Managing profiles

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Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, and user preferences in a set of files called your profile, which is stored in a separate location from the Firefox program files. You can have multiple Firefox profiles, each containing a separate set of user information. The Profile Manager allows you to create, remove, rename, and switch profiles. Only one profile is active at any given time.

Using multiple profiles and profile management are advanced features intended primarily for extension developers. Unless you are an advanced user or are troubleshooting a specific problem with Firefox, you should avoid using multiple profiles.

Table Of Contents

Starting the Profile Manager

Windows:

Windows Vista

  1. Exit Firefox. To close Firefox, at the top of the Firefox window, select the File menu, and then select Exit.
  2. Open the Windows Start menu. In the Start Search box in the bottom left, type 
    firefox.exe -ProfileManager
    and press Enter.

Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP

  1. Exit Firefox. To close Firefox, at the top of the Firefox window, select the File menu, and then select Exit.
  2. Select the START menu in the Windows Taskbar. Then, select Run.
  3. In the Run dialog, enter the following:
    firefox.exe -ProfileManager
  4. Click OK.

Mac OS:
  1. Exit Firefox. To close Firefox, in the menu bar, select the Firefox menu, and then select Quit Firefox.
  2. Navigate to /Applications/Utilities. Open the Terminal application.
  3. In the Terminal application, enter the following:
    /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -ProfileManager
  4. Press Return.

Linux:

If Firefox is already included in your Linux distribution or if you have installed Firefox with the package manager of your Linux distribution:

  1. Exit Firefox. To close Firefox, at the top of the Firefox window, select the File menu, and then select Quit.
  2. In Terminal run: 
    firefox -ProfileManager

If you installed Firefox following the article Installing Firefox on Linux:

  1. Exit Firefox. To close Firefox, at the top of the Firefox window, select the File menu, and then select Quit.
  2. In Terminal run: 
    path/to/firefox/firefox -ProfileManager

Creating a profile

Watch a video of these instructions

  1. To start the Create Profile Wizard, click Create Profile... in the Profile Manager.
  2. Click Next and enter the name of the profile. Use a profile name that is descriptive, such as your personal name. This name is not exposed on the Internet.
  3. You can also choose where to store the profile, which is useful if you plan on exporting your data and settings to another computer or setup in the future. To choose its storage location on your system, click Choose Folder....
    • Note: If you choose a custom location for the profile, store it in a new or clean folder. When you choose to remove the profile, all contents stored in the same folder are removed.
  4. To create the new profile, click Finish.
  5. The new profile is displayed in the Profile Manager.

Removing a profile

Watch a video of these instructions
  1. In the Profile Manager, select the profile to remove, and click Delete Profile....
  2. Confirm that you wish to delete the profile:





    • Don't Delete Files removes the profile from the Profile Manager yet retains the profile data files on your computer in the storage folder, so your information is not lost.
      • When you create a new profile, you can copy all of the files inside the old profile's folder to the new profile folder, and your profile information is restored in the new profile.
    • Delete Files removes the profile and its files, including the profile bookmarks, settings, passwords, etc.
      Caution: If you use the "Delete Files" option, the profile folder and files will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.
    • Cancel interrupts the profile deletion.
  3. If you choose to delete the profile, it is removed from the Profile Manager.

Renaming a profile

  1. In the Profile Manager, select the profile to rename, and then click Rename Profile....
  2. Enter the new name for the profile. Type in the new profile name, and click on OK.
    • Note: The folder containing the files for the profile is not renamed.







  3. The profile is renamed in the Profile Manager.

Options

Work Offline

Choosing this option loads the selected profile and starts Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can view previously viewed web pages and experiment with your profile.

Don't ask at startup

If you have multiple profiles, Firefox prompts you for the profile to use each time you start Firefox. Select this option to allow Firefox to load the selected profile without prompting at startup.

  • To access other profiles after selecting this option, you must start the Profile Manager first.
3, Windows:

Note: Links from other applications or Internet shortcuts may not open Firefox if the "Don't ask at Startup" option is unchecked (fixed in Firefox 3.0.2 and above).

Moving a profile

To copy your Firefox bookmarks and settings to another Firefox installation (e.g. when you get a new computer), you need to make a backup of your Firefox profile, then restore it in your new location.


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Page last modified on Sunday 21 of June, 2009 09:09:27 PST.
Contributors to this page: cl58 , sgryphon , underpass , myles7897 , Bo , AliceWyman , Chris_Ilias and Lucy .
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