Opera is storing history for years, but only last 3 months are accessible in history manager
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@heinrich-lunge said in Opera is storing history for years, but only last 3 months are accessible in history manager:
Is it possible to view history older than 90 days?
The short answer is no, not in Opera. But, there's a longer answer.
You might be able to find a Chromium History file viewer to just view the history in Opera's History file in Opera's profile folder (goto the URL
opera://aboutfor the profile path). Before downloading and installing one though, research whether it's legit and safe or not. Utilities at https://www.nirsoft.net/ are safe, but you might have to temporarily disable real-time protection in your anti-virus settings when downloading and running them, as tools on that site are often flagged as unwanted / malicious when they're not in this case (because you're the one using them and it's okay if you steal your own history).For advanced users, there's a tiny chance that you can see your older Opera history entries in Vivaldi, if you want to try:
Before you start, in Windows Explorer, you'll want to click "View", check "show hidden files", and uncheck "hide file extensions" before trying to view the paths mentioned below.
Vivaldi, which is also Chromium-based, has a "Save browsing history" drop-down setting at the URL
vivaldi://settings/privacythat allows you to set history retention to "Forever". If you set it to forever, goto the URLvivaldi://about, take note of the "profile" path, close Vivaldi, and open the "Preferences" file in the profile folder with JSONedit in tree mode, you will see root/vivaldi/history/days_to_keep_visits (of type integer) that's set to 3650.While both Opera and Vivaldi are closed, you could delete everything in Vivaldi's profile folder (except the "Default" folder, but delete everything in the "Default" folder), copy over Opera's profile and cache folders and files to the right place in Vivaldi's User Data and profile ("Default") folders, edit the "Preferences" file in Vivaldi's "Default" folder with JSONedit, add the "vivaldi" object as a child of root, add the "history" object as a child of the "vivaldi" object, add the "days_to_keep_visits" integer as a child of the "history" object, set "days_to_keep_visits" to 3650, and save your changes.
Then, when you start Vivaldi, if you're lucky, you'll be able to goto the URL
vivaldi://historyand see all your older history.In Opera's cache path at "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable", the "Cache" folder get's copied to "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default"
In Opera's profile path, all the following folders and files (skip ones that aren't present in Opera's profile folder) get copied to "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data".
CrashpadMetrics-active.pma Crowd Deny DesktopSharingHub FileTypePolicies First Run FirstPartySetsPreloaded Floc GrShaderCache hyphen-data Last Browser Last Version Local State lockfile MEIPreload Module Info Cache Notification Resources OnDeviceHeadSuggestModel OptimizationHints OriginTrials persisted_first_party_sets.json PKIMetadata Safe Browsing Safe Browsing Cookies Safe Browsing Cookies-journal SafetyTips ShaderCache SSLErrorAssistant Subresource Filter TLSDeprecationConfig UrlParamClassifications Variations Webstore Downloads WidevineCdm ZxcvbnDataAll the remaining folders and files (like the "Preferences" file) in the following list (skip ones that Opera doesn't have) get copied to "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default" where you can then edit the "Preferences file.
AdBlockRules AdBlockState AdBlockState.bak Affiliation Database Affiliation Database-journal AutofillStrikeDatabase blob_storage Bookmarks Bookmarks.bak BudgetDatabase Cache (already done in first copy step) Calendar Calendar-journal Code Cache Contacts Contacts-journal contextmenu.bak contextmenu.json coupon_db databases data_reduction_proxy_leveldb Download Service DownloadMetadata Extension Cookies Extension Cookies-journal Extension Rules Extension Scripts Extension State Extensions Favicons Favicons-journal Feature Engagement Tracker File System GCM Store GPUCache heavy_ad_intervention_opt_out.db heavy_ad_intervention_opt_out.db-journal History History-journal IndexedDB JumpListIconsRecentClosed JumpListIconsVivaldiSpeedDials Local App Settings Local Extension Settings Local Storage LOCK LOG LOG.old Login Data Login Data-journal Mail MailDB MailDB-journal mainmenu.bak mainmenu.json Managed Extension Settings Media History Media History-journal Network Network Action Predictor Network Action Predictor-journal Notes Notes.bak optimization_guide_hint_cache_store optimization_guide_model_metadata_store Platform Notifications Preferences PreferredApps README Safe Browsing Network Secure Preferences Segmentation Platform Service Worker Session Storage Sessions shared_proto_db Shortcuts Shortcuts-journal Site Characteristics Database Storage Sync App Settings Sync Data Sync Extension Settings Top Sites Top Sites-journal Trusted Vault VideoDecodeStats Visited Links Vivaldi Profile.ico VivaldiThumbnails Web Applications Web Data Web Data-journal WebStorageIn short, the idea is to set Vivaldi's history saving to "forever" and then replace Vivaldi's "History" file in its profile folder with a copy of the "History" file in Opera's profile folder. You can try that first if you want (with a copy of Opera's "History" file) to see if you can get away with not doing all the copying listed above. If that doesn't work though, and Opera's History file is not readable by Vivaldi, try again, but this time, also replace Vivaldi's "Local State" file with Opera's. If that doesn't work, try replacing the files once more, but this time, also replace Vivaldi's "Secure Preferences" file with Opera's. If all else fails, do the full copying of all of Opera's profile and cache files and folders to Vivaldi's. Maybe you'll get lucky.
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seriousgigi last edited by
@burnout426 i used chrome history viewer but it also shows only 3 months.
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theintel last edited by
@burnout426 The Nirsoft tool worked fine. But it also showed history of the past 90 days. Did Opera limited history storing to 90 days?
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@theintel Chromium limits history to the past 3 months. Since Opera uses Chromium, it also has that limit.
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Referenced by D DavidCarter
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lazypapers last edited by
@burnout426
hey @burnout426 I am having the same issue as @steaua10
When doing all of the above that you mentioned can I afterwards go to the history option on opera and get the access to more than 90 days of history? , I mean I need to go to the history after all the above procedures?
will history remain even after an update of opera ? -
burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@lazypapers Opera does not have an option to keep history older than 90 days. Opera should actively delete entries older than that from the "History" file. So, history entries older than 90 days should be gone forever. I just tested this and can confirm that it works like that.
So, there should be nothing to restore and you're out of luck.
If however, for some weird reason, you have a "History" file with entries older than 90 days, you should be able to use Letos to connect to the database in the "History' file and change the timestamps for all the old entries to
13436820864000000(or the timestamp for the current time and date when you do it). Then, if you put the "History" file in Opera's profile folder (while Opera is closed), Then, Opera shouldn't delete all those old entries for 90 days (from the time of that timestamp).In Letos, you goto "Database -> add a database" and point it to the "History" file. Then, in the left-hand pane, you right-click the database and choose "connect". Then, you double-left-click on the "urls" table to load that table. Then, in the right-hand pane, you switch to the "Data" tab. You'll then see last_visited and last_displayed timestamps that you can edit and then click the checkmark on the toolbar to commit the change. You then take note of the IDs for the ones you changed the timestamps for, load the "visits" table, change the visit_time for each of those IDs and commit. Then, you right-click the database in the left-hand pane and disconnect.
Again, besides that, you're out of luck.
