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MAC Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. how to fix?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

mimi1234
mimi1234
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I have a MAC i have tried to delete and reinstall Firefox. it still says Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. How is this fixed? I am not super savvy about the instructions on Mozilla, the solution must be quite detailed. Thanks.

I have a MAC i have tried to delete and reinstall Firefox. it still says Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible. How is this fixed? I am not super savvy about the instructions on Mozilla, the solution must be quite detailed. Thanks.

Chosen solution

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:

  • Mac: *~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Linux: *~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Mac: *~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:*~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
  • Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

You can also try to rename/delete the Mozilla\Firefox\ folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).

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cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

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:

  • Mac: *~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Linux: *~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Mac: *~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:*~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
  • Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

You can also try to rename/delete the Mozilla\Firefox\ folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).