Moving the index from one machine to another

[acken]

Hi, I have been trying to restore the information to my new machine. I am lost without my fauxbar index and right now both the backup and re-index leaves me with only a fraction of my previous index. Is it possible somehow to move the index from my old machine to the new one?

[ChrisNZL]

Fauxbar's index is based on Chrome's history and bookmarks.

If Chrome's history is lacking, that's largely outside Fauxbar's scope. Bookmarks are transferable though.

Related discussion: Issue #25 - Feature request: export/import the index

If a page isn't bookmarked, it's probably not that important, and not worth backing up.

I am curious of your circumstance. Are you able to bookmark a few important pages and get by enough?

I'm not sure how "synchronised" Google account history is between desktop computers these days. (eg if Chrome's chrome.history API provides data on sites you haven't physically visited on a specific computer or not) -- Last I knew, Chrome's history is just per-computer, and not really stored nor retrieved from Google's servers at all. (as in, My Google Activity isn't downloaded when signing into Chrome on a new computer)

---

If you need access to Fauxbar's index on your old computer, there are two ways you can sort of inspect and manipulate its WebSQL database:

Chrome's DevTools

You can inspect Fauxbar's database via:

1. Go to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable Developer mode in the top-right corner.
3. Locate Fauxbar and click its Details button.
4. Click the background page link.
5. Click the Application tab.
6. On the left column, expand Web SQL > fauxbar > urls.
7. Sort the table by the frecency column descending.

This will show you the list of your top sites, which may be the most important ones. Could you visit your important sites and bookmark them, so that they will be synced across your Google account?

Accessing the WebSQL file directly

⚠ If attempting to try any of the following, I strongly recommend disabling the Fauxbar extension first, and quit Chrome and its processes. ⚠

WebSQL is SQLite. On WIndows 10, the SQLite file's directory should be similar to:

C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\databases\chrome-extension_hibkhcnpkakjniplpfblaoikiggkopka_0

Within the directory will be a single extensionless file, likely named as a number. For me, the file is called 5.

You could possibly, in theory, copy this single file from your old computer, and paste it onto your new computer. Maybe it will work? But if Fauxbar ever has to rebuild its index, the urls table will be rebuilt, so the effort might be for nought.

---

Other food for thought:

• If you fancy trying to inspect the SQLite file (maybe you can export its data?), try using DB Browser for SQLite or SQLite Viewer.

• Data can be queried and displayed from Chrome's DevTools' JavaScript console, so it'd be possible to export your URL history data, bookmarked or not...

• I suppose, if this is really a dire feature, I could make an option to export Fauxbar's URL history (like a snapshot of sorts?) and allow snapshots to be imported and persist between index rebuilds. Again, this feels like it would be outside of Fauxbar's scope... but if I'm bored and have the time, maybe? 🤷‍♂️

[acken]

I am pretty sure the reason is that the complete history is on google cloud while when I log in it only pulls the last x items down to the local machine. I'm roughly getting by now as I have added the majority manually by visiting them.

On Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 1:59 PM Chris McFarland [email protected] wrote:

Fauxbar's index is based on Chrome's history and bookmarks.

If Chrome's history is lacking, that's largely outside Fauxbar's scope. Bookmarks are transferable though.

Related discussion: Issue #25 - Feature request: export/import the index https://github.com/ChrisNZL/Fauxbar/issues/25

If a page isn't bookmarked, it's probably not that important, and not worth backing up.

I am curious of your circumstance. Are you able to bookmark a few important pages and get by enough?

I'm not sure how "synchronised" Google account history is between desktop computers these days. (eg if Chrome's chrome.history API https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/history provides data on sites you haven't physically visited on a specific computer or not) -- Last I knew, Chrome's history is just per-computer, and not really stored nor retrieved from Google's servers at all. (as in, My Google Activity https://myactivity.google.com/ isn't downloaded when signing into Chrome on a new computer)

If you need access to Fauxbar's index on your old computer, there are two ways you can sort of inspect and manipulate its WebSQL database: Chrome's DevTools

You can inspect Fauxbar's database via:

1. Go to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable Developer mode in the top-right corner.
3. Locate Fauxbar and click its Details button.
4. Click the background page link.
5. Click the Application tab.
6. On the left column, expand Web SQL > fauxbar > urls.
7. Sort the table by the frecency column descending.

This will show you the list of your top sites, which may be the most important ones. Could you visit your important sites and bookmark them, so that they will be synced across your Google account? Accessing the WebSQL file directly

⚠ If attempting to try any of the following, I strongly recommend disabling the Fauxbar extension first, and quit Chrome and its processes. ⚠

WebSQL is SQLite. On WIndows 10, the SQLite file's directory should be similar to:

C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\databases\chrome-extension_hibkhcnpkakjniplpfblaoikiggkopka_0

Within the directory will be a single extensionless file, likely named as a number. For me, the file is called 5.

You could possibly, in theory, copy this single file from your old computer, and paste it onto your new computer. Maybe it will work? But if Fauxbar ever has to rebuild its index, the urls table will be rebuilt, so the effort might be for nought.

Other food for thought:

If you fancy trying to inspect the SQLite file (maybe you can export its data?), try using DB Browser for SQLite https://sqlitebrowser.org/ or SQLite Viewer https://inloop.github.io/sqlite-viewer/.

Data can be queried and displayed from Chrome's DevTools' JavaScript console, so it'd be possible to export your URL history data, bookmarked or not...

I suppose, if this is really a dire feature, I could make an option to export Fauxbar's URL history (like a snapshot of sorts?) and allow snapshots to be imported and persist between index rebuilds. Again, this feels like it would be outside of Fauxbar's scope... but if I'm bored and have the time, maybe? 🤷‍♂️

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