I have now found a workaround. So I will rephrase my question this way : can someone confirm that this is a proper method and will not create some problems later on ? For the time being, everything seems to work fine.

Apparently, Refresh does not really refresh your profile. It creates a new one, with a new random name, imports what's it's supposed to keep from your existing profile (bookmarks, etc), then deletes your old profile, except from its (now empty) folder.

Here is what I did to restore the former profile name :

• Use Windows Explorer to copy all the contents of the new profile's folder into the old profile's folder.

• Use Profile Manager to Create a new profile, choosing as a location your old profile's folder, and choosing as a name (obviously) the name of your old profile, which is still attached to its folder. This, in one of the delicious twists of logic peculiar to Firefox, will not create anything, since Firefox detects that a full-blown profile is already in place. However, it will reconnect your old profile to Profile Manager.

• Use Profile Manager to Delete the new, Refreshed profile with its ridiculous, random, Firefox-generated name. Take care to select the Delete Files option, so this a real delete, not just a "disconnect, but keep the files just in case".

• Edit the profiles.ini file, if necessary, to reflect your new profiles configuration, following the rules explained here : http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Please feel free to shoot any number of holes into that scenario if you deem it necessary.

Nicely done.

Refresh Firefox {web link} is a LAST RESORT ! !

Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings

If you're having problems with Firefox, refreshing it can help. The refresh feature fixes many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information like bookmarks, passwords, and open tabs.

After creating the new profile, some information such as passwords, history, bookmarks and such are copied to the new profile. The old profile is then moved to a folder on the desktop called; Old Firefox.

This is the default action for the refresh.

Thanks for the validation, FredMcD.

I was indeed surprised to learn, a short while ago, that Refresh was a last resort, whereas its name (and the extremely convenient Refresh buttons scattered all over the place) suggest the opposite. It seems that reinstalling is a less disrupting option ! Totally counter-intuitive !

I have found this troubleshooting checklist to be very helpful. Trying Refresh comes almost last.

Reinstalling the program would work if the issue were bad program files. Anything else would likely be in the profiles folder. This is why we have users try different things to get their system working.

You can rename a profile using the Profile Manager. Of course, be careful not to delete your profile.

Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Note: You need to fully exit out of Firefox in order to use the Profile Manager.

Clairvaux said

Apparently, Refresh does not really refresh your profile. It creates a new one, with a new random name, imports what's it's supposed to keep from your existing profile (bookmarks, etc), then deletes your old profile, except from its (now empty) folder.

Refresh should move your previously active profile folder to your desktop inside an Old Firefox Data folder. No empty folder should be left behind, so that part was atypical and may indicate some kind of permissions problem or a lock placed by some other software.

jscher2000 said

Refresh should move your previously active profile folder to your desktop inside an Old Firefox Data folder. No empty folder should be left behind, so that part was atypical and may indicate some kind of permissions problem or a lock placed by some other software.

At least, I did get the Old Firefox Data folder.

jscher2000 said

You can rename a profile using the Profile Manager. Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

I was referring to this article, precisely :

You can use the Profile Manager "Rename Profile" feature to rename an existing profile but this is not recommended. Renaming a profile changes its name in the Profile Manager list of available profiles but does not change the actual profile folder name.

My head is too small to deal safely with a profile which has a different name in the Profile Manager and in its own folder...

Hi Clairvaux, that's in the article on the MozillaZine site, not the article here. I can see their point if you are routinely working at the folder level.

Clairvaux said

jscher2000 said

Refresh should move your previously active profile folder to your desktop inside an Old Firefox Data folder. No empty folder should be left behind, so that part was atypical and may indicate some kind of permissions problem or a lock placed by some other software.

At least, I did get the Old Firefox Data folder.

Clairvaux Maybe the empty folder was the result of your workaround.

We often advise against people using the Profile manger (OR the profile picker about:profiles if & when that works fully) to rename profiles because of the mismatch between profile names and folder names that is creeated. With the potential resulting confusion it is easy to delete the wrong folder or profile and lose information.

We also often recommend

• Renaming files or folders at least initially rather than deleting them. In a Firefox profiles situation, and some others that can be useful. The renamed folder remains as a copy that is relatively easy to rename and use again.
• Working with copies of files folders & profiles. Again it is trying to preserve and safeguard information. Instead of just moving a file etc. make sure a copy is made and used. The original stays safe in case it is needed.

Currently our own Knowledge Base contains little information on using multiple profiles or moving them around. For those that may be interested I will provide links to further information. Also note that the profiles are kept track of in firefox using a file called

• profiles .ini see kb.mozillazine.org/Profiles.ini_file

Some advanced users control profiles their names and locations by editing this file directly. That can break Firefox, at least temporarily. I am not suggesting you try using that advanced method. It is risky unless you are careful but some of us do use multiple Firefox Versions and multiple Firefox Profiles and get used to doing things that way.

• Recovering a missing profile_Editing_the_profiles.ini_file_-_Advanced kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile#Editing_the_profiles.ini_file_-_Advanced

See also

• Moving your profile folder kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder
• Starting your Mozilla application with a specified profile http://kb.mozillazine.org/Starting_your_Mozilla_application_with_a_specified_profile
• Using multiple profiles - Firefox kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
• Multiple Firefox profiles (MDN) https://developer.mozilla.org/Firefox/Multiple_profiles

Now, instead of my lovingly crafted "Work Profile" ...

