Firefox 36.0.1
AdBlock Plus 2.6.8
Element Hiding Helper 1.3.2
I've had this happen before. Apparently AdBlock Plus upgraded yesterday and tossed all of my hard won filters that I have been accumulating across the web using Element Hiding Helper. When I went to look, there was not even a standard EasyList filter subscription set for AdBlock Plus.
1) What can I do to stop losing my filters during upgrades?
2) Where is the filter list maintained?
3) Is there a procedure for backing up/restoring the filter list short of my simply making a copy?
4) Can I restore my filters from a backup?
Thanks.
Update causes loss of entire filter list
Re: Update causes loss of entire filter list
-click Help in the firefox menu, troubleshooting information
-click show folder (profile folder)
-go into adblockplus folder
-there shoud be all the filters (custom filters + official list) in the file patterns.ini
-if patterns.ini disappeared, you could eventually see files like patterns-backup1.ini, ... you can rename in patterns.ini
-backup and restore feature: click ABP icon, filter preferences, at the bottom you can see backup and restore feature
-click show folder (profile folder)
-go into adblockplus folder
-there shoud be all the filters (custom filters + official list) in the file patterns.ini
-if patterns.ini disappeared, you could eventually see files like patterns-backup1.ini, ... you can rename in patterns.ini
-backup and restore feature: click ABP icon, filter preferences, at the bottom you can see backup and restore feature
Re: Update causes loss of entire filter list
well, the operations with patterns files should be done when firefox is closed.
Re: Update causes loss of entire filter list
Re: Backup/Restore Thanks. I went looking for that but somehow missed it. It looks like ABP is making automatic daily backups, so I can install the filters from a couple of days ago. That's great! Apparently the filter backups do not include the filter subscriptions, as these are not being reset upon a restore. That might be a good thing to add to the backup/restore feature.
Re. your initial comments: I'm on the Troubleshooting Information page but I do not see any mention of "show folder" or "profile folder" . Here is a link to a screen-shot of the head of that page.
http://smallthoughts.com/photos/misc/ff_tsi.png
Let me know what I should do next. Despite backup/restore info above, I would be interested in understanding what you are describing above.
In any event, I now see that the relevant info is stored under ~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/adblockplus.
The patterns.ini file stores the filter patterns and is what I get when i do a manual save. Apparently Element Hiding Helper is storing the hidden CSS component information in the elemhide.css file. This file does not seem to be backed up automatically, so this is something I should also be doing periodically. If there is anything else you think I should know, I'm all ears.
Thanks for the quick feedback. It is very much appreciated.
Re. your initial comments: I'm on the Troubleshooting Information page but I do not see any mention of "show folder" or "profile folder" . Here is a link to a screen-shot of the head of that page.
http://smallthoughts.com/photos/misc/ff_tsi.png
Let me know what I should do next. Despite backup/restore info above, I would be interested in understanding what you are describing above.
In any event, I now see that the relevant info is stored under ~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/adblockplus.
The patterns.ini file stores the filter patterns and is what I get when i do a manual save. Apparently Element Hiding Helper is storing the hidden CSS component information in the elemhide.css file. This file does not seem to be backed up automatically, so this is something I should also be doing periodically. If there is anything else you think I should know, I'm all ears.
Thanks for the quick feedback. It is very much appreciated.
Re: Update causes loss of entire filter list
click "open directory"
All the custom filters go into patterns.ini file in that folder (including the hiding filters).
When you click "create new backup" you can choose: all the filters (official + custom), or only custom filters.
All the custom filters go into patterns.ini file in that folder (including the hiding filters).
When you click "create new backup" you can choose: all the filters (official + custom), or only custom filters.
Re: Update causes loss of entire filter list
Got it!click "open directory"
Great. Thanks again for the great assistance. I've got a script backing things up now.When you click "create new backup" you can choose: all the filters (official + custom), or only custom filters.