as it sounds, but I have very limited programming knowledge. :wink:

herojig 8. January 2005, 20:37

i have a registered 7.54 copy installed, but when i install 8.01 it installs as unregistered with no way to put in the name/number. if i install into 7.54 the registration is picked up, but nothing else works. thanks!
jigs

Tinek 8. January 2005, 20:37

Which of these contains my long list of mail and chat accounts. I have a lot of these and they are hard to set up as they are all Polish web mails not documented in English and I do not read Polish.
Why can we not have a proper description of the default paths and what they do in each version. I may even have changed my user name since the last time I tried to reinstall?
Is ther a text profile or .ini?

neeraj_deshmukh 8. January 2005, 20:37

The Mail\accounts.ini file contains the list of accounts.

bgoodman4 13. September 2005, 04:36

I use opera in 3 locations, I would love if every time I open it(or run a program), it would first download and replace the bookmarks and notes and toolbars/menu files and when i close it (or run a program) it would upload these files.

At the moment I have alot of trouble as all my operas are slighty differnet and the small changes I make in one location tend to build up and become a pain to reintergrate into opera's else where.



I have the solution for you and there is both a free version and a subscription version. The difference is that with the free version you can only sync 5 folders (the entire content of the folder is synced regardless of how big it is).

The program is called BeInSync and you can find out more at http://www.download.com/BeInSync/3000-7240-10311348.html

Pesala 8. November 2005, 12:28

Opera Editor seems to do a good job of backing up Opera. Bookmarks, notes, contacts, email, profile, *dat files, all seem to be backed up safely in one compact zip file. One can also use it to edit INI files. I am sure that the program's author would welcome some feedback.

SteveW 8. March 2006, 02:57

what about opera6.ini

The one file that has the most custmisation in it :smile:


The others all contain data that is *history* rather than customisation.

neeraj_deshmukh 8. March 2006, 17:10

[SteveW] opera6.ini also contains a lot of path-specific information. It is not guaranteed that your new installation will have identical paths (even a change in the installation folder name will break the paths), and therefore I do not recommend copying over the opera6.ini file.

Even otherwise, I opine that any customizations saved in the opera6.ini file should be redone in the new install to avoid compatibility issues with a different version of Opera.

Finally, if you are savvy enough to edit opera6.ini and customize it, you may be savvy enough to copy the opera6.ini file as well and hand-edit any resulting path differences. However, that is not something I will recommend in general.

epilos 28. June 2006, 19:30

thank you for you info

but what happens if new lines have been added to some of the ini's?

in case we want to migrate from a previous to a next version

thanks

neeraj_deshmukh 29. June 2006, 15:25

[epilos] In that case, you are better off not migrating those settings directly. If the file format changes (especially for toolbar and menu setups), I prefer to start with the standard setup file and then hand-edit whatever customizations I want again.

0paulh177 8. October 2006, 12:54


Need not to forget feeds (which i think are stored in files in the mail directories, but please could someone clarify)

march22 28. October 2006, 07:00


hello neerai
>
> The process is sufficiently easy that writing a program
> that automates this is more effort than necessary.

ah, "more effort than necessary" for who?

1 million reinstalls a year, with 5 min. to zip up and 5 min
to unzip has something like 19 man years 24/7 being spent in
that task.

every year.


> Especially because said program would have to worry about
> myriad profile locations and installation quirks that
> users inevitably introduce.

i find it difficult to understand how opera, or any program,
would run if it didn't "know" where its files were.

no. the export/import of all adjustable data and settings
that a program uses is properly a function of that program.

i certainly wish opera did that.

i'll venture that anyone prioritizing user safety and ease
would wish that so too.




epilos 28. October 2006, 09:13

agreed

a proper/reliable/convenient way to transfer settings is a must

they (opera team) spend their time to make anti-phising stuff (all antivirus have it), bittorent support (they will never reach utorrent) etc etc irrelevant stuff and they dont bother to fix MAIN opera program and improve its MAIN function as a web browser

neeraj_deshmukh 30. October 2006, 14:11

[march22] Each reinstall does not require a migration of settings. In fact, if you do the reinstalls properly (i.e. use the MSI installer), you do not have to do any migration at all. A migration is only necessary if you either completely screw up your Opera installation (which should be rare) and need to start with a clean install; or you change machines (which is also rare).

And each installation of Opera certainly knows where *its* files are. That is so not the point. When you talk about a tool that would do the migration for you, you are dealing with to separate installations. How does this tool know the source and destination of your migration? What if one of the installations is single-profile and the other is multi-profile? How do you automatically determine the *correct* ones? The two installs may possibly be on two different machines (which may not be networked). What happens then? How does this tool deal with the myriad issues with file systems, permissions etc on multiple operating systems that Opera runs on? Trust me, people who know about these things have spent a considerable time trying to come up with the "perfect" solution -- this blog post is as good as it gets.

