Backing up to restore a Chrome profile
Hello,
A few days ago I realized all my chrome was renitialized (lost all my extentions, bookmarks etc...)
I tried a windows restore but it didn't help me.
I am using Acronis True Image 2017, and wanted to know if it could help me in that matter.
I ran the program and it tells me my last backup is from today at 1 pm
My backup is a weekleey backup every thursday on incremential basis.
I would like to know :
1) what do I have to do to restore to a previous backup
2) can I restore just the file in the appdata / google / chrome folder for example or do I have to restore the whole disk ?
Thanks in advance,
Cotp
It has been some time since I last had ATI 2017 installed so am not sure of what is in the list of default exclusions for Acronis backup tasks.
Please check on your computer because it is possible that your Chrome profile data is excluded by default and therefore would not be present in your backup image!
If it is not excluded, then you should be able to just restore the specific folder contents by using Windows Explorer then double-clicking on your backup .tib file, which will open the file and show you the contents. You can then navigate through the file and use Copy & Paste commands.
Note: your Explorer view options may need to be set to allow seeing hidden / system files in the AppData folders.
Steve Smith wrote:Please check on your computer because it is possible that your Chrome profile data is excluded by default and therefore would not be present in your backup image!
Thanks Bobbo_3C0X1 and Steve Smith for your detailed comments.
I double cliked on a tib files (asked me all the previous tib files of the backup)
And then was able to browse until C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\ and the folder was empty...
Bad news ?? :(
Do you recall where is the exclusions list in Acronis so I could see if Chrome is checked somwhere ??
Anyidea what are my options now ? Will try other backups and see...
Hope I can find something...
Cotp
Edit: When I click on older backups if I try to browse inside them the C: folder seems to be empty and don't allow folder browsing is that normal ?
The Exclusions remain in the same place in all recent versions of ATI on the page with this heading in the backup task Options.
Also, keep in mind that appdata is a hidden file. If hidden files are not enabled in Windows, they won't be enabled in True Image. Turn hidden files/folders on and then try again - it might actually be there.
However, I do vaguely remember a bug in earlier versions of True Image where certain appdata folders for browsers were completely being excluded by default! I hope that isn't the case here. As you'll notice in Steve's screenshot, it is only excluding the cache folder. If your exclusions have the entire chrome folder and everything below it, this may not be possible :(
Steve Smith wrote:The Exclusions remain in the same place in all recent versions of ATI on the page with this heading in the backup task Options.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:
However, I do vaguely remember a bug in earlier versions of True Image where certain appdata folders for browsers were completely being excluded by default! I hope that isn't the case here. As you'll notice in Steve's screenshot, it is only excluding the cache folder. If your exclusions have the entire chrome folder and everything below it, this may not be possible :(
Thanks for this, I found the exclusion here :
So it seems that by default it has only the cache folder... no ?
I should be able to find the rest ?
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:
Also, keep in mind that appdata is a hidden file. If hidden files are not enabled in Windows, they won't be enabled in True Image. Turn hidden files/folders on and then try again - it might actually be there.
I have hidden files showed all the time... so don't know why there is nothing there when my folder is not empty and also why all my C: folder seems empty on older tib files....
Cotp
PS: maybe I should upgrade acronis 2017 to new version if it fixes some a lot of bugs
Hello again all and good day :)
I have finally found some data (clicking on the first set of the data (created in june 2019).
I renamed the Default folder
Then tried an copy the Default folder in the backup to the chrome location...
Problem it tells me it is going to take 16 hours !
My backup is on a NAS, should I try first to copy the backup elswhere before accessing it not sur it will help in terms of time though :/
Cotp
Are you trying to do the restore of this data via the ATI application, or are you doing it by opening the .tib archive via Explorer and using Copy & Paste? The latter should be faster but always best to copy to a temp location first, not to the original one.
If you can copy the .tib file from your NAS to a USB drive, that should be faster.
Steve Smith wrote:Are you trying to do the restore of this data via the ATI application, or are you doing it by opening the .tib archive via Explorer and using Copy & Paste? The latter should be faster but always best to copy to a temp location first, not to the original one.
If you can copy the .tib file from your NAS to a USB drive, that should be faster.
I double clicked on a tib file in Explorer and then did a copy paste. When I opened Chrome nothing seems to have change, is this normal behaviour you think.
Could not find on Google where are the extentions saved in Chrome....
sad to see I wasn't able to restore it even with waiting 15 hours :/
another thing: do you think I should update to Acronis 2020 ? I have received an email for an upgrade offer.
Out of interest, are you signing in to Chrome with your Google account credentials so that your settings, extensions etc would be saved to your Google account?
I don't use Chrome (haven't used for a couple of years) but use Firefox with a Firefox account which I use on several different laptops, and where any profile & extension changes etc get replicated to all the computers.
If you are being offered a good discount for upgrading to ATI 2020, then it may be a good move for you provided you understand that ATI 2020 was only released on 20th August and still has some teething problems because of new changes being introduced. We are expecting a new build update for 2020 sometime this month to fix some of these early issues.
ATI 2018 onwards introduced Acronis Active Protection to guard your backup files against ransomware attacks etc which is something of a love/hate thing among users. Personally, I like ATI 2020 and have had no real issues in having AAP running on my computers.
