Firefox Community Forum

HI there,

Glad you folks have included an update to the 'profiles'. However, I'm having trouble with it. I previously created two profiles using 'about:profiles' function. However, only of them has mapped on to the new profiles feature. When I try to add a profile in the new way to do it, I can only create a new one, I can't transfer a pre-existing.

See attachments. One shows the new profile manager with the 'work' profile. The second shows the 'about:profiles' with both 'work' and 'life'. How to I add 'life' to the new profile manager?

This afternoon, I clicked on a link from an email and for the first time got a choose a profile pop-up. I do not want this; I have read info on Mozilla and elsewhere about its purpose but it doesn't say how to just stop the pop-up - there should be an option just stop the pop-up because I don;t want to have to choose amongst options. I have started copy-pasting the links in emails and going to Chrome and will seriously have to reconsider using Firefox of this continues. I don't want to have to type about:config or anything - this should have been an opt out or opt in thing and I want out. Thank you for your help.

I have used Firefox for years, both out of conviction and to help protect my privacy, even though I often put up with images and forms not displaying on web pages.

Then, three times in two months, after restarting Firefox, I found all my tabs, bookmarks and browser history had disappeared. The only thing I did between restarts was to run Wise Care 365 to clear some space on my laptop, something I had done hundreds of times before.

The first time the loss occurred I found I had a new profile, a feature I neither wanted nor was consulted about. At least I was able to get back to my original profile. The next two times this proved impossible.

Firefox "support" was of no use. Multiple searches produced nothing which helped. After agonising hours, I was able to retrieve my bookmarks and my Firefox browser history through Microsoft Edge. But as a writer and (award-winning) journalist I cannot afford to risk losing my research and links.

So although I disapprove of some Microsoft business practices. I am moving to Edge. If I have missed something that makes sense of this, I would be pleased to hear it. In the meantime, Mozilla needs to improve its product and customer service.

Wishing its customers well,

Francis Shennan

I was positively surprised recently when the new Firefox profile manager (about:profilemanager) was introduced. https://www.tech2geek.net/how-to-use-the-new-updated-profile-manager-in-firefox-2025/ is an article about that.

However, I thought it's just a new visual UI with an in-browser switcher for the existing profiles (that I already had setup). However, it does not appear so.

The differences I see:

1. 1. 1. old profile management

• was managed by `about:profiles` or when starting FIrefox with `-P`
• is saved in `~/firefox` and the `profiles.ini` clearly and quite obviously mentions them there, so it's easy to manage them.

I also found this old support article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

1. 1. 1. new profile management

• automatically asks on startup if more than one profile exists
• is managed by `about:profilemanager` or with the Firefox burger menu
• seems to be saved in `~/.mozilla/firefox/Profile Groups` (Linux path here) in some .sqlite files, and I do not quite understand the format. Not mentioned in `profiles.ini`.
• also, when you change something here (even like opening a profile?), you cannot open `about:profiles` anymore, because it says "Some Firefox process has made changes to your profile, […] you need to restart Firefox", only after a restart further changes would be possible, which I find quite confusing but it also indicates somehow the features belong together?

And this seems to be the new one: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-management#w_whats-the-difference-between-profiles-and-multi-account-containers

1. 1. Questions

• What are the differences here (I may have missed)?
• How can the new profile feature save so few files? Is it technically called "profile groups"?
• And the most important: How can I migrate an old profile? (In order to use the new features and GUI etc. I quite like)

Yes, I'd like to use the same account on both of my profiles.

I understand that for some users, this may be confusing.

In my case, the only reason for different profiles is that I need to use a Proxy Server for some websites, and no proxy for other websites. Manually switching proxy settings is painful, and doing so causes traffic for my other tabs/windows to go to the proxy, which I do not want.

I have a main (set of) windows (and its tabs) going straight to the internet, then I have a separate window (and its tabs) configured to go through a proxy (SOCKS5 in this case). I want all other settings, bookmarks, passwords, etc. to be identical to both. I end up having to logout of my main profile, log into the other profile to sync settings, log out of there, and log back into my main profile.

