Firefox Community Forum

Hello, When I went to launch Firefox after starting up my PC this morning, I was greeted with: "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible".

I went right to the Mozilla forums and found the help page [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing...] . In this article it detailed how I should go into my AppData, then Mozilla, then Firefox, and look to see where my profile.ini file is. My profile.ini file was there, alongside the installs.ini and a few other folders. I attempted also to launch the profile manager using run and the "firefox.exe -P" command, but I got the same profile error as when I tried launching the app. The help page then recommended deleting the profile.ini file and then launching Firefox to hopefully remake the default profiles.ini file and enable me to launch Firefox, so I attempted that. When I tried relaunching Firefox, the profiles.ini file did not re-appear in my Firefox folder.

I then tried deleting the Firefox folder itself, and relaunching Firefox. This resulted in it being remade, but with just 2 folders left: Crash Reports and Pending Pings. Obviously that's not ideal, so I right clicked the Firefox folder and used the Windows "Previous versions" feature to restore the Firefox folder to a backup of how it was this morning. I then re-tried launching and I still got the same missing profiles error message. I also briefly attempted manually making a new profiles.ini file with notepad, and pointing it towards my Profile withing my Profiles folder, but that still resulted in the same missing profiles error.

This is basically where I am at now. I have confirmed that I do in fact see my actual profile in my "C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles" folder, and as far as I can tell my profiles.ini file correctly points towards it. I did another reset of my Firefox folder to a backup of where I was at this morning before attempting anything. I can confirm my Windows account (Admin, and only account on the computer) has full read and write access to all Folders and files within the Mozilla folder, although I will mention some of the files in the Firefox folder were marked with the "Read-Only" attribute (not sure if that matters, but I tried unchecking those and still no luck)

As far as I can tell I have thoroughly exhausted all the easily accessible tips on the internet for solving this, so I am wondering what to try next?

TLDR: Error: Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible" Already Attempted (And failed): -deleting and prompting a remake of the profiles.ini folder -using firefox.exe -P to launch Profile manager -deleting Firefox folder to prompt a remake of that -multiple uninstalls and reinstalls of Firefox -manually remaking profiles.ini file after it didn't come back after deletion

Will link images of (1) profiles.ini file. (2) Profiles folder.

I got a Firefox update recently and have not been able to access Flickr since then. I am getting a message that the page is not redirecting correctly. I am attaching the error message. I am running with standard firefox protection. I have cleared cache and cookies. I have also added Flickr as an exception to Firefox enhanced privacy tracking. Firefox is up to date (version 134.0.1 (64 bit)). Anyone else having this issue or know the solution?

I’m running into a limitation with Firefox profiles involving the original Profile Manager (about:profiles) and the new Profiles menu in the toolbar.

I previously created multiple profiles using the original Profile Manager (about:profiles), for example profiles A, B, and C. These profiles still function normally and can be launched through about:profiles, but they do not appear in the new Profiles menu in the toolbar.

I also tried using the “Copy this profile” option available from the new Profiles menu. This made it clear that the feature does not work with profiles created via about:profiles. For example, when I open profile A, I expected that I could use “Copy this profile” to copy profile A into an existing profile like profile B (which was also created using about:profiles). However, this is not possible. Profiles A, B, and C remain isolated from the new Profiles menu and cannot be accessed, copied, or managed through it.

At the moment, profiles created with the original Profile Manager (about:profiles) can only be accessed through that manager and cannot be transferred into the new Profiles menu in the toolbar.

Is there an official fix or a workaround that achieves the same result—specifically, transferring or integrating all existing profiles created with the original Profile Manager (about:profiles) into the new Profiles menu accessible from the Firefox toolbar?

Linux User So. I recently followed a Mozilla guide, previously posted, and something that I did, or changed, I now have a very annoying "profile" name in the title bar. Further to that, I now have an additional menu option called "Profiles", with --"profile --Add Profile

Manage Profiles

I have never had or seen these items, except when I've moved my profile from an old computer to a new computer, using the console of "firefox -P" command.

It is becoming very annoying as I only have one profile, and I don't want an more.

Question. How to I block the display of 'profile information' ? Thanks

Fire Fox - This profile was last used with a newer version of this App - Create a new profile.

After logging into my account, I saw a Fire Fox page showing new features. Upon downloading Fire Fox, I saw the the above message. I didn't want a new profile, but there wasn't an option to close the window and to just continue to use the newer version that was already installed ???

