How to force a fresh install / complete uninstall
Hi,
I installed a security certificate (this may or may not be related) and after this Firefox wouldn't open. It stuck in a loop of "firefox is already running but not responding" - choosing to close it wouldn't solve it and the window would pop up over and over, despite me not actually trying to open it again.
I tried terminating the program in Task Manager and a full system restart, but this didn't solve it.
I have tried uninstalling and have also checked AppData to remove everything here. Despite seemingly removing it entirely, when I go to install from scratch it recognises that I am re-installing... so something is clearly still in the system somewhere.
Attempting to re-install eventually leads to a "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible," message.
So, I can't install Firefox at all now. Any advice would be much appreciated as I prefer Firefox and I'd like not to be forced to use Chrome! How do I completely remove Firefox to force a fresh install?
Extra info: I have tried everything outlined here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/uninstall-firefox-from-your-computer I am on Windows 10 Pro and I am installing as administrator.
Thanks in advance.
Alle svar (6)
Thanks, but I have tried the steps outlined in those before (for Windows though obviously). I don't actually have it installed anymore but neither can I install it because of the "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible," message.
I need to know how to entirely remove any trace of it in order to do a fresh install as I expect this is the only way to remove this issue.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.
How many profiles are listed?
How many should be there?
Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.
I can't open Firefox to try this.... as before, I no longer have Firefox installed... I can't complete the install. There's no profiles in the folder %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ because I had hoped by removing the data within APPDATA that this would solve the problem of not being able to complete the re-install.
hello i3xicon,
if you reboot your computer, you will get the option to enter windows in safe mode. I believe you will have a better opportunity to repair your o.s. in safe mode.
once in safe mode, you might just want to try initializing a system restore point to return your o.s. back to a former but operational state.
You probably left the profiles.ini and installs.ini files that register profiles.
Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder. One location for your personal data (e.g. bookmarks) and another location for temporary files like the disk cache.
Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>