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Can't get Firefox to open. Get an error message stating profile is missing or has been deleted. Please help.

  • 17 Antworten
  • 3 haben dieses Problem
  • 5 Aufrufe
  • Letzte Antwort von SunshinesMom

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I have an iMac. Operating system is High Sierra 10.13.6. Firefox was running slowly today and a pop up window came up on the bottom of my screen and gave me the option of "refreshing" Firefox. I hit the refresh button, and it was taking FOREVER to refresh Firefox, so I clicked out of it (the little red button) mid-refresh. Ever since then, when I try to open Firefox, I get a message stating that Firefox cannot be opened because my profile is missing or deleted. Shortly after this happened, a folder appeared on my desktop titled "Old Firefox Data" which contains about 60 items. I did not create this folder. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox. I have also tried starting my iMac in safe mode, then restarting in regular mode. Was on the phone with Apple Tech Support for over an hour and they were unable to help. They are aware of the "Old Firefox Data" folder but they didn't know what to do with it. I am not tech or computer savvy. Other people have posted this exact question before, and answers have been provided, however I don't understand the answers or the instructions that supposedly solve this problem. This is why I'm asking this question again. I am hoping someone can help and provide a simplified answer or simplified instructions to solve this problem. Thank you.

I have an iMac. Operating system is High Sierra 10.13.6. Firefox was running slowly today and a pop up window came up on the bottom of my screen and gave me the option of "refreshing" Firefox. I hit the refresh button, and it was taking FOREVER to refresh Firefox, so I clicked out of it (the little red button) mid-refresh. Ever since then, when I try to open Firefox, I get a message stating that Firefox cannot be opened because my profile is missing or deleted. Shortly after this happened, a folder appeared on my desktop titled "Old Firefox Data" which contains about 60 items. I did not create this folder. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox. I have also tried starting my iMac in safe mode, then restarting in regular mode. Was on the phone with Apple Tech Support for over an hour and they were unable to help. They are aware of the "Old Firefox Data" folder but they didn't know what to do with it. I am not tech or computer savvy. Other people have posted this exact question before, and answers have been provided, however I don't understand the answers or the instructions that supposedly solve this problem. This is why I'm asking this question again. I am hoping someone can help and provide a simplified answer or simplified instructions to solve this problem. Thank you.

Ausgewählte Lösung

I just want to take a moment to thank both of you for all of your advice, suggestions, and instructions. You both seem very knowledgeable about browsers and computers. I did change the permissions and unfortunately, it didn't help. I also called Best Buy Geek Squad, called Apple again (both online and in-store), and called 2 computer repair shops in my area. No one knew how to fix it. It got to the point where I was crying out of frustration and exasperation. I decided to do a time machine restore back to the date before any of this happened (which was last Sunday). It worked and now Firefox works beautifully. I wish I would have thought of doing that sooner. No one ever suggested that I do a time machine restore, it was something that I thought of myself. Again, thank you both for trying to help. I apologize for not fully being able to grasp the suggestions, advice, and instructions that were provided. My knowledge of computers and browsers is very basic. I hope this thread can help someone else.

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Alle Antworten (17)

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Hi, Old Firefox Data is your old Profile you were running. As to why it did not continue and make a new clean Profile, unsure.

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.


  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  • if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
  • persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

You will have to edit profiles.ini to make it point to the profile you recovered from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to make Firefox recognize it.

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I greatly appreciate your attempt to help, and I'm sure what you said to me makes perfect sense to you. However from my perspective, your answers and instructions might as well have been written in Korean. I don't understand a word you said. As I stated in my original question, I am not computer or tech savvy. I am in need of simple answers and simple instructions. Your answers and instructions seem very complex to me, and I don't understand them. I'm sorry.

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I have clicked on every link you have provided and examined all information provided. At this point, I have spent close to 12 hours of my time trying to understand and solve this problem. I have a couple of questions. When I open the "applications support" folder, there is no Firefox folder there (there is a Mozilla folder there though, although it looks like nothing is on it). I tried dragging and dropping the "Old Firefox Data" folder to the "applications support" folder, and I got a warning message stating that moving the "Old Firefox Data" folder to the "applications support" folder would delete the "Old Firefox Data" folder from iCloud. I didn't do it because I was scared to. If I went ahead and did this, would this solve my problem? Also, I have a MacBook Air that has Firefox on it. Its an older version but it has most of my bookmarks and other pertinent info on it. Would it be possible to do a data transfer of only the Firefox app from my MacBook air to my iMac? Would that also solve my problem? If I had a choice, I'd prefer to solve my problem via the first method I suggested. I'm sorry but I'm just looking for a simple, easy way to solve my problem without having to do multiple steps and transfer multiple files separately.

