Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings
Revision Information
- Revision id: 35716
- Created:
- Creator: ideato
- Comment: RENAME "in the upper-right corner of the Troubleshooting Information page" TO "inside the Reset Firefox to its default state frame"
- Reviewed: Yes
- Reviewed:
- Reviewed by: Verdi
- Is approved? No
- Is current revision? No
- Ready for localization: No
Revision Source
Revision Content
Over time Firefox can develop problems like slowness, crashing, unwanted toolbars and more. Troubleshooting and fixing these issues can be difficult and time consuming. The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information.
What does the reset feature do?
All of your Firefox settings and personal information is stored in your profile folder. The reset feature works by creating a new profile folder for you while saving your:
- Bookmarks
- Browsing history
- Passwords
- Cookies
- Web form auto-fill information
- Extensions and themes: Although they can be incredibly helpful, some extensions and themes can cause problems. If you need to reinstall important extensions, see Find and install add-ons to add features to Firefox for help.
- Open tabs, windows and tab groups: The reset process will close all open websites. Since your bookmarks and browsing history are saved you should still be able to easily return to your favorite sites. See Where can I find my bookmarks? and Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox for more info. Also, since your cookies are saved, you shouldn't be logged out of any websites you were logged into before the reset.
- Site-specific preferences, search engines, personal dictionary, download history, DOM storage, security certificate settings, security device settings, download actions, plugin MIME types, toolbar customizations and user styles are also not saved. See the Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data article for more information about these.
After the reset is finished, your old Firefox profile information will be placed on your desktop in a folder named "Old Firefox Data." If the reset didn't fix your problem you can restore some of the information not saved by copying files to the new profile that was created. See Copying files between profile folders for instructions. If you don't need this folder any longer, you should delete it as it contains sensitive information.
How do I reset Firefox to its default state?
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the button, go over to the sub-menu
(on Windows XP, click the menu at the top of the Firefox window) and select . - Click the button inside the Reset Firefox to its default state frame.
- To continue, click in the confirmation window that opens.
- Firefox will close and be reset. When it's done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click and Firefox will open. That's it – you're done!
- On the menu bar, click the menu and select .
- Click the button in the upper-right corner of the Troubleshooting Information page.
- To continue, click in the confirmation sheet that slides down.
- Firefox will close and be reset. When it's done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click and Firefox will open. That's it – you're done!
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the menu and select .
- Click the button in the upper-right corner of the Troubleshooting Information page.
- To continue, click in the confirmation window that opens.
- Firefox will close and be reset. When it's done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click and Firefox will open. That's it – you're done!