Are there step-by-step instructions for switching between profiles?
I am using Firefox 18.0 with Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1. I have moved my profiles from my old computer (Firefox 17 with Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit) to Users> Mike> AppData> Roaming> Mozilla> Firefox> Profiles. When I choose a profile (and start Firefox), the default profile from FF 18 appears. I cannot get FF to offer me a choice of profile (yes, I have unchecked the box). I have tried to change the default profile in Users> Mike> AppData> Roaming> Mozilla> Firefox> Profiles, but when I start Firefox the same default profile from FF 18 appears. I have even installed FF 17 on a different drive, but when I start Firefox the same default profile from FF 18 appears. Is there a way to run FF while being able to switch between different groups of add-ons?
Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 11.0.01
- Qualys BrowserCheck Plugin 1.5.48.1
Application
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0
More Information
The profile folders you copied are not in the "master list" that Firefox uses to populate the profile manager. You might need to edit the following file to add the information for those profiles:
%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini
Note: I've never tried that myself.
With respect to switching between different groups of add-ons, most add-ons require a restart of Firefox to enable/disable them. Since there's no convenient way to avoid that, you might as well use separate profiles.
See also:
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bypassing_the_Profile_Manager
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile
Use the -no-remote command line switch to open another Firefox instance with its own profile and to run different Firefox instances simultaneously.