How to backup/restore work areas?

[berndleutenecker]

berndleutenecker last edited by berndleutenecker

Hello!

I don't know the English name of it - I am asking about the work areas / working areas / work spaces:
Is there a way to backup this data?

Thank you!

Bernd Leutenecker

[CosmicallyCorrupted]

CosmicallyCorrupted @berndleutenecker last edited by

@berndleutenecker They're called Workspaces, and what do you mean by "backup the data"?

[berndleutenecker]

berndleutenecker last edited by berndleutenecker

Thanks for telling me the proper name of the workspaces in the English version of Opera.

After losing all open tabs within my five workspaces not for the first time and having noticed that logging in with my Opera-account doesn't back these up (at least when I tried some time ago on another computer the workspaces didn't appear in Opera after logging-in for synchronisation - or the workspaces did appear but without all the tabs within them; I can't remember exactly) I need a way to backup and restore my workspaces.

Meanwhile I was informed that I could backup these data when clicking on a Tab within a workspace, then on 'Save' - All tabs as workspaces (although the translation from the German term 'Schnellwahlordner' used by Opera would be 'quick choice folder'/'quick select folder'). But I don't know yet where I would find this backup or backups if I would have to do this for each workspace separately.

[NiqBean]

NiqBean @berndleutenecker last edited by

@berndleutenecker I am facing the same issue since I signed up into Opera browser. Instead of keeping my workspaces and all the tabs safe, It has started to close all of the several tabs that I open. I couldn't find any solution to it till yet. If you find any way to back up all the tabs, do let me know too. Thanks!

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Goto the URL opera://about and take note of the "profile" folder.

Workspaces are defined in the "Preferences" file in the profile folder.

Opened tabs (including what workspace in what window they're in) are stored in the "Session_timestamp" file in the "Sessions" folder in the profile folder. Recently-closed tabs are stored in the "Tabs_timestamp" file. There are usually 2 files for each where one has a new timestamp than the other.

So, to back up workspaces and what tabs are in them, you need to back up the "Preferences" file and the "Sessions" folder while Opera is closed. Then, if you just lose what tabs are in the workspaces, you can replace the files in the "Sessions" folder with your backups. If you lose your actual workspace too though, you'll also have to replace the "Preferences" file with your backup while keeping in mind that all changes to the Preferences file made after the backup will be lost.

You can load the "Preferences" file in JSONedit in tree mode and look under root/ui/workspaces/config to see how they're defined. The sidebar settings for the workspaces you have are under root/ui/browser/sidebar/item_prefs and root/uti/browser/sidebar/item_prefs/visibility. You can technically add the workspace config to a new Preference file manually using JSONedit if you wanted to. You just want to make sure you define the workspaces in the exact same order as before you have have other files (like the session files) and Operas (with Sync) relying on the order.

But really, it's best to back up the whole "profile" folder and replace the current one with the backup when you need to restore things. And, if needed, you can delete the "Sync Data" folder when you replace with a profile folder with a backup so Opera doesn't log into Sync automatically and screw things up.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Another way to back up tabs for workspaces is the following:

In each workspace, right-click on a tab in the tab bar, goto "save", and choose "all tabs to a speed dial folder". Then, on the start page, edit the name of the folder and change it to the name of the workspace.

Then, goto the URL opera://bookmarks, and use the drop-down at the bottom left to export your bookmarks (which includes speed dials and folders on the start page) to an HTML file.

Then, if you ever have to, you can goto the URL opera://settings/importData, select "Bookmarks HTML file" in the drop-down, and import the HTML file.

Then, while in each workspace, goto the URL opera://bookmarks, find the imported speed dial folder for the workspace you're in, right-click it, and choose "open all in tabs". Or, if don't want to switch workspaces each time, you can right-click, goto "open all in workspace" and pick the workspace you want to open them in.

Of course if you lose the workspaces themselves, you'll have to recreate them before you can restore the tabs in them.

Also note that if you want to back up bookmarks without exporting, you can close Opera and back up the "Bookmarks" and "BookmarksExtras" files in the profile folder (after saving all your workspaces` tabs to speed dial folders). Then, if you ever needed to get things back, you can just replace the existing files with your backups and then use the "open all in" options as mentioned above.

The downside of saving opened tabs this way is that you have to manually delete the speed dial folder for a workspace and resave it each time the tabs in the workspace change. No one is suggesting you do that all the time, but it can be useful to back up tabs in this way once in a while just in case you lose everything.

[cabusopera]

cabusopera @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Is anyone aware of the reason why the shitty synchronization
engine is missing workspaces, extensions, keyboard shortcuts, search engines and so on?

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @cabusopera last edited by

@cabusopera