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How do I back up my Opera files?

Note: This article is also useful if you wish to copy your settings from one installation of Opera to another. When doing this, you should replace the corresponding folders and/or files in your new installation with the old ones. Always make sure Opera is closed while copying these files or folders.

It is recommended that you backup your files every now and then, both for Opera and for other software on your computer. This is a list of Opera files you might want to consider taking a backup of.

If you chose to "Use separate settings for each user" when installing, all settings are kept separate for each user on systems that support this. In Windows 2000 and XP, this directory is:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Opera

If your system does not support multiple users or you chose to not install Opera with separate user settings, all files and directories are located in the profile directory, which is a sub-directory of your Opera installation directory.

You can also find out where Opera stores your settings by going to the Help > About Opera menu.

Files to back up
Description Filename
Bookmarks opera6.adr
Contacts contacts.adr
Notes notes.adr
Personal certificates opcert6.dat
Certificate authorities opcacrt6.dat
Wand data wand.dat

Folders/directories to back up
Description Filename
Mail mail\
Sessions - saved windows sessions\
Skins skin\
Plug-ins (Windows version) program\plug-ins\
Keyboard configuration keyboard\
Mouse configuration mouse\
Menu configuration menu\
Toolbar configuration toolbar\

The file "opera6.ini" (see Help > About Opera for the correct location) contains your general Opera settings, such as cache and plug-in information. It is not recommended that you copy this file from a computer to another, as it contains a lot of paths that may be specific to your computer.

You might also consider backing up these files, but remember that they change on a daily basis, and that they contain information about which pages you have visited and files you have downloaded:

  • Cookies ("cookies4.dat")
  • Global history ("global.dat")
  • Visited links ("vlink4.dat")
  • Download history ("download.dat").

These files are all for the Windows version, but most of these files are relevant to Linux users as well, and the file names are quite similar. Mac users can find these files (although with more descriptive file names) in the "Opera Preferences" folder, located in "Preferences" under your "System" folder.

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