Hello Plantje

go to ~/Library/Firefox ( The tilde character (~) refers to the current user's Home folder, so ~/Library is the /Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/Library folder)

then find profiles.ini file and rename it to profiles.iniOLD , then when you start firefox again, a new default profile folder will be created and only a single profile, the new "default", will be listed in the Profile Manager.

This new "default" profile doesn't contain any of the profile data or settings stored in your old "default" profile folder, which still exists but is no longer accessible from the Profile Manager.

Your existing Firefox user profile data, which includes bookmarks, passwords, cookies, preference settings and added extensions, will no longer appear in the new profile but you cantransfer the data from the old profile folder to the new default profile folder.

see also : Recovering important data from an old profile

If you can't find profiles.ini file open a Terminal window and type/check the next commands to see IF we can create a new profile:

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -CreateProfile test

OR

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -CreateProfile test

If you can create the profile, that way, then see Starting the Profile Manager, if starts correctly then create a profile (it is in the previous link) and we are ok. then probably you are able to transfer data from your old profile.

thank you

Hi ideato,

Thanks for ur quike reply. I tried it both there wasnt a profile.ini file and if i open /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin

i get this error or message

Last login: Thu Sep 26 08:54:57 on ttys000 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin ; exit; Mac-Pro-van-Joost-Plant:~ joost$ /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin ; exit; logout

[Proces voltooid]

and it try's to open firefox again but then give's the same error as i first posted

Hallo Joost

Try these locations:

• ~/Library/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/
• ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Both locations didnt exist there was a location ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/ but it had only a map extensions in it. i made the folder myself but still doesnt work here is a screenie.

You can use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

hmm still doenst work as i try to open the profile manager it will spit out this

hmm this stuff always happens to me even the people from mozilla cant help me

Hello did you try to write in Terminal window :

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -CreateProfile test

OR

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -CreateProfile test

to see if we can create a new profile ?

Nope i tried it did make a map but nog profiles.ini But when i openend the terminal there is a message popping up like on the screenshot wich say no profiles can be loaded or found if i press oke i cant do anything in the terminal

The Firefox profile folder should be present under Users (Gebruikers) and not under (global) Application support.
That is what '~' means.

• HD/Gebruikers/<username>/Bibliotheek/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/
• HD/Gebruikers/<username>/Bibliotheek/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/

Thnx! It helped a bit it still doenst work but now atleast i got a profiles.ini but this dont exit on my mac HD/Gebruikers/<username>/Bibliotheek/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/

here is a screenie how it looks now

What is the content of the profiles.ini file?

If you delete this profiles.ini file then Firefox will create a new profiles.ini and a new default profile.

You appear to have three profiles and you can checkout the date of files in it to see which has been used most recently and possibly recover some of your old personal data.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile

Thnx removing the profiles.ini worked!

Just reporting what fixed this for me:

Suddenly Firefox would always bail with the "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." message, even when starting in Terminal with -CreateProfile or safe mode. Even when completely deleting the "~/Library/Application Support/Firefox" folder, and doing a repair disk permissions. (The failure would recreate the folder and leave a "Crash Reports" folder inside, itself empty except for an "InstallTime" file.)

The solution for me was to delete "~/Library/Caches/Firefox".

Here is a simple solution but not as technical. It will not solve the .exe problem but will allow you to run Firefox.

Right click the FireFox icon to browse. Click- Run as Administrator

This should bypass the permissions and allow you to surf the web. It does not fix the internal permissions in the browser software. I tried a few posted suggestions but this works the best so far.

I've followed the steps to remove my old profile information, but FF still says the profile is missing or unavailable.

Quick question, Mozilla. Why the hell does your software do this?

I'm going to get on my soapbox for a minute. I am a software engineer, and I understand the SDLC. Why the HELL do you guys have a dialog box that pops up saying something like "sorry, you are out of luck" with absolutely nothing in there to help remedy the situation?

Right now, I cannot use FireFox at all, and all that you guys would need to do is add a button to "Create new profile...". That would AT LEAST allow me to open FireFox, and maybe do a little profile management.

But that isn't how you designed your software, and there seem to be a TON of people out there who have this issue all the time.

I am very unimpressed by this, guys. You are proving to be the Microsoft of the browser space.

Thanks for nothing.

You can only overcome this problem if you delete the profiles.ini file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

Did you look for the profiles.ini file?

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Note that the "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and later Window 7+ versions and the "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K are hidden folders.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

Note that Windows hides some file extensions by default.
Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see the name "profiles" without file extension.
You can see the real file type (file extension) in the Properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.

Note that there may also be a Profiles folder that stores the actual profiles.

So, like, I get it. "Manually do a bunch of stuff that you have no business doing".

Pasting the same response again and again is actually just making people more and more angry at you.

What you need to do is FIX THE PROBLEM. Firefox should start under a default profile if none is available.

Chrome seems to have this figured out pretty well.

This issue usually only happens if you delete the profile folder manually and not by using the Profile Manager.
The profiles.ini file lists all profiles that are registered and can be used by Firefox.
If you delete profile folders yourself then you need to edit or delete the profiles.ini file as well.
You can't just remove the folder.
On rare occasions it is possible that the permissions get mixed up and that is causing this problem.
In such a case it is best to delete the Firefox folder and/or the Mozilla folder as well in case you d not have other (Mozilla) software installed like Thunderbird or SeaMonkey that uses the Mozilla folder for the profiles.

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile