FEBE

FEBE stands for Firefox Environment Backup Extension. It's a free add-on that can back up, save, and restore everything from add-ons and themes to, well, everything in Firefox: bookmarks, passwords, preferences, saved forms, and more--even your entire profile. You can schedule automatic backups or start them any time, and even upload saved results. It's got some extras, too.

FEBE installs like any Firefox add-in but also adds its own entry on the Tools menu, with choices to make backups, restore items or profiles, and access FEBE's options; we also accessed the options from the Firefox add-ons manager. The only option you must configure to use FEBE is to choose a destination directory, but the options dialog not only let us choose what to back up and when but also offered message alert choices, a link to the optional Box.net online backup service, and the Verify Extension Directory tool. We ran this tool, which cleans up some of the debris Firefox leaves behind after upgrades, with two modes, Strict and Lenient. It identified various issues and offered to attempt to fix them, which included removing an unauthorized but compatible add-on that we later reinstalled with no trouble. We clicked Perform Backup, and a pop-up with a green progress bar appeared and disappeared quickly; job done. FEBE displayed a Results Report in a local HTML page in Firefox, including the number of extensions and themes processed, and so on. Clicking Restore Profile on the File menu opened a compact dialog and also a detailed pop-up message explaining how profile backups work. We were also able to restore any of FEBE's numerous individual backups from the same menu item. FEBE's home page offered version histories, FAQs, a support forum, a QuickStart Guide, and tutorials.

FEBE is as close to essential as any Firefox extension we use. It's as easy to use and comprehensive as any system backup utility, only optimized just for Firefox. Our only real question is, what did we do before we had it?