Both issues you raise in your comment are spreading misinformation, once by quoting irrelevant and incorrect numbers (which you just made up anyway), and once by focusing on an obvious but unrelated fact. It will be better if you first try to understand the real issues behind these decisions.

[epilos] With the new MSI installer, installing over an existing Opera installation is the right and safe thing to do. Since it first removes the unnecesary files before installing the new ones, it no longer creates the problems that the classic installer often did.

Due to this, the need to migrate settings is much reduced now. The procedure I outlined here may appear daunting because of its detail, but in effect it can be summarized as a simple "copy over everything except the opera6.ini file" operation. I don't know of any other browser that allows for such an easy migration policy. Moreover, there is nothing unreliable or inconvenient about it unless you (the user) screws up a simple copy-paste files job.

In that light, I think your comment is unfair to Opera ASA. Also, Opera has never been "just a browser". It has always been their policy to add features that make it a more complete internet application. So support for chat, torrents etc is very much welcome. Also, given the amount of torrenting the average user (I) does, I don't *want* a uTorrent -- I am happy with a simple application like Opera's bittorrent.

march22 30. October 2006, 22:56


neeraj old sock,

calm down!

i hope you're less indignant now than you were when you
wrote that!

admittedly, i thought eplios was over the line in his last
sentence (eplios, stop that!), and somewhat careless be-
fore that, but still, your reaction is your own as are the
consequences of it to you.

as for your criticism of me, well, it is yours.

i don't know what you do for a living, and you do seem to be
quite familiar with opera, but what you got from me was the
professional opinion of a high and low level language coder,
one with more than 30 years of programming experience.

i knew what i was talking about when i spoke of export
being a proper function of opera.

i know i was right then, and i know i am right now.

as for the numbers i mentioned, you could properly question
them on the basis of a possibly better knowledge of opera's
user base and its practices than mine, but you cannot dismiss
a measured, if off-the-cuff, effort to quantify what was
being talked about with something not much better than ridicule
without being rediculous yourself.

that being said, let me tend to end by saying that i've col-
lected all 196 lines or so of instructions, with their version
variable data dependencies and detail, on how to proceed with
opera in data migration, and that i thank you for bringing them
to my attention.

finally, i'll say let us leave this subject as one where we
have a difference of opinion - unless, of course, you see the
light - :smile: and to look to see what there is to like about other
next we cross paths.

what say (ok, what say after you've next said (in response,if
you respond))?


regards,

alan








neeraj_deshmukh 30. October 2006, 23:42

[march22] There is no question of indignation, nor is it a matter of pedigree or professional experience.

You are right about export being a proper function of Opera, of course. Opera already has the "normal" export functions implemented reasonably well (e.g. bookmarks, feeds, contacts and mail).

What we are talking about in this post is not that, but an unusual situation -- one where the user wants to up and away with his / her entire profile. There is no browser that provides in-built functionality for that kind of migration -- the user has to manually move things in such a case; simply because the variables are too many to encode comprehensively (and some of which I have mentioned in my previous comment).

If you already know that you are right, then of course there is no scope for dialog. But since you now have all 196 modes of migration, I am more than willing to test out the fully-automated migration tool that I hope you will be writing soon, and be proven wrong. :wink:

march22 2. November 2006, 02:14

* You are right about export being a proper function
* of Opera, of course. Opera already has the "normal"
* export functions implemented reasonably well (e.g.
* bookmarks, feeds, contacts and mail).

i am running opera 9.03, build 8629

file->import and export on this browser offers export of:

contacts
bookmarks
newsfeed list

"contacts" and "mail" are not the same things; 9.03 does not
export mail.

* What we are talking about in this post is not that,
* but an unusual situation -- one where the user wants
* to up and away with his / her entire profile.

upgrading (or necessarily restoring) is not an unusual situation.

* There is no browser that provides in-built functionality for
* that kind of migration

unless you have shown that a complete import/export process is
undesireable, you cannot rely on its absense elsewhere as indi-
cation of its desireability or usablility.

* the user has to manually move things in such a case; simply
* because the variables are too many to encode comprehensively
* (and some of which I have mentioned in my previous comment).

you've not shown that true, and my experience says it isn't true.

functionality isn't about what's simple or easy for the programmer.

* If you already know that you are right, then of course there
* is no scope for dialog.

people can be right, or wrong (as you are in this) and still en-
gage in sincere dialog; that dialog ends only when one or both turn
away from it.

* But since you now have all 196 modes of migration, I am more
* than willing to test out the fully-automated migration tool
* that I hope you will be writing soon, and be proven wrong.

that might do it. reason alone has thusfar been shown insufficent...

:smile:

epilos 2. November 2006, 16:57

I created a macro to do the job...

neeraj_deshmukh 2. November 2006, 17:02

[march22]
> 9.03 does not export mail.

Really? Right-click on any filter (custom or built-in) in your Mail panel. You might also find this useful -- http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=1802071

> upgrading (or necessarily restoring) is not an unusual situation

And upgrading does not require migration of settings, either, as I have already explained in my response to [epilos]'s comment above (where I had first responded to you as well). *Migration* of settings *is* unusual.

