I-Firefox Community Forum

Starting with Firefox 141, I noticed the profile folder is locked down by Mozilla by way of folder permissions, to the extent that I (as administrator) cannot even take ownership of the folder. Even after I completely uninstalled Firefox and restarted my computer I can't take ownership of the folder, nor can I delete it - access is simply denied. I have to literally boot up with a Linux Live distro to be able to delete it. This is invasive and NOT OK!!

I work with multiple profiles that require backups and be copied. I also have a 'master profile' which is set up to co contain all my settings and addons - when I require a new profile I simply copy it over and voila. Not even this is possible anymore, as Mozilla has locked down the entire folder tree, I can no longer copy a new profile into C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.

I also cannot copy existing profiles (and therefore also not able to backup) out of C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles - access denied. This is uncalled for by Mozilla. I have complete removed Firefox from my computer, including registry entries, and even after that I'm still denied access and cannot even delete C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla.

The only solution to to any of the above issues is to either reboot into Windows Safe Mode or bootable media of another OS. But this is totally impractical - Mozilla cannot expect of me to stop all my work and restart my PC every time I need to perform any of the above mentioned issues.

This is highly invasive by Mozzilla - to not even be able to delete a profile folder without any trace of Mozilla on my computer???? Come on, FIX THIS !!!

Will Mozilla please provide the solution?

This is Firefox 142.0.1 on Windows 10. I prefer to have a local copy of the Firefox profile saved to a USB stick as a simple backup and for copying to another PC if necessary. I have been doing this for years, but now I am unable to do so because Windows gives me an "access denied" error for all of the files in the top-level profile directory. I cannot even open them in Administrator mode. If I try to copy the profile directory as described in your help pages, it says that I need permission from the account that I am logged in as in order to access the files! I have been using Windows since version 3.0 and I cannot understand what Firefox has done to make the profile inaccessible to everything but itself. Obviously, Firefox is able to read the files without additional permissions, so why can't I?

I am trying to set up a profile however when I click the account icon the profiles menu item does not show up like it says on the manage firefox profiles guide. I am updated to latest firefox version.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been using Firefox for 5 years now and I absolutely love it. I recently bought a new laptop, but I’ve run into an issue. On my old laptop, I was able to use multiple Firefox profiles at the same time—similar to how Chrome handles profiles.

On the old setup, when I clicked the three-line (menu) button, I could see my second profile there and switch between profiles with just one click. After installing Firefox on my new laptop, I can’t find that option anymore.

I know some of you might suggest using about:profiles to switch profiles. Yes, I’m aware of that method, but I find it inconvenient because I’d have to type about:profiles every time, which is a bit of a time waste for me. I really want the same quick-switch option I had before.

How can I get that functionality back? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I’m already using the latest version (142.0.1, 64-bit).

Thanks

I regularly back up my profiles folder (desktop running Windows 10) and observe a steadily-increasing number of files. Where/what are they? If cookies, I really don't want to delete all cookies, but neither am I interested in manually going through the list and deleting individual ones. I realize we're not talking about a major storage space issue (~ half a gigabyte) -- just curious.

Every other day, I open FireFox and may get the following error: XULRunner - This profile was last used with a newer version of this application. Please create a new profile. Also, this error may come up while I already have had FireFox open for a while. Once this error comes up, I check the version, and sometimes the version is older than what it was, meaning, FireFox reverted back to an older version on it's own. I created a new profile, but the error comes back. I removed FireFox and all folders, and the error still comes back. There is nothing I can do to stop the error from showing up again. See attached images. I am on Windows 11 23H2, all windows updates caught up, and the current FireFox browser version is 138.03.

My account was probably hacked. I noticed this from an email I received from Mozilla. My account was logged in from Africa, which i noticed from the timezone because the email gives literally no detail. I logged into my account to kick them out but i found out i couldnt because the button didnt work. All the other kick buttons worked except the hackers. Mozilla has done nothing other than to email me.

I have used Firefox for years, both out of conviction and to help protect my privacy, even though I often put up with images and forms not displaying on web pages.

Then, three times in two months, after restarting Firefox, I found all my tabs, bookmarks and browser history had disappeared. The only thing I did between restarts was to run Wise Care 365 to clear some space on my laptop, something I had done hundreds of times before.

The first time the loss occurred I found I had a new profile, a feature I neither wanted nor was consulted about. At least I was able to get back to my original profile. The next two times this proved impossible.

Firefox "support" was of no use. Multiple searches produced nothing which helped. After agonising hours, I was able to retrieve my bookmarks and my Firefox browser history through Microsoft Edge. But as a writer and (award-winning) journalist I cannot afford to risk losing my research and links.

So although I disapprove of some Microsoft business practices. I am moving to Edge. If I have missed something that makes sense of this, I would be pleased to hear it. In the meantime, Mozilla needs to improve its product and customer service.

Wishing its customers well,

Francis Shennan

I have my personal account on firefox and it syncs everything but I want to be able to do the same for my business account. when I sign out of my personal and try to sign in to my business it says I can't. I try to re-set my password and it says I have to use the "primary" account email. It does not accept my business account.

How do I get firefox account for my business email?

Thank you

I was interested in seeing how the profiles worked so I clicked yes to creating one, but once I set another one up I realised I would have to use a separate Mozilla account on it and I would prefer to keep everything on one browser and account. I tried to delete the profiles but it said it would delete all my bookmarks and data, is there any other way to hit undo or something and go back to the way it was before (without profiles)?

hej, you write oh dear, no print is possible :-((( but you write to me, that I have win10... but it is a new machine with win 11...and firefox does not work, i cant se my mails?!?!!?

I have 3 different profiles on my Desktop Firefox, and I'm able to change between them and even set some commands on CLI to switch between them easily, opening one or another.

Now, my question is: How can I do such a thing on mobile? I only linked my main account, and as far as I understood, I cannot link to multiple and switch on demand. Is there any way? Am I missing something?

I checked the tutorial on how to setup profiles and the profile manager doesn't seem to exist on mobile.

Thank you for your attention!

I have a folder/subfolder, Old Firefox Data/ukn05f6l.default-release, on my desktop created 11/30/2024.

Any ideas what it is? It is huge...940mb.

Can I delete it?

Thanks

Hi - I wanted to migrate all my changes made in the flatpak app to the aur version. I noticed the profile content has a different structure in both - aur and flatpak configs. And any attempts to replace profile content with the other resulted in browser ignoring these and initing new config files. Was wondering if my config can be ported over or thats not possible thanks.

Yes, I'd like to use the same account on both of my profiles.

I understand that for some users, this may be confusing.

In my case, the only reason for different profiles is that I need to use a Proxy Server for some websites, and no proxy for other websites. Manually switching proxy settings is painful, and doing so causes traffic for my other tabs/windows to go to the proxy, which I do not want.

I have a main (set of) windows (and its tabs) going straight to the internet, then I have a separate window (and its tabs) configured to go through a proxy (SOCKS5 in this case). I want all other settings, bookmarks, passwords, etc. to be identical to both. I end up having to logout of my main profile, log into the other profile to sync settings, log out of there, and log back into my main profile.

Is there a valid technical reason why an account on the same FireFox installation cannot be shared between two profiles?

I can do this on multiple computers (same account, different computers/profile), seems odd it is restricted to not allow on the same computer.

I have an alternative solution: Install FireFox natively, then install FireFox as AUR or FlatPak, but not sure this will collide as this both uses the same profile directory. Hum...

Wayne