A Firefox profile stores all of your important data, such as your bookmarks, history, cookies, and passwords. If you've lost your Firefox settings, bookmarks, or saved passwords after updating or reinstalling, you might still be able to recover them from an old profile. This article explains how to locate your old Firefox profile and copy important data into your current one.

• To sync and share data among multiple profiles and devices, see How do I set up Sync on my computer? and How do I choose what information to sync on Firefox?
• To switch to another profile to recover missing data and settings, see Recover user data missing after Firefox update.

Back up your current profile

Before starting it is recommended that you make a complete backup of your existing Firefox profile in case something goes wrong. Please read the Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles article for instructions.

Create a new Firefox profile

To learn how to create a brand new Firefox profile, please read the Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles article.

Copy files between profile folders

1. Open the old Firefox profile folder containing the files you want to copy to a new profile.
   If you are copying data from an Old Firefox Data folder created after you refreshed Firefox, simply open the old profile folder it contains; otherwise, if you can open Firefox using the old profile:
   • Click the menu button , click Help and select More Troubleshooting Information.From the Help menu, select More Troubleshooting Information. The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
   • Under the Application Basics section next to Profile FolderProfile Directory, click Open FolderShow in FinderOpen Directory. A window will open that contains your profile folder.Your profile folder will open.Your profile directory will open.
   Note: If Firefox displays an error after clicking Open Folder or if you are unable to open or use Firefox, follow the instructions in Finding your profile without opening Firefox.
2. Close Firefox. If it's open: Click the Firefox menu and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu and select Quit.
3. Right-clickHold down the Control key while you click on a file you want to copy and choose Copy.
4. Open the new Firefox profile folder as explained in step 1, above.
5. Right-clickHold down the Control key while you click inside the profile folder and choose Paste Item.

Repeat steps 3-5 for each file you wish to transfer over to your new profile folder.

While copying your personal data from an old Firefox profile to a new Firefox profile, it is possible that you could copy over the file that is causing the problem you are trying to get rid of! The more files you copy over, the greater the chance of this happening. It is therefore recommended that:

• You copy over only the minimal amount of files that contain your most important data that you simply can't live without.
• You copy over a few files at a time, and then check that the problem you are trying to get rid of hasn't returned.

Your important data and their files

To learn more about the data and their files within your Firefox profile, see About your important data and their files.