I tried Control / ALT / Delete . Upon restarting it showed the same message! I uninstalled Fire Fox, which surely has not helped things.

Am I able to restore the profile from the "newer version"? Otherwise, I will probably have to setup Fire Fox from scratch and have lost all bookmarks.

Thanks so much for your assistance. Myles

I'm running Firefox 122.0.1 on a Windows 10 desktop PC, with a profile which includes a userChrome.css file which makes several layout and cosmetic changes.

I also have a laptop (also Windows 10) which has an old Firefox 97.0.1 installation, and I'd like to make the same changes on this machine which I'm used to on the main computer. I copied my desktop profile to the laptop, to the same directory as its present profile, but when I rebooted Firefox the transferred profile wasn't recognised.

While doing the transfer I received error messages about some of the folders: Destination path too long. This despite the fact that the registry flag to accept extended paths is set to 1. I had to skip several folders in order to complete the transfer.

Could this be the reason why the new profile isn't being picked up? Or is it because the two Firefoxes are of different versions?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts. Many thanks.

So I have a bunch of Firefox profiles I want to set up a new profile and I want to set up the profile switching with in that profile perhaps by creating a bunch of profiles from the about profiles page and then replacing those profiles with the old ones as I don't see a way to just import old profiles in the UI. How do I go bout doing that like copy and move exactly what exactly where.

My version of Firefox wont save History, Bookmarks or Downloads. I've made sure the privacy settings are correct and have tried reinstalling Firefox several times. It also wont let me drag a link from the address bar to the bookmark bar anymore like it used to. Any help with this would be much appreciated... Thanks!

I'm setting up Firefox on a new computer. I haven't done this for a while and the interface has changed, so I'm not sure how it works.

I want to move my Firefox profile to a directory in the Documents library to simplify backup. Following the Mozilla instructions I found, I opened about:profiles and clicked the Create New Profile button. I deleted the contents of the directory that Create New Profile created and copied the contents of the default profile directory to it. The last step is to tell Firefox to use my new profile instead of its default.

But the about:profile page lists three profiles: default-release, default, and my new one. The first two have a Set as default profile button; the last does not. So it appears that I can tell Firefox to use the default-release profile or the default profile, but there's no way I can tell it to use my new profile. I can only Launch profile in new browser -- presumably something I'll have to do every time I run Firefox.

This makes no sense. How can I tell Firefox to use my new profile -- not to launch a new browser with it, but to use it, period? If I can't, why can't I? Every version of Firefox I've ever installed up to now allowed this.

Also, the default-release profile section of about:profiles has the note "This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted." So it appears that Firefox uses the default-release profile instead of the default profile as its default profile. What is the default-release profile? Why isn't the default profile the default profile?

When i upgraded Firefox my old profile doesn't show up now. I found my old profile under about:profiles but when i click on the Launch profile in new browser i get this message, "You've launched an older version of Firefox. Using an older version of Firefox can corrupt bookmarks and browsing history already saved to an existing Firefox profile. To protect your information, create a new profile for this installation of Firefox" I did create a new profile but how do i get my old saved data, add ons etc to the new profile?

I have previously made additional profiles on 'about:profiles', now Firefox has added an integrated profile manager accessible by clicking my profile on the top right. My old profiles are not available on this profile manager, but they are still available on 'about:profiles', so how can I transfer them without having to remake new ones?

I just update firefox but all my none of my bookmarks loaded. I share my computer with my husband. He has a different account on this same computer and his bookmarks are showing up on my side, but mine are nowhere to be found. Previously we have had separate bookmark lists and all was fine. I don't know where my bookmarks went.

How do I get them back and put on "my side" and still have my husband's on his side?

Before i got the Profiles update that rolled out relatively recently, i created another firefox profile from the "about:profiles" page. I do not see this second profile in the new Profiles tab in the menu in my default profile. Is there a way to transfer the profile, maybe mess with the files and the folder of firefox, so i will be able to switch profiles from the Profiles tab, and not go through "about:profiles" every time? or just create a new profile and tell me how to transfer the data, where to find the existing one thanks.

I was interested in seeing how the profiles worked so I clicked yes to creating one, but once I set another one up I realised I would have to use a separate Mozilla account on it and I would prefer to keep everything on one browser and account. I tried to delete the profiles but it said it would delete all my bookmarks and data, is there any other way to hit undo or something and go back to the way it was before (without profiles)?

