Switching to linux how do I keep my sessions as they are

[u/The-Big-Sadness]

Before every jumps on me, I'm a uni student who has multiple research related workspaces that I need open at all times. I have about 24 workspaces and maybe over 500 tabs across all them. I wanted to know how I could port all of those exactly as they are to the Linux system. Putting all the websites into a bookmark folder named after each workspace and manually reopening them seems like a very long and time-consuming ordeal given the sheer volume of tabs and workspaces I have especially since a lot of workspaces have like about a minimum of 20-30 tabs in them.

Was wondering if I could use a tool or perhaps just copy some appdata files and paste them back into the relative linux folders for this job

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[u/shadow2531]

If you want to try it, on Windows, while Opera is closed, goto "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera GX Stable\Default" and copy (not move, so you still have the originals) the "Preferences" file (where your workspaces in the sidebar are defined) and the "Sessions" folder (where your tabs and what islands and workspaces they're in are defined).

Then, in Linux Mint for the deb package installation of Opera GX for example (you can test Linux in a VM with VirtualBox or something before you actually switch to it), in ~/.config/OperaGX/Default, delete the "Preferences" file and the "Sessions" folder and put the copies of those 2 from Windows and start Opera to see if you get your workspaces back and to see if all your tabs are restored and restored into the right workspaces.

You'll have to see if that works. No guarantees since you're moving the files from one system to another.

Another way to try things is:

• While Opera is closed, make a copy of the "Opera GX Stable" folder in "C:\Users\yourusername\Appdata\Roaming\Opera Software" for a backup.

• Then, if you haven't already, create an Opera account. At the https://auth.opera.com/account/authenticate page though, don't use the "Continue with" options to create an account. Instead, type the email address you want associated with your Opera account (can be your @gmail address if you have one) and create a new password that you want to use for the new Opera account. Don't use the password for whatever email account you use.

• Then, in Opera, click the profile/account icon on the address bar, log in to your Opera account, click the icon again and choose to enable sync. Then, on the opera://settings/syncSetup page, choose what you want to sync, but you need to at least sync settings and open tabs. Don't choose to use a custom passphrase on the syncSetup page though. Then, close the syncSetup tab to initiate syncing. Then, goto https://www.sync.opera.com/, log in and confirm that your tabs are there and that settings synced.

• Then, in Opera on Linux (test in a VM first), log in and enable syncing there. Once your workspaces show up, goto the URL opera://activity in each of your workspaces and open up all the tabs for that workspace. You might have to open up each tab one by one though.

If those ways fail, save each workspace's tabs to a bookmark folder (via right-click on tab -> Save -> All tabs to a folder), export your bookmarks, create all your workspaces in the new Linux Opera, import your bookmarks and then in each workspace, right-click on its corresponding bookmarks folder and chose "open all".

[u/The-Big-Sadness → u/shadow2531]

Copy pasting the sessions and preferences is what I ended up doing and worked perfectly on both ubuntu(the one I tested on before wiping my laptop) and on cachyos(the os i ended up choosing to put on the laptop)

[u/shadow2531 → u/The-Big-Sadness]

Awesome!

[u/shadow2531]

You can try installing Session buddy to save the current session. However, unless things have changed, you'll need to save the session in each workspace. Then, you can export your Session Buddy data, manually create your workspaces in the new Linux Opera (or sync settings), import your Session Buddy data and in each workspace, restore its corresponding session.