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I can't download Firefox because of lost personal information from when it was accidentally deleted. Nothing on the web site helps. What can I do?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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When I try to download Firefox, it downloads but won't open. An error pop-up says: Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. On the web sire I found out how to locate it, but I can't download into the program. Why can't I just download the app and start again??

When I try to download Firefox, it downloads but won't open. An error pop-up says: Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. On the web sire I found out how to locate it, but I can't download into the program. Why can't I just download the app and start again??

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Hello sbreymaier, try to manually delete the profiles.ini file from firefox profile folder path to force firefox to create a new profile, so to be able to run firefox again.

see in the next link the Method 2: Manually delete the profiles.ini file for more information : https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible#firefox:win8:fx39

thank you

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You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or reuse an existing profile:

  • Delete the profiles.ini file to force Firefox to 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 PM and select the location of a lost profile and recover this profile.

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\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/