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Profile Missing "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." Unable to Open or Uninstall Firefox

micahpstovall
micahpstovall
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I have been running into an issue any time that I try to open Firefox, I recive a pop up stating "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible."

I have tried all of the suggestions noted within the Mozilla support and documentation.

I am running Windows 11 and was using my machine normally. I cleared the cache within Firefox under the settings and was able to use the browser for 20 more minutes without any issue. I tried to open a second Firefox window and received the Profile Missing error. From here I closed out instance of Firefox which I had open and tried to open up Firefox again. I was greeted with the same "Profile Missing" error.

When I navigate to the location of the Firefox profile (%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\) there exists a profiles.ini file along with a "Profiles" folder.

I have tried deleting the profiles.ini file, as the Mozilla documentation says that doing so will cause Firefox to generate a new profile, however after doing so I continue to receive the "Profile Missing" error.

I am unable to access the Profile Manager within Firefox to make changes to a profile or create a new one as stated within the Mozilla documentation, due to the application being blocked by the "Profile Missing" error causing the browser not to open.

I have been running into an issue any time that I try to open Firefox, I recive a pop up stating "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." I have tried all of the suggestions noted within the Mozilla support and documentation. I am running Windows 11 and was using my machine normally. I cleared the cache within Firefox under the settings and was able to use the browser for 20 more minutes without any issue. I tried to open a second Firefox window and received the Profile Missing error. From here I closed out instance of Firefox which I had open and tried to open up Firefox again. I was greeted with the same "Profile Missing" error. When I navigate to the location of the Firefox profile (%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\) there exists a ''profiles.ini'' file along with a "''Profiles''" folder. I have tried deleting the ''profiles.ini'' file, as the Mozilla documentation says that doing so will cause Firefox to generate a new profile, however after doing so I continue to receive the "Profile Missing" error. I am unable to access the Profile Manager within Firefox to make changes to a profile or create a new one as stated within the Mozilla documentation, due to the application being blocked by the "Profile Missing" error causing the browser not to open.
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All Replies (3)

micahpstovall
micahpstovall Question owner
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Edit:

I forgot to note on the experience of trying to unstill and reinstall Firefox.

I have followed the Mozilla documentation to uninstall Firefox on Windows 11 but I am unable to start the uninstall process. I receive the "Error launching installer" pop up.

I have deleted all of the Firefox files and tried to reinstall but am still unable to open Firefox after doing so.

Modified by micahpstovall

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Did you possibly install the Firefox MSIX version from the Microsoft Store as that version keeps its profile in a different location?

micahpstovall
micahpstovall Question owner
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Oddly enough, while debugging and starting an ASP.NET 6 application in Visual Studio 2022 the browser was set to open in Firefox and an instance of Firefox was actually able to open.

This has seemed to of resolved the "Missing Profile" issue and Firefox may have been able to reset the profile on the startup as I am able to open Firefox windows and use it normally.

Some context that might help: I am on a work machine and an unable to access the Microsoft Store, sometime during the Firefox issues occurring and being resolved yesterday I disconnected from my company VPN and reconnected before starting up the Visual Studio instance which opened Firefox. The profiles.ini file existed in the folder when Firefox was able to open.

I hope some of this might be helpful in resolving the problem in the future!