IMO, that created the problem where your user chosen Profile name wasn't carried forward to the newly created Profile - can't have a 'space' character in the Profile name. You need to use WorkProfile or Work_Profile or maybe Work-Profile ; IOW using "acceptable" characters rather than a space. The cross operating system design of Firefox / Gecko presents issues with a "space character" in UNIX type file names.

My head is too small to deal safely with a profile which has a different name in the Profile Manager and in its own folder...

There's basically two Profile names which can be seen in the profiles.ini file, which is what the Profile Manager uses to display the Profiles in the Profile Manager UI box.

There's the Name= and the Path=Profiles/.......... which is the folder name for the Profile folder. And that Name= "name" is what appears in the Profile Manager window.

When the user creates a new Profile and gives it a "name" the Name= line would have that "name". The profile folder name doesn't get changed and the profiles.ini would use that Name= name. Same when the user uses the Rename feature in the Profile Manager.

2pbn9dcj.default-1473814759467 is the folder name and IMO the default-1473814759467 would have been used as the new Profile Name= "name" due to Work Profile having a space in it.

I think that if WorkProfile (without that space) had been used - that "name" would have been carried thru by the Refresh procedure.

Bottom line:

With Firefox closed, edit the Name= line in the profiles.ini file to what you want to appear in the Profile Manager - without using any space characters. Just make sure that you use a basic text editor, like Notepad, so that you don't get any hidden characters that Firefox won't understand and don't disturb the line-breaks.

And as far as using the Profile Manager every time you open Firefox to select the Profile that you want use, that's silly IMO. You're better off using unique desktop shortcuts with the Target line specifying which Profile that you want to launch. But that's another topic ...

the-edmeister said

IMO, that created the problem where your user chosen Profile name wasn't carried forward to the newly created Profile.

Now I'm lost. Do you mean the Refresh function is supposed to keep the profile's name ?

I think that if WorkProfile (without that space) had been used - that "name" would have been carried thru by the Refresh procedure.

Sorry I did not make myself clear. Work Profile ("or whatever") was a dummy name. My actual profile name was different, and had no spaces. I'm aware of the restriction. (It has dots, though. Those are allowed, right ?)

Thanks for clarifying the meaning of the code in profiles.ini. I always give custom names to my profiles, make sure they are the same in the folder and in Profile Manager, and check profiles.ini.

Let me give you my profile configuration, just in case it is relevant.

I have two Windows user accounts, one admin, the other non-admin. I always work under non-admin, unless really needed.

Each "user" (me, actually) has therefore his own Firefox %AppData%. Each Windows user is configured with two Firefox profiles :

1. A Main profile, which is the only one I use. It has all my extensions, user settings, bookmarks, etc.

2. A Default profile, which I never use. It is a reference profile for maintenance purposes, just so I can look into the files and folders, and see what a virgin profile looks like when it's freshly installed.

The profiles names reflect that, and look like :

Main.(non.admin) Default.(non.admin)

Main.(admin) Default.(admin)

(Again, dummy names. Real names are in French.)

I have set up Profile Manager to launch before Firefox, which may seem pointless since I always use the same profile, but suits my way of working. It give me consistency and knowledge of Firefox innards. If it weren't there, I would forget how to dig it out of oblivion, and it reminds me of the possibility of creating a zillion profiles if I need them some day. It also helps me backtrack when I have launched Firefox by mistake.

Here are my two actual profiles.ini files :

In AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox for non-admin user :

[General] StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0] Name=Principal.(non.admin.) IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/Principal.(non.admin.) Default=1

[Profile1] Name=Par.défaut.(non.admin.) IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/Par.défaut.(non.admin.)

In AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox for admin user :

[General] StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0] Name=Principal.(admin.) IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/Principal.(admin.) Default=1

[Profile1] Name=Par.défaut.(admin.) IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/Par.défaut.(admin.)

I see that Firefox also has some of its marbles in AppData\Local. Is it possible that some inconsistencies would lay there ?

Clairvaux said

I see that Firefox also has some of its marbles in AppData\Local. Is it possible that some inconsistencies would lay there ?

I can't say with 100% certainty because I haven't tried it myself, but I believe that if you rename a profile informally in the Roaming path, and Firefox cannot find the corresponding profile in the Local path, it would just create a new one, leaving the old one "orphaned."

Not 100% sure about this - but I wouldn't use a period or parentheses in a Profile name and surely not any non-English accented letters such as this - défaut . IMO, the only punctuation marks to use would be a hyphen and an underscore, and use just one period or none at all.

You don't need to have the Profile Manager appearing all the time, it's easy to launch when you actually need it by using firefox.exe -p in the Run task box.

the-edmeister said

Not 100% sure about this - but I wouldn't use a period or parentheses in a Profile name and surely not any non-English accented letters such as this - défaut . IMO, the only punctuation marks to use would be a hyphen and an underscore, and use just one period or none at all.

Count me as very surprised. I have been using those profile names ever since using Firefox, with no (obvious ?) problems. With parentheses, dots, and French accents. All those are permitted for Windows filenames, they are Unicode characters... Is Firefox that finicky ? At the very least, I'd expect that such restrictions would be explicit in the online help. The only warning I found was about not using spaces.