Is there a valid technical reason why an account on the same FireFox installation cannot be shared between two profiles?

I can do this on multiple computers (same account, different computers/profile), seems odd it is restricted to not allow on the same computer.

I have an alternative solution: Install FireFox natively, then install FireFox as AUR or FlatPak, but not sure this will collide as this both uses the same profile directory. Hum...

Wayne

I've been using what I gather is an "older" profiles system via about:profiles.

Now if I:

1. go to about:profiles and open my second profile in another window, 2. close second window and about:profiles page, 3. open about:profiles again in first window,

I get "Another copy of Firefox has made changes to profiles. You must restart Firefox before making more changes."

This happens every single time, even though I've made zero changes to profiles, and is extremely annoying.

Can/should I migrate my profiles to the new profile manager? How to do this?

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.

Hi,

When I opened Firefox today, it asked me which profile I'd like to use. I named one Katy and then continued. Now, I can't see any of my bookmarks, none of my passwords are saved, none of my sites recognized. I've been using Firefox for years. Everything I have is saved there. I just want my old stuff back. I'm signed in on my account, but can't see another profile that I can choose. My phone still has all the passwords and bookmarks from before but I I can't see what profile I'm signed in under. Can anyone help?

Thank you!

Katy

Just lately, Firefox has been going on about Profiles, I don't know why. I have no need for such things, yet in my Windows menu, everything says "– Original profile" at the end. All this does is make things difficult to see. How can I get rid of it, please?

If I'm not mistaken, between FF146 and FF147 it appears the location of the profile directory has changed. It was:

   /home/<user>/.mozilla/firefox  

and now is

   /home/<user>/.config/mozilla/firefox

Is that correct?

At startup, Firefox starts with an account setup screen. I have been using current setup for 3 years. Tried troubleshoot mode to no avail. Had same problem 3 years ago.

Firefox created a new Profile for me during a recent update and ignored the Profile I had been using for many years.

That probably occurred because Firefox couldn't find the original Profile. I had moved it to C:\0-FFox\ to shorten the length of file names. I had been getting File-Name-Length errors, which ended after moving the Profile closer to C:\.

Now I can't access or use the original Profile. I've researched the ins and outs of Profiles but can't find a solution to this problem. I want to add my old Profile to the new Profile created by Firefox and maybe switch between the two, or maybe revert to using only the old Profile. But I can't figure out how to do that. Adding a Profile seems to imply adding a new Profile and not an old one.

I sincerely hope you can help me solve this problem!

Many thanks! Wayne

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?

As the title says, when i go to about:support, and click the open profile folder, i wanted to install a customization to allow me to edit the default tab background, but for some reason i do not have admin privileges in that folder, i can't access anything, i can't edit anything nor create a new folder, even rename it. It says that my own computer does not have admin privileges inside that folder.

Could someone help me start over again and get it right, instead of a mess? Is it possible to somehow start from scratch or fix what I am doing wrong? Is there some way to open a new account and dump the mess I'm facing now?

My power just went out for a second, now Firefox its acting like I've never used it.

I've never had this problem. Firefox has worked just fine for years. I have never had an issue with FireFox. Now I'm being told to select a profile like there isn't a set of folders with files dating back to 2021 sitting next to these fresh new folders full of files all dated to today.—I don't know shit by the way, Google told me where the profile stuff is or something idk im pissed.

How do I get Firefox to recognize the same old mountain of files its been using to store bookmarks, passwords, and all the rest is right under its stupid nose? And no the about:profiles page just gives me another blank profile to choose.

funfunfun

I have 3 different profiles on my Desktop Firefox, and I'm able to change between them and even set some commands on CLI to switch between them easily, opening one or another.

Now, my question is: How can I do such a thing on mobile? I only linked my main account, and as far as I understood, I cannot link to multiple and switch on demand. Is there any way? Am I missing something?

I checked the tutorial on how to setup profiles and the profile manager doesn't seem to exist on mobile.

Thank you for your attention!