You probably know that Firefox 3 Beta 2 is out (well, now you do). Cant wait to upgrade but feel hesitant? Firefox 3 beta 2 will check you profile and extensions for compatibility and may (in all probability) disable most of your current extensions as they are still not compatible with Firefox 3. This post is all about how I did it.

How do you migrate to Firefox 3 beta2 without affecting your extensions? Daring as it may seem, it requires little work and technical expertise actually. I migrated to Firefox 3 b2 today. I had all my extensions and bookmarks working. And now I don’t want to go back to the Firefox 2. It’s a fact that once you start using Firefox 3 you’ll not want to go back. So lets get started.

Disclaimer: These instructions are specifically for Windows operating system. Please try at your own risk. Forewarned.

Firefox or Firefox 3 means Firefox 3 beta 2. Old profile means your profile that you use with Firefox 2. New profile refers to the new profile we create for Firefox 3 named beta2.

1. Backup your existing profile. Alternative method of backing up Firefox profile.
2. Install Firefox 3 beta2 from here without launching it yet on the last screen of the installer.
3. Create a profile named beta2 (you could name it anything). This step is necessary as we will be first modifying some preferences before we import our old profile data into this profile.
4. Launch Firefox beta 2 with this profile.
5. We need to modify two preferences like so -
   1. Browse to about:config (you’ll get a warning, promise to be careful).
   2. Create a new preference extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false. This will make Firefox not to check the extensions for compatibility.
   3. Create a new preference extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set it to false. this will make Firefox not to verify if the extensions provide a secure update mechanism. This is a new security restriction/enhancment in Firefox 3.
6. Close Firefox b2.
7. To import your extensions into this profile simply copy all your previous extensions to the extensions directory under your new profile named beta2. Your existing themes may not work yet. And if you try to use it, it may do unforeseen damage to your Firefox GUI.
8. Now you can import your bookmarks into this profile by going to Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks > Import and Backup.
9. Start Firefox and verify that everything works fine. You may want to disable extensions that don’t work. Set your preferences and surf the web the new style.

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