Moving profiles

A profile travels to another machine as a sealed file. The file opens with a code the application shows once; the two go by different routes, because together they are the sign-ins.

Sending

Export all in the header takes the whole fleet, Export in the selection bar takes the ticked ones. An empty fleet has nothing to export, and the button says so rather than going quiet.

1. 01

   What travels

   The application lists what goes into the file first: names, tags, folders, notes, sign-ins and site data, sealed. It says what stays with you in the same breath.

2. 02

   Where to save it

   An ordinary save window: the folder is yours, the name is a suggestion you can change. Cancelling here returns to the explanation rather than closing everything, so a stray Esc does not cost you the start.

3. 03

   The code

   A window of its own: sixteen characters, shown once. Copy the code does not close the window, so the code can be copied and still read. It is kept nowhere, including by us.

Receiving

Import in the header. The file first, then the code from the sender; until both are there the button does not press and says what it is waiting for.

The code is forgiving to type: case does not matter, spaces and hyphens are ignored, O is read as zero and I and L as one. A character that is not in the alphabet is not dropped quietly; it stays in view, so the refusal has something to point at.

A refusal appears in the same window rather than as a passing message: the file and the code stay as you left them and can be corrected. A wrong code, a truncated file and an altered file are refused whole, not imported halfway.

What the import did

Afterwards a window lists what happened: how many profiles arrived, which did not and why, which carry sign-ins bound to the sender machine, and what does not travel at all.

What the file does not carry

The file carries the profile and not the machine. Every profile that arrives is a new device: a fresh identifier and a fresh seed, so sites see a new computer, and some will ask you to sign in again, including any that had tied the old sign-in to the sender machine.

Passwords and cards

Saved passwords, autofill and saved cards are not in the file. Sending somebody a profile is not sending them your passwords.

Extensions

Entirely: the packages and what they wrote. An extension entry lives in preferences, which stay behind, and code without it would be an orphan.

Preferences

The profile preferences and the browser state are built again on the new machine.

The egress

No proxy and no direct. It is chosen on arrival, and until then the profile does not launch.

The Profiles screen