Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords and user preferences in a set of files called your profile, which is stored in a separate location from the Firefox program files. You can have multiple Firefox profiles, each containing a separate set of user information. The Profile Manager allows you to create, remove, rename, and switch profiles.
- If you have (or plan to have) multiple installations of Firefox on one computer, see Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation.
- If you are troubleshooting a problem with Firefox: The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.
Table of Contents
Starting the Profile Manager
Manage profiles when Firefox is open
Type about:profiles into the address bar and press the EnterReturn key. This will open the About Profiles page, where you can view, create and manage your Firefox profiles.
The About Profiles page includes the following options:
- Creating a profile section below for details). After you finish creating the new profile, it will be listed in the Profile Manager. The new profile will become the default and will be used the next time you start Firefox. Click this and follow the prompts in the Create Profile Wizard (see the
To manage profiles, find the profile you want to change and choose from these buttons underneath that profile:
- Click this to change the name of a profile in the Profile Manager. Note: This does not rename the folder containing the files for the profile.
- Removing a profile section below for more information. Click this to delete a profile. (The profile in use cannot be deleted.) Don't Delete Files is the preferred option. See the
- This option allows you to switch profiles. Click this to make Firefox use this profile by default at startup.
- When you click this, another Firefox window will open using that profile.
Start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed
- If Firefox is open, close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu and select .Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select .Click the Firefox menu and select .
- Press + R on the keyboard. A Run dialog will open.
- In the Run dialog box, type in:
firefox.exe -P
You can use-P
,-p
or-ProfileManager
(any of them should work). - Click . The Firefox Choose User Profile window should open.
Multiple Firefox installations
You can have multiple Firefox programs installed in different locations. To start the Profile Manager for a specific Firefox installation, replace firefox.exe
in the above instructions with the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P.
Examples:
Firefox (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P
Firefox (32-bit) on 32-bit Windows (or 64-bit Firefox on 64-bit Windows)
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P
- If Firefox is open, close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu and select .Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select .Click the Firefox menu and select .
- Using Finder, navigate to /Applications/Utilities.
- Open the Terminal application.
- In the Terminal application, enter the following:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -P
Note: If your Firefox application is in a location other thanImportant: there's a space after the path, before/Applications/Firefox.app/
, adjust the entry.-P
(You can use-P
,-p
or-ProfileManager
after the path; any of them should work.) - Press Return. The Firefox Profile Manager (Choose User Profile) window should open.
If Firefox is already included in your Linux distribution or if you have installed Firefox with the package manager of your Linux distribution:
- If Firefox is open, close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu and select .Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select .Click the Firefox menu and select .
- In Terminal run:
firefox -P
The P is capitalized. Alternatively, you can use -ProfileManager
instead of -P
.
The Firefox Profile Manager (Choose User Profile) window should open.
If the Profile Manager window still does not open, Firefox may have been running in the background, even though it was not visible. Close all instances of Firefox or restart the computer and then try again.
Create, remove or rename a profile
You can create, remove or rename a profile either from the Choose User Profile window when Firefox is closed or from the About Profiles page when Firefox is open, as follows:
Creating a profile
- Click the button in the Choose User Profile window, or click the button in the About Profiles page, to start the Create Profile Wizard.
- Click
- Disregard the Warning: If you choose your own folder location for the profile, select a new or empty folder. If you choose a folder that isn't empty and you later remove the profile and choose the Delete Files option, everything inside that folder will be deleted. prompt unless you wish to choose where to store the profile on your computer.
- To create the new profile, click .
You will be taken back to the Choose User Profile window or the About Profiles page and the new profile will be listed. When you first start Firefox with the new profile, you will be prompted to sign in to your Mozilla account so that you can sync your data with the new profile (see below).
Removing a profile
You can remove an existing profile as follows:
- Select the profile to remove and click in the Choose User Profile window, or click the button in the About Profiles page under the name of the profile you wish to delete.
- Confirm that you wish to delete the profile:
- removes the profile from the Profile Manager yet retains the profile data files on your computer in the storage folder, so that your information is not lost. Don't Delete Files is the preferred option because it saves the old profile's folder and allows you to recover the files to a new profile.
- removes the profile and its files (including the profile bookmarks, settings, passwords, etc.). If you use the Delete Files option, the profile folder and files will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.
- interrupts the profile deletion.
Renaming a profile
You can rename a profile as follows:
- Select the profile to rename in the Choose User Profile window and click or click the button in the About Profiles page under the profile you wish to rename.
- Enter the new name for the profile. Type in the new profile name, and click on
- Note: The folder containing the files for the profile is not renamed.
.
Options
These options are only available when you start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed.
Work Offline
Choosing this option loads the selected profile and starts Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can view previously viewed web pages and experiment with your profile.
Use the selected profile without asking at startup
When you have multiple profiles, this option tells Firefox what to do at startup:
- If you check this option, Firefox will automatically load the selected profile at startup. To access other profiles, you must start the Profile Manager first.
- If you uncheck this option, Firefox will show you the Profile Manager each time you start Firefox, so that you can select a profile to use.
Use Sync with a new profile
You can sync your new profile with other Firefox profiles and devices. To learn more, see How do I set up Sync on my computer? and How do I choose what information to sync on Firefox?
Moving a profile
To copy all of your Firefox data and settings to another Firefox installation (for example, when you get a new computer), you can make a backup of your Firefox profile, then restore it in your new location. For instructions, see Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.
Recovering information from an old profile
If you have important information from an old Firefox profile, such as bookmarks, passwords, or user preferences, you can transfer that information to a new Firefox profile by copying the associated files. For instructions, see Recovering important data from an old profile. You can also switch to a previous profile to recover old profile data. See Recover user data missing after Firefox update for details.