Firefox Community Forum

I'm using the latest version of Firefox on macOS Tahoe. Over the past 2–3 days, Firefox has started behaving unexpectedly.

Issues:

   Firefox automatically creates additional Dock icons while I'm only using a single Firefox window. Even if I remove the extra icon, it reappears after some time.

   When I open a different Firefox profile, it launches under a new Dock icon instead of using the existing Firefox icon. As a result, I end up with three separate Firefox Dock icons simultaneously.

   Firefox also fails to play pronunciation audio on some dictionary websites (e.g., JapanDict). Clicking the speaker icon produces only a brief click with no spoken audio. The same pronunciation works correctly in Safari, suggesting a Firefox-specific issue.

Expected behavior:

   Firefox should use a single Dock icon (unless intentionally running separate app instances).

   Different profiles should not create unexpected duplicate Dock icons.

   Pronunciation audio should play normally, as it does in Safari.

Environment:

   macOS Tahoe (latest version)

   Firefox (latest version)

I created a new profile on my account. Whenever I am in the original profile, I can click on the new profile and it will open a new window with a new icon. However, I notice that under the new profile, it is not signed in. When I try to sign in, I get an error that says

Account already in use xxx@gmail.com is already signed in to the “original” profile

You can only associate this account with one profile on this computer.

Then it forces me to switch back to the original profile. This tells me that the profile is not syncing for access across devices.

This is happening on my macbook.

Today I got on my laptop and opened Firefox like I do every day. The browser looked different. It was an ugly purple color. A window showed me information about 'Profiles'. I didn't want any 'Profiles', I just wanted my regular Firefox Browser. So I deleted the Profiles. This also ended up deleting all of my bookmarks and passwords!! It took the last two hours and working with AI to recover my most recent backup which was two years old. Firefox hasn't been backing up any of my data that I actually need, and it actively deleted the things I rely on. Your devs and designers really messed up on this one. I bet no one uses Profiles, but everyone uses passwords and bookmarks to some degree. Why would you build it like that?! Shame, Mozilla. This was a serious error on your part. Bad product design. Make it easier to back up the things we need. Get rid of this useless 'Profiles' function that I bet no one uses.

Much to my regret, I clicked on New Profile, and now all my shortcuts are gone. How to I go back???? Or, I suppose I could find out how to add shortcuts. But, just so you know, I am ANGRY that I am wasting time on this! Why couldn't you have left well enough alone????

I'm trying to understand Profiles, especially since I am transitioning to a new laptop.

On my older machine, I have an Original Profile. Since I've never specifically created a profile, I assume that Original Profile contains my current Settings, Bookmarks, etc. Is that a correct assumption?

My new machine also has an Original Profile. Do I need to copy my Original Profile from my older machine to the newer machine? Should I rename the profile on the new machine or leave it as Original Profile?