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How to repair or re-create missing profiles.ini and installs.ini files ?

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On another user's account, cannot go back to earlier FF version, profile files missing. Cannot start _any_ revision, old or current (using OSX Sierra on that user & different FF versions - the shared data you see her is NOT the same ) details here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1356226

I don't see the profiles.ini and installs.ini files within the Profiles folder. I see the general format from looking at good ones in my own Profile.

Don't understand why some are "locked."

How do I re-create them using the existing Profile names, and how do I denote which to startup using (the default folder?) Can't find any Help files to explain.

This is driving me mad, we are using the same physical computer because mine broke, so I start it up off an external drive containing my drive, then I have to shut down & restart on the internal drive to work on it, but then I don't have access to my saved files or to post on the forum.

On another user's account, cannot go back to earlier FF version, profile files missing. Cannot start _any_ revision, old or current (using OSX Sierra on that user & different FF versions - the shared data you see her is NOT the same ) details here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1356226 I don't see the profiles.ini and installs.ini files within the Profiles folder. I see the general format from looking at good ones in my own Profile. Don't understand why some are "locked." How do I re-create them using the existing Profile names, and how do I denote which to startup using (the default folder?) Can't find any Help files to explain. This is driving me mad, we are using the same physical computer because mine broke, so I start it up off an external drive containing my drive, then I have to shut down & restart on the internal drive to work on it, but then I don't have access to my saved files or to post on the forum.

All Replies (7)

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I went back into my wife's user account, created a New Profile and assigned it to the desired old profile. BUT when I tested it by trying to open a new browser window, it refused to do so - saying its dangerous to use an old profile with this version of FF. SO BACK TO THE PROBLEM I HAD MUCH EARLIER. How do I defeat the coded version/install date information in the Profile.ini & Installs.ini files ????

NEW PROBLEM: Before I went back to my wife's computer, I tested the instructions on mine. When I came back & opened FF -- it had reverted to a very, very old profile.

I deduce that when I deleted the new Test Profile, it did not ask me what profile I wanted to become the Default. So it chose a random one from the many present, or maybe the one above it in the displayed list.

MAJOR BUG - about:profiles does not tell the the Last Modifed Date or Creation Date of the profiles, so the user has no effing way to know which one he might want to make the Default.

It is not apparant how about:profiles chooses to order its display - alphabetically by the random string? oldest or newest creation date on top? on bottom ?

It should display the default at the top, but ABOVE the list of all available profiles, thus keeping the default in its proper order - and the order should be newest modified date at the top.

Understand why this makes me so angry?

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I think this already failed, but what if I note the current default profile, and just copy/past ALL the files from the desired profile into it -- it ought to maintain the coded version/date info, right?

Or will the dates of the files I paste cause the "using an old profile" message & stop FF from running?

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ANOTHER BUG: about:profiles claims it will open another WINDOW to test the new default profile. Wrong. It opens ANOTHER COPY OF FIREFOX. You get system errors trying to run two copies of the same app.

Also, it opens it on the far right of the Mac toolbar - so the user DOES NOT SEE IT because you look at the center, where you expect to see the app you want to click on -- its in or even beyond peripheral vision.

Getting more angry...

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FireFoxSucks said

I went back into my wife's user account, created a New Profile and assigned it to the desired old profile. BUT when I tested it by trying to open a new browser window, it refused to do so - saying its dangerous to use an old profile with this version of FF. SO BACK TO THE PROBLEM I HAD MUCH EARLIER. How do I defeat the coded version/install date information in the Profile.ini & Installs.ini files ????

If you want to override downgrade protection in a profile, see this article, it's toward the end: Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation.

NEW PROBLEM: Before I went back to my wife's computer, I tested the instructions on mine. When I came back & opened FF -- it had reverted to a very, very old profile. I deduce that when I deleted the new Test Profile, it did not ask me what profile I wanted to become the Default. So it chose a random one from the many present, or maybe the one above it in the displayed list.

The about:profiles page does not allow deleting the default profile. You must have gone around the design.

MAJOR BUG - about:profiles does not tell the the Last Modifed Date or Creation Date of the profiles, so the user has no effing way to know which one he might want to make the Default.

It's unfortunate. You can use the Open in Finder button on the Root Directory row to look at the files and see which ones are most recent.

FireFoxSucks said

ANOTHER BUG: about:profiles claims it will open another WINDOW to test the new default profile. Wrong. It opens ANOTHER COPY OF FIREFOX. You get system errors trying to run two copies of the same app. Also, it opens it on the far right of the Mac toolbar - so the user DOES NOT SEE IT because you look at the center, where you expect to see the app you want to click on -- its in or even beyond peripheral vision. Getting more angry...

