Backup Firefox and Thunderbird with MozBackup

If you are one of the many people out there who use either Firefox for web surfing or Thunderbird for email, then you definitely need to be using MozBackup.

Basically, MozBackup is an easy to use tool that lets you backup profiles and settings for Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and even Netscape. It is available at http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ and is free to use.

Why do you need this program? If you have ever had a computer crash and had to re-install Windows or had to re-install Firefox for any reason, you know how big of a pain it is to re-configure all of your Firefox settings from scratch. Replacing lost bookmarks, cookies, passwords and such can be extremely time consuming.

If you’re a Thunderbird user, chances are you’ve got quite a few emails archived on your machine. Having a backup copy of all of your emails, account information and settings can be a huge lifesaver when computer troubles pop up.

I recently had a hard drive fail in my laptop and had it replaced, but there are other, less extreme problems that can pop up in which a backup can be handy. Last week I tried out Firefox 3 beta 3 and found that it caused some weird problems with my normal installation of Firefox 2. Thankfully with a quick restore from MozBackup, I was up and running again in a matter of seconds.

The layout and interface is rather plain and very functional. After starting the program, you are quickly guided by the wizard through your options. The entire process is rather self explanatory and simple. Simply choose whether you want to backup or restore, what program you want to back up from a list of available options (Firefox or Thunderbird in my case), choose which profile (if you have more than one) and then finally choose which parts of the profile you want backed up.

You can choose which individual parts of the profile you want to include in the backup such as cookies, passwords, form history and several other options.

Restoring takes only a matter of seconds, just choose which file you wish to restore from and in seconds you are up and running.

I love this program and use it for backups on a daily basis. I have only needed the restore function twice, but in those instances it was invaluable. If you are a Firefox or Thunderbird user, this program is a must have in my opinion.

-Jeff