Firefox Community Forum

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?

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?

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.

I switched to Firefox a few months ago and I've been using the "about:profiles" page to mimic chrome's profile feature. I have 3 profiles, each with their own Mozilla account. How can I migrate these to the new profiles system?

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

I've used Firefox as my default for years and years. Yesterday I got some popover telling me I had to create a new profile or I'd lose all my Firefox data, history, bookmarks, etc. It would not let me avoid this. So I did. Still lost all my history, started over. Today it's doing the same thing. What's up? I don't want to move to Chrome.

Hello,

I am using Firefox in Malaysia. I updated with the latest browser, but I do not see the new profile management (https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/profile-management/).

Is this feature available in certain countries?

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

new firefox update today plus windows update - get message "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem." Have tried to restore - no luck. Other bookmarks - empty.

Lost all bookmarks

I have a bunch of profiles set up via "about:profiles". Some of these are associated with different Mozilla accounts, some are not. Today, I wanted to rearrange those profiles to put some older profiles that I do not use as often lower on the page than more recent profiles. I thought I remembered there being an overview text file that included a number for each profile, the folder that profile's information was stored in, etc. When I went looking for that file, I could not find it, so I went looking for help articles and discovered that there is a new profile management tool.

When I tried using the new profile manager via "about:profilemanager", none of my current profiles are visible, so I cannot use that tool to reorder my profiles.

I would be grateful if you could point me to an article explaining how to reorder the profiles in "about:profiles". If that is not possible, I would appreciate a help article explaining the rationale for making these two uses of the word "profile" distinct, the ways in which these profiles are different from each other, and how to transfer settings from the older version to the newer version. I have everything set up just the way I like it within my current profiles and really do not want to have to recreate them from scratch...

Hello, I have two profiles, one for work and one personal. I used two different email addresses for them. How can I merge these together for the new profile management?

Running Windows 11. Recently there is a small gear symbol on the Firefox icon in the Taskbar. I don't want it there and it's irritating as hell. Apparently it has something to do with profile. I don't care what it has to do with, I want it to go away. I went to about:config and set browser.profiles.enabled to false, but every time I restart Firefox, it apparently gets set to true again.

There is no reason for Firefox to have forced this visual change on users. How do I make the gear go away permanently? The gear goes or Firefox gets uninstalled and I'll go back to Chrome.

I have my personal account on firefox and it syncs everything but I want to be able to do the same for my business account. when I sign out of my personal and try to sign in to my business it says I can't. I try to re-set my password and it says I have to use the "primary" account email. It does not accept my business account.

How do I get firefox account for my business email?

Thank you

I keep finding names in my account list with the name hakeem attached. I don't know who this hakeem is or how this name and the associated links became attached to my account. I have 3 firewalls and several antivirus/spam/etc blockers activated. Help.

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.

This is Firefox 142.0.1 on Windows 10. I prefer to have a local copy of the Firefox profile saved to a USB stick as a simple backup and for copying to another PC if necessary. I have been doing this for years, but now I am unable to do so because Windows gives me an "access denied" error for all of the files in the top-level profile directory. I cannot even open them in Administrator mode. If I try to copy the profile directory as described in your help pages, it says that I need permission from the account that I am logged in as in order to access the files! I have been using Windows since version 3.0 and I cannot understand what Firefox has done to make the profile inaccessible to everything but itself. Obviously, Firefox is able to read the files without additional permissions, so why can't I?