Yes, each profile you run needs to run in its own separate instance of Firefox.app/firefox.exe. But Firefox should allow that as long as it is a separate profile. MacOS doesn't like it?

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"The about:profiles page does not allow deleting the default profile. You must have gone around the design."

You mean that it has a programming flaw which ALLOWS the default profile to be deleted from within about:profiles. It should at least WARN before doing something that is known to break it.

"Yes, each profile you run needs to run in its own separate instance of Firefox.app/firefox.exe. But Firefox should allow that as long as it is a separate profile. MacOS doesn't like it?"

I don't recall if Make New Profile automatically sets it to be the default, or if I said yes to some prompt. If the first opened was running the "wrong" profile & the newly-opened running the (old) Test Profile, they would be different profiles.

Should one run the Test "Window" before or after making the profile being tested the Default ?

Can you start up two copies of FF (with different profiles) simply by using the Test Profile feature?

But the point is that either I need to make this "too old" profile work with the version installed, OR I have to delete FF and shelter all the Profiles, then re-install the old one. But I already did that, and got the error refusing to open FF in the first place.

Because the profiles are not dated, I can't tell which was the profile in use when the accidental series of FF upgrades occurred -- and it seems that every upgrade altered the profile after copying it to the new revision.

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So I spent about 3 hours on this. First tried to find an existing Profile to use for a New Profile From Folder, with FF 64. I figured since it won't even run with date:version mismatches, I should start with the oldest FF I have, and find a Profile that would work with contains Bookmarks.

I DID have a later FF, maybe v72, into which I pasted bookmarks from... I think I know which profile ... but I also deleted that FF72.app, forgetting that the profile is keyed to it by the Installation Code. A newly unpacked copy of FF72 will NOT grab that Profile.

A huge problem is that you can have multiple copies of a profile name - in different profile folders, but also in the SAME profile folder if you used it to create a a New Profile From Folder.

Another huge problem is that even if you change the name in About:Profile, FF does NOT change the filename in the Finder. So the only way to keep track of which I haved tested is a spreadsheet.

Still unsure if I should let every new install of a version use the same FIREFOX folder, or if need to keep changing the Firefox folder name/removing the folder, so it builds a fresh FIREFOX folder for itself.

And that user does not have Excel, and OpenOffice is very different. So I'm wasting time & energy struggling with just using the damn app; it doesn't understand what my fingers are telling it to do with CMD-whatever.

Does FF upgrade ONE version when it auto-updates, or always to the latest? I THINK the former.

So I changed tactics, trying to use bookmark backup file, but it does not work:::

RESTORING BOOKMARKS FROM BACKUP FILE - LOOKS LIKE THEY MUST ACTUALLY BE IN THE PROFILE-IN-USE https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

Click Bookmarks and then click the Show All Bookmarks bar at the bottom. In the [icon] Library window, click [icon] the button and then select Restore. WHEN I "SHOW ALL BOOKMARKS" THE POPUP APPEARS BUT THE LIBRARY WINDOW GOES AWAY THERE IS NO "up/down arrow" ICON ANYWHERE !!!

The bookmark backup file can either be a manual backup (see above) or one of the automatic dated backups located inside the Firefox profile folder named bookmarkbackups folder. Place the bookmark backup file on your transfer media (for example a Flash drive) and copy it to the desktop (or any location) of the other computer. You can then restore the backup from the Firefox Library window, using the Choose File… option, as described in the Restoring from backups section above.

SO FIREFOX WILL AUTOMAGICALLY SEARCH MY ENTIRE COMPUTER LOOKING FOR BOOKMARK BACKUP FILES ??? NONSENSE - OTHERWISE IT WOULD ALREADY HAVE FOUND EVERY FILE WITHIN EVERY PROFILE !!!!! I just copied & pasted one to the SHARED folder, and Firefox is NOT finding it - does not show up in the Bookmarks popup. And the LIBRARY popup still goes away when the Bookmarks popup appears. SO NOW I PASTED IT INTO THE PROFILE-IN-USE (AFTER QUITTING FF) FAILED TO FIND IT - SAME BEHAVIOR WITH THE POPUPS WINDOWS TOO. SO NOW I MOVED IT INTO THE 'BOOKMARKS BACKUPS" FOLDER WITHIN THE PROFILE-IN-USE STILL FAILS TO FIND IT

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"Show All Bookmarks" should open the Library window. Maybe it was called something different on older versions; hard to remember. Either way:

The bottom item on the Restore menu is "Choose File..." which should open Finder and let you load a bookmark backup from any location. I suggest moving the file you want to restore to your desktop for easier access.

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