How to perform a Full backup of Opera
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
@nounours18200 Also enable Sync, because if you need to use a different computer or Windows user/installation, part of the backup may not work.
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
@nounours18200 It always a good idea to close Opera periodically and do the backup while Opera is closed.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
If you delete the existing "Opera Stable" folder and copy your backup "Opera Stable" folder back or delete everything in the existing "Opera Stable" folder and copy everything in your backup "Opera Stable" folder to the now-empty existing "Opera Stable" folder (as in, you're not mixing new and old files), you should be good and your tab islands and the tabs in them should be restored. This will only work though if you're backing up and restoring an "Opera Stable" folder from the same user account with the same password on the same installation of Windows.
This will also only work if you make and restore the backup while Opera is completely closed. And, this will only work properly if there's zero corruption with the files in your backup. If you've been upgrading for a long time and your "Opera Stable" folder has been used by many versions of Opera (where some might have had bugs or crashes), your chances of things not working right will increase.
This will also only work right if the versions of files in the backup and still compatible with the Opera you use them with. Major changes to Chromium and or Opera might make a backup made a while back not fully compatible with the new version of Opera where things might break or be lost.
As for an "Opera Stable" folder that was using Sync, restoring should hopefully work given those caveats above. But, if anything major has changed with your Sync data or there are bugs with Sync, things could go wrong.
A for Syncing everything and starting with a new "Opera Stable" folder and then having Sync pull in all your data, things might not work right for tabs as tabs don't sync directly and tab syncing isn't tab-island-aware. It's also not workspace-aware. And, syncing settings has been known to overwrite or wipe out workspaces in some cases.
Besides those things, you should be good.
With that said, it's best to have exported backups of the things you can export just in case. For example, you can export your bookmarks to an HTML file at the URL
opera://bookmarksusing the drop-down at the bottom left. You can then import them at the URLopera://settings/importDataby selecting the "Bookmarks HTML file" option in the drop-down.You can export and import bookmarks at the URL
opera://password-manager/settings.For open tabs, you can right-click a tab, goto "save" and choose "all tabs to a speed dial folder", You can then repeat that for each workspace. Then, when you export your bookmarks, those will be exported too where when you import them, you can right-click on those folders and choose "open all in tabs" in the workspace you want. You can rename the folders before exporting to name them after the workspace you want. You can also use the
opera://bookmarkspage to move those folders to "other bookmarks" if you don't want them on your start page.As for tab islands, you can ctrl + left-click each tab in a tab island, right-click one of those tabs, goto "save" and choose "tabs to a speed dial folder" to save just those tabs to a speed dial folder. Or, you can collapse an island, right-click the collapsed island, goto "save" and choose just to just save the island's tabs.
Saving your opened tabs into folders based on workspaces and tab islands that will and exporting your bookmarks will give you want way to restore your tabs and tab islands in workspaces if you ever have to. Not the ideal way, but it's something.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426
@nounours18200 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
-Is there another directory to backup ?
Technically, there's "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" contain the cache folders for each edition of Opera you have installed. So, if you wanted to back up and restore cached files for a profile, you'd back up and restore those too. A profile should function fine if its cache files disappear out from under it. However, that might technically leave cache entries in some database files. Not sure. Also, mixing an old profile folder with new cache folders should function fine too, but there might technically be a chance that a bunch of cache files will be missing entries in the database files. Not sure. Never looked into cache storage and cache storage lookup much.
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nounours18200 last edited by nounours18200
@burnout426 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
Technically, there's "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" contain the cache folders for...
So do you recommend to backup "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" or "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera stable ?
I assume that backuping "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" is the best option.
Saving your opened tabs into folders based on workspaces and tab islands that will and exporting your bookmarks will give you want way to restore your tabs and tab islands in workspaces if you ever have to. Not the ideal way, but it's something.
The only thing that I want to save when I talk about backups, is the Tabs Islands + the tabs opened in each Tab Island.
The rest is useless for me (bookmarks, cache, etc...).
So maybe there is an extension to do this ??It always a good idea to close Opera periodically and do the backup while Opera is closed.
I have already automatized a periodic full backup of "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" (but my last backup was probably faulty).
Also enable Sync, because if you need to use a different computer or Windows user/installation, part of the backup may not work.
This is obviously an excellent idea, but I don't understand how to define who is the Master (the PC from which we want to export the data) and the Slave (the PC that will pump the data).
I am logged into my Opera account, have defined "synchronized averything", but I don't understand what it does !
It has deleted a recently created Tab Island... Shit ! -
burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426
@nounours18200 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
So do you recommend to backup "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" or "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera stable ?
Whether you back up both the Roaming and Local "Opera Software" folders or just the "Opera Stable" folders in them doesn't really matter in your case. It does matter though if you have other editions of Opera (Opera GX, Opera Beta, and Opera Developer) as their folders will be in the "Opera Software" folders too. In those cases where you want to back up all Operas, you'd back up the whole "Opera Software" folder (both Roaming and Local).
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@nounours18200 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
This is obviously an excellent idea, but I don't understand how to define who is the Master (the PC from which we want to export the data) and the Slave (the PC that will pump the data).
I am logged into my Opera account, have defined "synchronized averything", but I don't understand what it does !Think of the Sync server (https://www.sync.opera.com/) as cloud storage for some of your data. It starts off empty. Then, you sync an Opera to it and that Opera's data gets uploaded to the Sync server. Then, changes in that Opera (like adding or deleting a bookmark) get reflected on the server too. Then, when you Sync another Opera from the server, that Opera pulls in data from the server that it doesn't have and then uploads data from it that the server doesn't have. Then, the first Opera pulls in the new data on the server that got uploaded from the other Opera. It's kind of like a webmail service or IMAP in an email client. The messages are on the server and what you do in one Opera happens in the other. In the case of conflicts, (like a setting set to a different value between 2 Operas), I think you can consider the first Opera to sync to the server as the master (the one that gets priority), but I have not tested to make sure.
However, there are all kinds caveats with Opera Sync, and it can get complicated. Some data gets merged between Operas and the server. Some things like tabs are just uploaded to the server from each Opera and then just made available to look at from other Operas. It all depends on the type of data.
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nounours18200 last edited by
@burnout426 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
Whether you back up both the Roaming and Local "Opera Software" folders or just the "Opera Stable" folders in them doesn't really matter in your case.
So I assume that backuping "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" is enough for a full restoration of Opera, which is just what I need.
I don't have other versions of Opera.
I stop using the Opera account, because it does not do what I need, or more surely I don't understand how it works. I would just like have it to backup my Tab Islands + Every tabs, and instead of that it put the mess when I try to synchronize (I certainly do not use it correctly).
Thank you
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426
@nounours18200 said in How to perform a Full backup of Opera:
So I assume that backuping "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software" is enough for a full restoration of Opera, which is just what I need.
No. Backing up "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software" is what you want to do. And, if you also want to back up cache, back up "C:\Users\ordic\AppData\Local\Opera Software".
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nounours18200 last edited by
Thank you very much !
I confirm that this method works 100%.
You can automatize the backup at regular intervals (for ex, each day) by using a free software such as "Backup Maker".
