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Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2006-03-20 13:17:58 by NonTroppo [added link to OperaProfiles]

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How to Migrate Opera Settings

The following document describes in detail how to transfer your custom data (e.g. customization settings such as menus, toolbars etc. as well as personal data like bookmarks, Wand passwords, e-mail and contacts etc) from one Opera installation to another. For simplicity, this document is split into two sections -- one dealing with the user profile data, and the other concerning the mail (and newsgroups, newsfeeds etc) accounts.

Migrating Profile Settings

It is extremely important to first back up all the data that you want transfer. In general things do not go wrong, but if there is a problem (e.g. a mistake on the user's part) there needs to be a way to get back to the original state.

  1. In your old Opera installation, look at Help > About Opera and note the path to your Opera directory -- this is your Opera profile folder. Make a back-up copy of it.
  2. Do the same for your new Opera installation.
  3. Close all instances of Opera.
  4. 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
    • Certificates: opcacrt6.dat, opcert6.dat, opssl6.dat
    • Contacts: contacts.adr
    • Cookies: cookies4.dat
    • Notes: notes.adr
    • Search preferences: search.ini
    • Wand passwords: wand.dat (if you had set a master password, you will also need to copy the Certificates files -- and set the same master password in the new installation)
  5. 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)
    • Custom keyboard shortcuts: keyboard
    • Custom menus: menu
    • Custom mouse gestures: mouse
    • Custom style sheets: styles
    • Customized toolbar setups: toolbar
    • Customized voice setup: voice
    • Favicon images: images
    • Saved sessions: sessions
    • Skins: skin
  6. Start the new Opera.
  7. If the migration is successful, delete the back-up data you had created (if you wish).

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

Since the opera6.ini file in the Opera profile folder contains path-specific information, it is in general a bad idea to copy it over from the old profile to the new profile.

Recommended reading

Migrating custom settings from one Opera installation to another
How do I back up my Opera files?
See OperaProfiles for a way to run different profiles concurrently.

Migrating Mail Data

The following procedure only applies when the new Opera installation is pristine (i.e. does not have ant mail, news or feed accounts set up). If the new Opera installation already contains such accounts, the way to migrate data is to export the messages from the old Opera installation; and then import them into the new Opera installation as generic mbox files.

As always, it is extremely important to first back up all the data that you want transfer.

  1. In your old Opera installation, look at Help > About Opera and note the path to your Mail directory. Make a back-up copy of it.
  2. Do the same for your new Opera installation.
  3. Close all instances of Opera
  4. Delete the Mail directory in the new Opera installation.
  5. Copy the old Mail directory in its place.
  6. Start the new Opera.
  7. If the migration is successful, delete the back-up data you had created (if you wish).

Recommended reading

Migrating email from one Opera installation to another

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