Profiles

Export and import profiles

Save profiles to a file, import them into another workspace or onto another computer, and know what travels with them and what stays behind.

Guide · 6 min read

By the end of this guide you will have exported profiles to a file and imported them again, and you will know exactly what the file carries. An export is a copy made at one moment. Use it to hand profiles to another workspace, or to keep a copy before a big change. To keep the same profiles up to date on several computers, use Cloud Sync instead.

Use Cloud Sync between computers

Before you start

• The owner or admin role. Importing needs it, and so does any export that includes cookies or proxies, or that takes the whole workspace. An editor can still export a spreadsheet, or a PowerOps file with both of those options unticked.
• Close the profiles you are about to export. PowerOps stores a profile's cookies when it closes, so a closed profile exports its latest session.
• Somewhere safe for the file. With cookies and proxies inside, it can sign in to your accounts and use your proxies, so treat it like a password.

What a file carries

PowerOps exports in three formats: PowerOps, Excel and CSV. Only the PowerOps format can be imported again.

In a PowerOps file

• The profile's name, notes, tags and Custom No. A name that is already taken follows the choice you make in the import dialog.
• Its group and folder, by name. The import creates them if they do not exist yet.
• Its whole device identity, the fingerprint. It is kept exactly as it was, so sites see the same device.
• Its startup settings, and the tabs that were open when it last closed.
• Which extensions it uses, though not the extensions themselves. Install the same ones in the workspace that receives the profile.
• Its proxy's address. The proxy's username and password are included only with Proxies ticked. With them, the import adds the proxy to the proxy library, or matches it to an identical entry already there, and assigns it to the profile. Without them, a proxy that needs a sign-in is left off the imported profile.
• Its cookies, only with Include cookie sessions ticked. They are placed in the browser the next time the profile opens.

Not in the file

• Saved account sign-in details. Only the account's label and a masked username travel, so the account comes back with its username empty and autofill off, and you type the details again.
• Local Storage, IndexedDB, history and cache. A site that keeps its sign-in there asks you to sign in again.
• The profile's number and dates. An imported profile gets a new number, and its dates start from the import.

Excel and CSV are reports for reading and sharing: one row per profile, with no device identity, no cookies and no passwords, and with account addresses masked. PowerOps cannot import them back.

1. Export the profiles

1. 1On the Profiles page, tick the profiles you want to export.
2. 2Choose Export at the right of the bar above the table, then Export selected. With nothing ticked, Export visible results takes the rows on the page you are looking at, and Export workspace… takes every profile, archived ones included.
3. 3Leave Format on PowerOps.
4. 4Leave Include cookie sessions and Proxies (endpoints and passwords) ticked if the copies should open signed in and through the same proxies. Untick either one to leave that part out.
5. 5Read the two lists under the options. In this file and Not in this file change as you tick and untick, so you can see before you export exactly what the copies will arrive with, and what has to be set up again on the other side (saved platform passwords and 2FA keys never travel).
6. 6In Encryption password (optional), type a password of at least 8 characters. It is optional, but without one the cookies and proxy passwords sit in the file as readable text. PowerOps does not keep this password and cannot recover it.
7. 7Choose Export, choose where to save the file, and save it.

ProfilesA

3 profiles All groups and folders Search profiles by name or notes…3 selected Open Close Move to group ExportExport selected (3)Export visible resultsExport workspace…

No.Profile

1Shop research Open

2Supplier portal Open

3Ad account review Open

2. Import the file

Do this in the workspace that should receive the profiles, on any computer with PowerOps installed.

1. 1At the top of the sidebar, choose the small button on the right of New profile. Pointing at it shows Import profiles…
2. 2Choose Choose import files and pick the file you exported.
3. 3If you set a password, type it in Export password (if encrypted).
4. 4Check the box under the password. It names your file and lists what is inside: how many profiles, cookie sessions, proxies and groups.
5. 5Look at When a profile already exists. Skip, which it starts on, leaves alone any profile whose name is already in this workspace. Rename imports it anyway, with (imported) added to its name.
6. 6Choose Import, which shows how many profiles it will create.

An import is all or nothing. If one profile in the file cannot be restored, PowerOps imports none of them and says so, and the workspace is left as it was.

3. Check the imported profiles

• Open one. Where cookies were included, it should open signed in to the same sites.
• If a profile had an account's sign-in details saved, open the menu at the end of its row, choose Edit account, and type them again.
• If a profile used extensions, install the same ones in this workspace from the Extensions page.
• Imported proxies are in the proxy library. Test them on the Proxies page before you rely on them.

Copy or move profiles to another workspace without a file

When the destination is another workspace in the same organisation and you belong to both, PowerOps can copy the profiles across directly. This needs the owner or admin role too.

1. 1Close the profiles, then tick them on the Profiles page.
2. 2Choose Move or share in the bar above the table.
3. 3Choose Share to copy the profiles and keep the originals, or Move to remove the originals once the copies have arrived.
4. 4Choose the Destination workspace, then Share or Move.

Good to know

• An imported profile is a new profile. Nothing links it to the one it was exported from, and later changes to either do not reach the other.
• Importing the same file again with Skip creates nothing new, because the names are already taken.
• Safe merge keeps an existing profile's device identity, cookies and browser data, and updates its notes, group, tags and proxy from the file.
• The wording in the dialog's drop area is about account files from another tool, which the same dialog also reads. A PowerOps file is chosen in exactly the same way.

• Use Cloud Sync between computersCheck that Cloud Sync is on, close a profile on one computer and open it on another with its session intact, and understand why only one computer can have a profile open at a time.Next guide
• Organise profiles into groupsCreate groups, put profiles in them, and keep the groups in folders, so the Profiles page can show one job at a time and a bulk action reaches exactly the profiles you mean.Next guide
• Recover from download, opening, proxy and sync problemsWhat to do when Orbit Browser does not finish downloading, a profile will not open, a proxy fails, or a profile's session does not reach your other computer.Next guide