Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data
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- Creator: ideato
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- Reviewed by: Verdi
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Did you know that all the settings you make in Firefox, like your home page, what toolbars you use, saved passwords and bookmarks are all stored in a special profile folder? It's true. Your profile folder is kept in a separate place from the Firefox program so that if something ever goes wrong with Firefox your information will still be there. It also means you can uninstall Firefox without losing your settings and you don't have to reinstall Firefox to clear your information or troubleshoot a problem.
This information is here for reference. You don't have to follow these steps unless you were directed to do so from another article.
Table of Contents
How do I find my profile?
- Click the menu button
, click and select .From the menu, select . The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
- Under the Application Basics section next to Profile FolderDirectory, click . A window will open that contains your profile folder.Your profile folder will open.
Note: If you are unable to open or use Firefox, follow the instructions in Finding your profile without opening Firefox.- Click the menu button
Finding your profile without opening Firefox
- From the Start Screen, click the Desktop tile. The Desktop view will open.
- From the Desktop, hover in the lower right-hand corner to access the Charms.
- Select the charm. The Search sidebar will open.
- In the search box, type %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\, without pressing Enter. A list of profiles will appear.
- Click on the profile with “default” in the name to open it in a window.
- Click the Windows button and type %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ in the Search box at the bottom of the Start menu, without pressing Enter. A list of profiles will appear at the top of the Start menu.
- Click on the profile with “default” in the name to open it in a window.
- Click the Windows button, and select .
- Type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ then click .
- A window will open containing profile folders.
- Double-click the folder with “default” in the name to open it.
- Open the Library folder for your Mac user account:
- (OS X 10.6 or previous) Click the Finder icon in the dock. Your home folder will be selected, (usually the name of your Mac user account). In the right side of the window, click the Library folder to open it.
- (OS X 10.7 or above) Click the Finder icon in the dock. On the menu bar, click the menu, hold down the option or alt key and select . A window will open containing your Library folder.
- Open the "Application Support" folder, then open the "Firefox" folder, and then the "Profiles" folder.
- Open the folder with “default” in the name to open your profile.
- (Ubuntu) Click the menu on the top right of the screen and select . A File Browser window will appear.
- Click the menu and select if it isn't already checked.
- Double click the folder marked .mozilla.
- Double click the folder marked firefox. Your profile folder is within this folder.
What information is stored in my profile?
Note: Only important information useful for recovering is described.
- Bookmarks and Browsing History: The places.sqlite file contains all your Firefox bookmarks and the list of all the websites you’ve visited. For more information, see Bookmarks in Firefox.
- Passwords: Your passwords are stored in the key3.db and signons.sqlite files. For more information, see Password manager - Remember, delete and change saved passwords in Firefox.
- Site-specific preferences: The permissions.sqlite and content-prefs.sqlite files store many of your Firefox permissions (for instance, which sites are allowed to display popups) or zoom levels that are set on a site-by-site basis. For more information, see Permissions Manager - Give certain websites the ability to store passwords, set cookies and more and Font size and zoom - increase the size of web pages.
- Search engines: The search.sqlite file and searchplugins folder store the search engines that are available in the Firefox Search bar.
- Personal dictionary: The persdict.dat file stores any custom words you have added to Firefox's dictionary. For more information, see How do I use the Firefox spell checker?.
- Autocomplete history: The formhistory.sqlite file remembers what you have searched for in the Firefox search bar and what information you’ve entered into forms on websites. For more information, see Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms.
- Download history: The downloads.sqlite file remembers what you have downloaded. For more information, see Where to find and manage downloaded files in Firefox.
- Cookies: A cookie is a bit of information stored on your computer by a website you’ve visited. Usually this is something like your site preferences or login status. Cookies are all stored in the cookies.sqlite file.
- DOM storage: DOM Storage is designed to provide a larger, more secure, and easier-to-use alternative to storing information in cookies. Information is stored in the webappsstore.sqlite file for websites and in the chromeappsstore.sqlite for about:* pages.
- Security certificate settings: The cert8.db file stores all your security certificate settings and any SSL certificates you have imported into Firefox.
- Security device settings: The secmod.db file is the security module database.
- Download actions: The mimeTypes.rdf file stores your preferences that tell Firefox what to do when it comes across a particular type of file. For example, these are the settings that tell Firefox to open a PDF file with Acrobat Reader when you click on it. For more information, see Manage file types and download actions in Firefox.
- Plugin MIME type: The pluginreg.dat file stores Internet media types related to your installed plugins. For more information, see Use plugins to play audio, video, games and more.
- Stored session: The sessionstore.js file stores the currently open tabs and windows. For more information, see Restore previous session - Configure when Firefox shows your most recent tabs and windows.
- Toolbar customization: The localstore.rdf file stores toolbar and window size/position settings. For more information, see Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.
- User styles: If they exist, the \chrome\userChrome.css and \chrome\userContent.css files store user-defined changes to either how Firefox looks, or how certain websites or HTML elements look or act.
Working with profiles
- The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.
- Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles explains how to do things like create a new profile and delete an old one.
- Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles explains how to back up and restore a profile. It also explains how to move your profile information to a different location on your hard drive or to another computer.
- Recovering important data from an old profile describes what information is stored in each of the files in your profile and explains how to copy them to a new profile.