Managing profiles in Firefox

Managing profiles

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.

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
• Creating a profile
• Removing a profile
• Renaming a profile
• Options
  • Work Offline
  • Don't ask at startup
• Moving a profile
• Recovering information from an old profile

Starting the Profile Manager

Important: Before you can start the Profile Manager, Firefox must be completely closed.

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (File menu in Windows XP) and then click Exit.
2. Open the Windows Start menu.
   • Windows 7 and Vista: In the Search box at the bottom left of the Windows Start menu, type:
     firefox.exe -ProfileManager
   • Windows XP and 2000: In the Windows Start menu, click Run... and, in the Run dialog, type:
     firefox.exe -ProfileManager
3. Press Enter (Windows 7 and Vista) or click OK (Windows XP and 2000)

Note: If the Profile Manager window does not appear, you may need to specify the full path of the Firefox program, enclosed in quotes; for example:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager

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If the Profile Manager window does not open, Firefox may have been running in the background, even though it was not visible. Close all instances of Firefox or restart the computer and then try again.

Creating a profile

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.

Removing a profile

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.

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.

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.

Moving a profile

To copy all of your Firefox data 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.

• For instructions, see Backing up your information.

Recovering information from an old profile

If you have important information from an old Firefox profile, such as bookmarks, passwords, or user preferences, you can transfer that information to a new Firefox profile by copying the associated files.

• For instructions, see Recovering important data from an old profile.

Contributors to this page: scoobidiver, AliceWyman, Verdi

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