My profile is missing and Firefox no longer works and i'm not able to reinstall. How can I get Firefox working again!?
While backing up Firefox it became unresponsive and my profile has since gone "missing." I am no longer able to start up Firefox. I have read multiple articles about renaming the profile.ini file and creating a new profile or to use the Profile Manager (which I can not access because Firefox doesn't work for me anymore.
I went through and deleted all old Firefox folders from my Mac and am still having the same issue when I try to reinstall the App. How can I get Firefox up and running again? I thought this would be an easy fix by simply reinstalling but it has become a massive headache instead. HELP!
All Replies (4)
First, what folders did you delete? You might want to recover those in case they contain valuable data, such as bookmarks and saved passwords.
Second, you mentioned doing backups. What kind of backup was it -- something specific to Firefox or a general Time Machine/system backup?
Please pause and update me before taking any further actions. Thanks.
You need to locate the profiles.ini file and delete this file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.
See:
This issue is caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file or with permissions/ownership of involved folders/files.
You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or recover an existing profile:
- Delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new (default) profile
- Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the Profile Manager and browse to the location of a lost profile to recover this profile
https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles
You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:
- Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
*C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\ - Mac: *~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
- Linux: *~/.mozilla/firefox/
If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.
- Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
- Mac: *~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
- Linux:*~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
You can also try to rename/delete the Mozilla\Firefox\ folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).
I tried everything I deleted everything named firefox and mozille all folders files and even registry entires. I manually searched for firefox but I could not reinstall it and get it to work It said profile missing
Only when I copies my profile from another pC is started working
BUT now after I uninstall. I thought now let me do a clean fresh resinstall. But guess what it shows that profile i copied.
WOW! This is a bug or is FF designed to work this way. That is you can never get rid of your profile on that particular instance of FF.
Hi creeem, to minimize data loss, your profiles are not removed automatically when you uninstall/reinstall Firefox. Let's continue in your new question: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1121136