> that might do it. reason alone has thusfar been shown insufficent...

Finally, something we can both agree upon. :wink:

march22 3. November 2006, 03:56


neerai
>march22]

>> 9.03 does not export mail.

> Really?

were we talking export of bookmarks, and were
opera to offer "export" of bookmarks one book-
mark at a time (but not the bookmark folders),
your argument's criteria for the existence of
"export" would be met, but not mine, nor opera's
where bookmarks are concerned.

absent hardware constraint, information avail=
able to a program can be exported by that pro-
gram.

going further, i believe that within an informed
group, i could successfully show structured user
data/experience has value in the version design
process. beyond that process, evolution in appli-
cation beckons.

back to this moment: if you can show an opera
specific exception to my above general state-
ment of data exportability, please, do email
me at taynsn@taynsn.zapto.org

regards,










NEW_TO_OPERA 6. April 2007, 08:56

Hi,

I know this is an old subject, but I'm trying to move all my settings and bookmarks, notes, etc... from my desktop to my notebook. I'm real dumb when it comes to computer terms. Would it be possible, if you are willing to, provide me a link that will allow me to make this transfer? I've clicked on the links that are suggested here, but like I said, I'm not understanding the terms use to explain. I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Thanks!

neeraj_deshmukh 6. April 2007, 18:44

[NEW_TO_OPERA] What you need to do is the procedure I have described in the first three paragraphs above.
  1. In your desktop Opera, go to Help > About Opera
  2. Note the location of "Opera directory" under the Paths section on that page -- this is your Opera profile folder
  3. Close Opera completely
  4. Make a copy of the profile folder from step 2
  5. In your laptop Opera, go to Help > About Opera
  6. Note the location of "Opera directory" under the Paths section on that page
  7. Close Opera completely
  8. Delete the profile folder from step 6
  9. Place the backed-up profile folder from step 4 in its place
  10. Delete the opera6.ini file in that folder
  11. Start Opera again

snowden 30. May 2007, 15:19

For anyone who is still interested in a batch file for moving their profile directory from one place to the other, it is not difficult to do with a batch file, as long as you always have opera installed in the same 2 locations, e.g. perhaps your removeable drive is D:\ and your main opera yo want to update is C:\Program Files\Opera\.

Anyway, all you would need to do is set the path to the 2 operas and then move files. I think it might be better to use xcopy.exe for this as it has the ability to copy over an entire directory without needing to worry about individual files...although there are only a few files needed for transeferring settings, namely opera.adr (bookmarks); global.dat (history entries, etc); wand.dat (website saved passwords, if needed); cookies4.dat (obvious); vlink4.dat (visited links history). As for xcopy's switches, i'd have to read up on their usage (for example if you wanted to overwrite files) or maybe how to rename files and move them to a backup directory, etc, etc.!

For example,

set base=%~dp0
set opera_removable=d:\opera\profile
set opera_main=%programfiles%\opera\profile

if exist %opera_removable%\opera.adr move opera.adr %opera_main%\opera.adr


and so on. i'm probably totally wrong with the syntax but it's just an idea for someone who wants to get started. also, there's probably a much easier way to do this!

:smile:

TSchmidt 22. July 2007, 20:37

NOTE: If you are doing the above, I strongly recommend NOT migrating the opera6.ini file in the old profile. It contains path-specific information which may not work in your new installation.


Applies also to widget.dat. The paths must be thus possibly adapted.

higgins327 3. August 2007, 18:07

Hi!

Does some of those folders include custom buttons too?

Thanks.

neeraj_deshmukh 3. August 2007, 18:41

[higgins327] Yes, the custom toolbar settings include the custom buttons.

tinu8805 22. August 2007, 11:47

Why doesn't Opera include a Migration Tool? The export functions are not sufficient. I don't understand why software makers cannot provide a functionality to move their own programs from one installation to another. It's a mess to be forced to reverse-engineer all the settings needed and where they're spread all over.

Martin

neeraj_deshmukh 22. August 2007, 15:13

[Martin] Opera does not see a need for you to *move* installations. Their upgrades are automatic -- you only need to install over the previous installation and all your settings are preserved.

Unless you are a tweaker or like to mix test releases and final releases, you should only rarely need to move your settings around (like when you change computers).

I am not aware of any browser / application that provides a single program to migrate the entire settings and custom data in one go. If you know of any, please let us know.

tinu8805 24. August 2007, 11:47

Of course there are applications that do support one-button-click migrations. For instance even a webserver the one by O'Reilly (abandonned) provided that.

Not important but as well: My applications I develop provide this.

Your comment is ok as long as the current installation is in question. However, I want to move an installation to another computer or maybe only to a fresh installation of windows (where a backup does not help because I DON'T want the entire registry and OLE and .NET stuff to be restored.)

The only solution currently are those tools observing an install to remove it later.

Martin
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