Join the Mozilla’s Test Days event from 9–15 Jan to test the new Firefox address bar on Firefox Beta 135 and get a chance to win Mozilla swag vouchers! 🎁

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How to install and older version of FF and use current Profile settings?

more options

I am currently using FF v133.0 and I want to downgrade to v130.0. I tried this once before and could not get the 'Profile' to activate and reinstall all of my settings, bookmarks, add-ons, etc.

Please provide step-by-step instructions for doing this. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

I am using Windows 10 64 bit.

Thank you.

I am currently using FF v133.0 and I want to downgrade to v130.0. I tried this once before and could not get the 'Profile' to activate and reinstall all of my settings, bookmarks, add-ons, etc. Please provide step-by-step instructions for doing this. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. I am using Windows 10 64 bit. Thank you.

All Replies (10)

more options

There are several ways to manage this.

  • Back up the profile.
  • Create a sync account, which is another backup. and it backs up add-ons but not dictionaries.
  • Exit Firefox 133.
  • Use the command firefox -P. Rename the old profile to profile.old
  • Uninstall 133 and install 130. Create a new profile with the desired name, and re-sync.

Long ago, I was thought in the Firefox kindergarten that these were the important files.

User added: /chrome & contents user.js

Firefox: cert9.db cookies.sqlite favicons.sqlite formhistory.sqlite handlers.json key4.db logins.json permissions.sqlite persdict.dat places.sqlite search.json.mozlz4

You can also copy them over to the new profile. But keep the original.old untouched. If missing the bookmarks, refresh (rebuild) the new profile from about:support.

Modified by ineuw

Helpful?

more options

Why Firefox 130? As you probably know, Mozilla discloses security vulnerabilities when it releases an update, so there are known issues with that version which expose you to higher risk.

If you decide to proceed anyway:

(1) Download safely. See: Install an older version of Firefox

(2) Migration might be easier, but isn't guaranteed to be successful, using the "allow-downgrade" option mentioned near the end of the following article: Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation

Helpful?

more options

For reference, this is from your downgrade to Firefox 131: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1476231

Helpful?

more options

ineuw said

There are several ways to manage this.
  • Back up the profile.
  • Create a sync account, which is another backup. and it backs up add-ons but not dictionaries.
  • Exit Firefox 133.
  • Use the command firefox -P. Rename the old profile to profile.old
  • Uninstall 133 and install 130. Create a new profile with the desired name, and re-sync.

Thanks for the reply. A few questions:

How do I sync an account? (I don't believe I have a FF account, at least with a username & pwd) How & where do I use the command firefox -P?

Thanks again.

Helpful?

more options

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer said

Why Firefox 130?

I actually meant v131.0. Could not change after posting.

Why? Because every version of FF after v131.0 is so buggy on many of the pages I use, especially Ebay, Facebook and Youtube. I had no issues using v131.0. I'm not as concerned with security as I am with functionality.

My previous post was what happened the last time I tried to downgrade. I'm trying to avoid the same situation.

Helpful?

more options

coreltech said

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer said

Why Firefox 130?
Because every version of FF after v131.0 is so buggy on many of the pages I use, especially Ebay, Facebook and Youtube.

What kind of bugs?

My previous post was what happened the last time I tried to downgrade. I'm trying to avoid the same situation.

Okay, other than the compatibility.ini solution there, refer to the allow-downgrade option.

Helpful?

more options

coreltech said

ineuw said

There are several ways to manage this.
  • Back up the profile.
  • Create a sync account, which is another backup. and it backs up add-ons but not dictionaries.
  • Exit Firefox 133.
  • Use the command firefox -P. Rename the old profile to profile.old
  • Uninstall 133 and install 130. Create a new profile with the desired name, and re-sync.

Thanks for the reply. A few questions:

How do I sync an account? (I don't believe I have a FF account, at least with a username & pwd) How & where do I use the command firefox -P?

Thanks again.

Ladies and gentlemen of the highly esteemed Mozilla support group ! I consider your responses are somewhat callous.

The poster's comments are valid. I am monitoring the differences between eight GENERIC installations of Firefox in Linux within the same version ranges, and attest that similar problems exist on Wikipedia and Wikisource. These issues do not exist in the Google Chromium family of browsers, Both of which I use for immediate comparison !

firefox -P is used in a terminal. and you have to create a firefox account to sync.

Modified by ineuw

Helpful?

more options

coreltech said

ineuw said

There are several ways to manage this.
  • Back up the profile.
  • Create a sync account, which is another backup. and it backs up add-ons but not dictionaries.
  • Exit Firefox 133.
  • Use the command firefox -P. Rename the old profile to profile.old
  • Uninstall 133 and install 130. Create a new profile with the desired name, and re-sync.

Thanks for the reply. A few questions:

How do I sync an account? (I don't believe I have a FF account, at least with a username & pwd) How & where do I use the command firefox -P?

Thanks again.

Firefox Accounts have been renamed as Mozilla Accounts since early November 2023.

You are using a Mozilla Account to post here on this support.mozilla.org site and is used for Firefox Sync

How to start Firefox with the ProfileManager as you use the firefox.exe -P method while Firefox is completely shutdown and not running. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

Helpful?

more options

To the people who have tried to help, I appreciate it very much.

After researching the support links provided, it seems to be a very complicated process that is beyond my understanding and what I am comfortable with attempting. I am a normal user, not a computer geek. Therefore, I still have this question:

If I restart in safe mode and the issues go away, what then? How to I fix the problems? I am not going to jettison some or all of my addons and other features just so FF will work properly.

Furthermore, why do I have to go through all of this hassle and aggravation for SIMPLY UPGRADING TO A NEW VERSION OF FIREFOX??? I am using the default theme. I have 4 common addons installed (uBlock Origin, F.B. Purity, Volume Control for Bandcamp Player, and WhatFont). Essentially, I have the most basic setup of FF. Everything worked fine with v131.0. Only AFTER upgrading did the problems start.

And WHY does FF make it SO DIFFICULT to revert back to the last working version? If they're going to make changes to the Profiles file, then there should be some type of automatic backup of the old Profile file so that users can revert to the previous version without issues if they experience problems. This is just common sense.

So here I am, 2 official "upgrades" and countless betas later, and my FF still works like SH!T. My CPU and memory usage have noticeably INCREASED, and I have to CONSTANTLY restart due to lags and other issues that were not present before.

Modified by coreltech

Helpful?

more options

coreltech said

If I restart in safe mode and the issues go away, what then? How to I fix the problems? I am not going to jettison some or all of my addons and other features just so FF will work properly.

Do you mean Firefox's Troubleshoot Mode? Here are the main things that does:

(1) Disables hardware acceleration of graphics. You can manually disable that individual feature on the Settings page. See:

(2) Disables extensions

It is difficult to determine which individual extension might be using extra resources or causing problems, but you certainly can disable the ones you won't need for the next four hours and see whether that makes any difference.

(3) Disables JavaScript compilers

While you can manually turn off JavaScript compilers in regular mode, it will slow complex sites. Unless Firefox is crashing, this usually isn't necessary.

(4) Disables the optional userChrome.css and userContent.css files

These probably are not relevant to slow performance.


Mozilla has added a performance profiling tool to Firefox, but I have not tried it myself. Here is an article with background on this feature:

https://profiler.firefox.com/docs/#/./guide-getting-started

Helpful?

Ask a question

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.