I had a problem where FF 140.0 would not update, and in trying to get FF yo update, I used a re-install tool to which I was pointed in my problem report. This caused FF to wipe out my configuration, and I lost all my windows and tabs. I have gone to

    \Appdata\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Proifiles\abnfpged.default

cleared all of the data therein, and restored that directory from a backup I made last Monday. But I cannot get FF to use that directory. "about:profiles" shows only two profiles, but the Profiles directory has five profiles:

03/10/2026 09:39 AM <DIR> qf00ka5x.default 03/10/2026 09:39 AM <DIR> v842ceue.default-release 04/11/2026 09:16 PM <DIR> .. 04/11/2026 09:16 PM <DIR> . 04/12/2026 03:08 PM <DIR> abnfpged.default 04/12/2026 06:29 PM <DIR> jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850 04/12/2026 06:48 PM <DIR> f1jq4mlq.default

Only the profiles beginning with "j" and "f1" are seen in the "about:profiles" screenshot I have attached. And I have attached a screenshot of my profiles.ini file. Also, in the abnfpged.default directory I restored, where is the list of all of my open windows and tabs? FF used to keep that in a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file, but that file is only written when FF closes. I tried to save a copy when I was having problems, but I stored the copy in the same directory, which FF changed during the re-install process. Here is my profiles,.ini file:

[Install308046B0AF4A39CB] Default=Profiles/jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850 Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/f1jq4mlq.default

[Profile0] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850

[Install641D10338ABA448D] Default=Profiles/abnfpged.default Default=1 IsRelative=1 Locked=1

[General]

StartWithLastProfile=1

Version=2

[BackgroundTasksProfiles] MozillaBackgroundTask-308046B0AF4A39CB-defaultagent=lnvi5jn5.MozillaBackgroundTask-308046B0AF4A39CB-defaultagent

I have not worked with the ;profiles.ini file in many years, as my FF configuration has not had problems. Thanks.

Starting with Firefox 141, I noticed the profile folder is locked down by Mozilla by way of folder permissions, to the extent that I (as administrator) cannot even take ownership of the folder. Even after I completely uninstalled Firefox and restarted my computer I can't take ownership of the folder, nor can I delete it - access is simply denied. I have to literally boot up with a Linux Live distro to be able to delete it. This is invasive and NOT OK!!

I work with multiple profiles that require backups and be copied. I also have a 'master profile' which is set up to co contain all my settings and addons - when I require a new profile I simply copy it over and voila. Not even this is possible anymore, as Mozilla has locked down the entire folder tree, I can no longer copy a new profile into C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.

I also cannot copy existing profiles (and therefore also not able to backup) out of C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles - access denied. This is uncalled for by Mozilla. I have complete removed Firefox from my computer, including registry entries, and even after that I'm still denied access and cannot even delete C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla.

The only solution to to any of the above issues is to either reboot into Windows Safe Mode or bootable media of another OS. But this is totally impractical - Mozilla cannot expect of me to stop all my work and restart my PC every time I need to perform any of the above mentioned issues.

This is highly invasive by Mozzilla - to not even be able to delete a profile folder without any trace of Mozilla on my computer???? Come on, FIX THIS !!!

Will Mozilla please provide the solution?

Unimportant and mildly disruptive issue: I've been using the about:profiles method to maintain separate profiles. I am aware that this is distinct from the new way to manage profiles (about:profilemanager; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1543697 ).

I normally use my default profile (let's call it profile A) to open other profiles (of which there are 6 + a Nightly profile).

However, recently I've noticed that if I open another profile (B) from profile A: Refreshing profile A's about:profiles makes it inactive, with the "Another copy of Firefox has made changes to profiles" error. Now, B's about:profiles correctly displays the different profiles, and I can launch more profiles from here. But A is still shown as the default profile. I've tried this with a few other profiles (C, D), but even with those open, B still seems to have the functional about:profiles page.

Is there any way to reset this, i.e. to make A's about:profiles functional even when profile B is launched?

Edit: I think this is because profile B has the new profile manager enabled, and under this, B is the original profile. I tried setting browser.profiles.enabled to false in the about:config settings but this doesn't seem to help. Oh well!

I created multiple profiles with the new [management] feature. Amazing, I've been waiting for it for years!

If I open all my profiles I can distinguish them since they all have a different icon. I can also pin all the profiles (Keep in Dock) to the MacOS dock.

When I quit all Firefox instances, I would like to be able to immediately jump back to the desired profile.

Instead I get multiple Firefox icons (without the icon profile, that disappear after I quit Firefox). I find this inconvenient.