Permanently changing the location of bookmarks

the-steve-randolph

the-steve-randolph

You can skip ahead to the Question below if you don't want to read all of the backstory.

I have a gamer computer running Windows 10 Pro with:

512GB SSD partitioned with C: for Windows and P: for non-Microsoft apps
640GB HDD partitioned with partition-copies of C: and P:
2TB HDD for data
2TB external HDD for backups

While trying to prepare my hardware for Windows 11 and Visual Studio Community 2022, my motherboard failed and had to be sent in for repair. I moved the 640GB HDD and the 2TB internal HDD into an old case with an old motherboard (I did not move the SSD because the MB does not have any SSD connectors). While the 640GB HDD does boot and run properly, I have determined that the old computer MB and the 640GB are too old to run Windows 11, so, it will be kept as a fallback.

As I cleanup things on the 640GB HDD and run things like Thunderbird and browsers, I am finding certain apps have stored settings and other "data" on C:, which of course now is different from the C: on the SSD. One of those things is the bookmarks in Opera, which I would like to move to the 2TB data HDD so that the same bookmarks are available regardless of which case I move the 2TB HDD to.

Question

I want to permanently change the disk location of where Opera stores bookmarks/history, and/or, any other "data" that Opera uses. I know that Opera has this:

Profile: C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable
Cache: C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable

So, I know where to copy files from, but, I don't know how/where to permanently change Opera so that it finds its data in a different disk location. I have not found this info in "about" or via Google.

Does anybody know how to change this?

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @the-steve-randolph

@the-steve-randolph You need to start Opera with command line --user-data-dir=x:\pathto\profile, being x:\pathto\profile the path to where you want Opera to store user data.

the-steve-randolph

the-steve-randolph @leocg

@leocg said in Permanently changing the location of bookmarks:

@the-steve-randolph You need to start Opera with command line --user-data-dir=x:\pathto\profile, being x:\pathto\profile the path to where you want Opera to store user data.

So, I created the folder path: L:\Data - browsers\Opera

Then, I copied the contents of these two folders into that new folder:

C:\Windows\Users\Steve\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable (3 folders)
C:\Windows\Users\Steve\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable (7,292 files, 309 folders, 418MB)

I created a copy of the original desktop icon. Then, in that new icon, I changed the "Target" property to: "P:\Program Files\Opera\launcher.exe" --user-data-dir="L:\Data - browsers\Opera"

Then, I clicked on that changed icon, went to a random web site, and, added it to the bookmarks.

I clicked on both icons and looked at the "Bookmarks" and "History". The new/changed icon showed the new random web site and the old icon did not show the random web site. So, this switch on the command line Does accomplish the desired results!

One caveat though. If you have Opera open and right-click on that window in the Taskbar, if you select "Opera Browser" instead of "New window", you will Not get Opera looking at your custom path/profile. I would assume this is because Windows is launching a totally new instance and does not see or have command line parameters. Is it possible to change this?

As part of the testing, I renamed the "Opera Software" folders to "Opera Software - old". If you open Opera Without the command line parameter, it will create the "Opera Software" folders.

Thanks to @leocg for the solution.

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @the-steve-randolph

@the-steve-randolph For Opera to use that new profile directory, you will need to open it using the shortcut with the command line.