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I did not expect you to spend 12 hrs on something you do not have a clue about. I expected you to ask and realize that there is more info then you can grasp and ask for further help.

Old Firefox Data = Profile

Inside Profile = bookmarks and history in the places.sqlite

bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder

No idea about icloud and as to why something on your desktop would be in the cloud. Am a Windows person.

Go to your MacBook Air and do this :

Save as HTML

Put on a USB drive or email it to yourself.

While in MacAir look at your Passwords and see if need any of them.

Now delete everything of Firefox dump it all from the one that needs help.

Reinstall with Current Release Firefox 62.0.2 with a Full Version Installer

For future always backup up your bookmarks to HTML. They are small enough to go anywhere in the world and can be drag and dropped into any browser window/Tab in the world.

Also from now on please do this :

Geändert am von Shadow110

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I appreciate your response and your efforts to help. This is just too many steps and is just too confusing and complex. There has to be an easier way to do this. There just has to be. Macs are a completely different ball of wax compared to PC's. It would be exceptionally helpful to me if I could get a response from someone who is familiar with Macs. When I first got my MacBook air, I was able to wirelessly transfer and copy everything on my iMac hard drive onto my MacBook Air. This is why I was wondering if I might be able to do this again, but with Firefox only. Since you "aren't a Mac person", its understandable that you might not know anything about this. Also, I didn't backup anything on iCloud. That was done automatically. If I transferred the "Old Firefox Data" folder to the "applications support" folder, the "Old Firefox Data" would then be stored on my iMac as opposed to being stored in iCloud (at least that's what the pop up message said). I'm getting really, really frustrated at this point. I'm desperate for a simple, easy to understand solution to my problem. If no simple, easy to understand solution exists, then I may have to pay some tech support guy to come to my house to try and fix this issue. This will create a financial hardship for me but losing my sanity over this is definitely the greater of the two evils.

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Problem is is your over thinking it.

Make a copy of OldFirefoxData and put any where you want to. Do whatever you want with the other one.

Do this to get to our bookmarks back :

Go to your MacBook Air and do this :

Save as HTML

Put on a USB drive or email it to yourself.

Done/Finished

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Again, thank you for your advice and instructions. I greatly appreciate your efforts to help. Bookmarks on my MacBook air aren't up to date. I hardly ever use my MacBook air. I want to restore my entire Firefox profile if that's possible. I suspect you will just direct me to articles that you've already posted links for. I made a copy of my "Old Firefox Data" folder and dragged and dropped the original "Old Firefox Data" folder into my Applications Support folder and that did nothing unfortunately. Tried restarting my computer. Still no success. I also contacted Geek Squad at Best Buy and they weren't willing to help without a substantial fee. But I did chat with them for awhile and honestly I don't think they know how to fix it. I also called a local Apple repair shop (Experimac) and they indicated that didn't know how to fix this problem either.

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The first link doesn't apply to me because I am using High Sierra and disc permissions cannot be manually repaired or altered on this OS. The second two links also don't apply because there is no Firefox folder inside of the Applications Support folder.

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Also I have already tried booting up my iMac in safe mode.

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Also there is no firefox listed under Library/cache

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ok see this page from apple:

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I never changed my permissions, therefore they don't need to be reset. Article states to reset permissions only if you changed them.

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SunshinesMom said

I never changed my permissions, therefore they don't need to be reset. Article states to reset permissions only if you changed them.

other softwares can.

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Ok I didn't know this. Thank you. I'll try manually changing the permissions and see what happens. I'll report back.

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Ausgewählte Lösung

I just want to take a moment to thank both of you for all of your advice, suggestions, and instructions. You both seem very knowledgeable about browsers and computers. I did change the permissions and unfortunately, it didn't help. I also called Best Buy Geek Squad, called Apple again (both online and in-store), and called 2 computer repair shops in my area. No one knew how to fix it. It got to the point where I was crying out of frustration and exasperation. I decided to do a time machine restore back to the date before any of this happened (which was last Sunday). It worked and now Firefox works beautifully. I wish I would have thought of doing that sooner. No one ever suggested that I do a time machine restore, it was something that I thought of myself. Again, thank you both for trying to help. I apologize for not fully being able to grasp the suggestions, advice, and instructions that were provided. My knowledge of computers and browsers is very basic. I hope this thread can help someone else.