One option would be to take out a 30-day Trial of ATI 2020 to give it a test run but make a backup before installing to allow you to restore back if you don't like anything.
Note: ATI 2020 introduces new Disk & Partition backup file format archives using .tibx names which are in line with the Acronis Backup business product range, but which are not backwards compatible to ATI 2019 and earlier (which cannot read / open .tibx files).
B. When you restore the "default" folder from your backup, what's in there?
Extensions should be in C:\Users\[login_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions which is a folder
Bookmarks should be in C:\Users\[login_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\bookmarks which is a file
If you restore your entire default folder, make sure you complete close all of Chrome (you may need to use taskmanager as Chrome has lots of background services) to kill all of them. Then relaunch Chrome and hopefully you see the changes.
As for extensions... you may want to go into the hamgurger menu (3 dots) >>> more tools >>> extensions
and see if the extensions are there afterwards, but just need to be enabled. Otherwise, you may need to install them again, or try to recover if you have Google Sync installed. If I remember correctly now, extensions also require a user-specific registry entry that gets created when you install them - that may be why the extensions are not being seen as those could still be missing.
Steve Smith wrote:Out of interest, are you signing in to Chrome with your Google account credentials so that your settings, extensions etc would be saved to your Google account?
I don't use Chrome (haven't used for a couple of years) but use Firefox with a Firefox account which I use on several different laptops, and where any profile & extension changes etc get replicated to all the computers.
No, I don't sync my extentions (maybe I should) :) and sometimes I login sometimes I don't depends if I am logge din through another service of Google (Gmail, Youtube etc...)
Steve Smith wrote:If you are being offered a good discount for upgrading to ATI 2020, then it may be a good move for you provided you understand that ATI 2020 was only released on 20th August and still has some teething problems because of new changes being introduced. We are expecting a new build update for 2020 sometime this month to fix some of these early issues.ATI 2018 onwards introduced Acronis Active Protection to guard your backup files against ransomware attacks etc which is something of a love/hate thing among users. Personally, I like ATI 2020 and have had no real issues in having AAP running on my computers.
One option would be to take out a 30-day Trial of ATI 2020 to give it a test run but make a backup before installing to allow you to restore back if you don't like anything.
Note: ATI 2020 introduces new Disk & Partition backup file format archives using .tibx names which are in line with the Acronis Backup business product range, but which are not backwards compatible to ATI 2019 and earlier (which cannot read / open .tibx files).
Yes I think the offer is good. Just to understand well, will I be able to use all my previous backups are will I have to delete them and start again from scratch ?
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:B. When you restore the "default" folder from your backup, what's in there?
Extensions should be in C:\Users\[login_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions which is a folder
Bookmarks should be in C:\Users\[login_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\bookmarks which is a file
If you restore your entire default folder, make sure you complete close all of Chrome (you may need to use taskmanager as Chrome has lots of background services) to kill all of them. Then relaunch Chrome and hopefully you see the changes.
As for extensions... you may want to go into the hamgurger menu (3 dots) >>> more tools >>> extensions
and see if the extensions are there afterwards, but just need to be enabled. Otherwise, you may need to install them again, or try to recover if you have Google Sync installed. If I remember correctly now, extensions also require a user-specific registry entry that gets created when you install them - that may be why the extensions are not being seen as those could still be missing.
I have searched a full backup and found the folders here in User Data\Default:
There is also a Bookmarks file....
So I will try again (first to a new location).
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:If you restore your entire default folder, make sure you complete close all of Chrome (you may need to use taskmanager as Chrome has lots of background services) to kill all of them. Then relaunch Chrome and hopefully you see the changes.
Which task do I have to kill first to close the program ?
Thanks again both of you for helping me on that matter. Have a good week end.
Cotp
Yes I think the offer is good. Just to understand well, will I be able to use all my previous backups are will I have to delete them and start again from scratch ?
All your previous backups should be fine with no issues of backwards compatibility. If you create any new Disk & Partitions backup tasks, they will now use .tibx files which are not compatible with older versions of ATI. Files & Folders backup tasks continue to use .tib files at present.
Which task do I have to kill first to close the program ?
You would need to look through the entries in Windows Task Manager and end as many as you can that indicate a Google / Chrome task. I don't have Chrome installed or any other Google tasks so cannot say how many tasks may be present. On an older laptop I do see some tasks in the Details view with names starting Google... (GoogleCrashHandler, googledrivesync) - watch out for Software Reporter which is another Google task (and the main reason I dropped Chrome because it cannot be disabled!).
They all will say chrome.exe. just start killing all of them if any are still there after you close the browser.
Yup, I sync my extensions, settings and bookmarks, but that's it. Makes it very easy to get Chrome back, just in Case.
Just bought Acronis 2020. I posted a new thread in the right forum. Hope I will be able to use it simply :)
I thank you guys from your help here. I have reinstalled some extentions I remembered having and gave up on trying to fix my issue...
Will use sync in the future...
Maybe Acronis could have some sort of feature to recover Firefox or Chrome issues like this in the future without having to use sync that make you save your data on google servers for example... (just a thought)
May I suggest you make this suggestion using the in App feedback, click on Help, the click on Feedback item.
If you don't ask it is unlikely to happen!
Ian