The software is obsolete and no longer being maintained. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager#Accessing_the_Profile_Manager for an alternative method of managing profiles.

Profile Manager - Create, remove, or switch Firefox profiles explains how to do things like, create a new profile, set a new default profile and delete an old profile. Recover user data missing after Firefox update explains how to use the Profile Manager to switch profiles, if multiple profiles exist.

Firefox and other XULRunner applications store user settings and data in special folders, called profiles. Firefox provides a built-in applet to manage these profiles, but it will eventually be going away (see bug 214675), so a new standalone Profile Manager application has been created, which works with any XULRunner application, and has many features not found in Firefox's built-in version.

Download Mozilla Firefox, a free Web browser. Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control online. Get Firefox for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS today! All of the changes you make in Firefox, like your home page, what toolbars you use, extensions you have installed, saved passwords and your bookmarks, are all stored in a special folder, called a profile.Your profile folder is stored in a separate place from the Firefox program so that, if something ever goes wrong with Firefox, your information will still be there. Sep 07, 2015 The first time you start Firefox, it will automatically create a default profile; additional profiles can be created using the Profile Manager. The settings which form a profile are stored in files within a special folder on your computer — this is the profile folder. Go ahead and create a brand new profile. Using Automator to run the new Firefox profile as an application. Now, on to creating a proper Mac application to run Firefox with your chosen profile.

Downloading

Binaries

You can download Profile Manager builds from https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/utilities/profilemanager/1.0/

Note: There is no installer; just extract the files from the archive.

System requirements:

• Mac: an Intel processor, i386 or x86_64
• Linux: any version capable of running Firefox 4.0
• Windows: XP or later

Source code

You can download the source as well:

hg clone http://hg.mozilla.org/automation/profilemanager/

Instructions for building can be found in BUILD.txt.

Reporting Bugs

Profile Manager bugs should be reported in Bugzilla, under Testing -> ProfileManager.

Starting Profile Manager

To start Profile Manager, just launch profilemanager.exe (on Windows) or profilemanager-bin (on Linux and Mac). By default, Profile Manager will manage Firefox profiles, but you can also use it to work with profiles of other xulrunner apps, like Thunderbird or SeaMonkey. To use Profile Manager with an application other than Firefox, you need to launch it using the application's name as an argument, for example:

profilemanager-bin seamonkey

Profiles and application versions

Firefox Profile Mac Os

Profile Manager manages two different lists: one of user profiles, and the other of application versions that can be used with the profiles. By default, this means it tracks a list of Firefox applications that are installed on your system, and a list of profiles for use by Firefox.

An individual profile can be linked to a specific installation of Firefox, so that version of Firefox will be launched when that profile is selected. For example, ProfileA might be linked with a copy of Firefox 3.6.10, while ProfileB might be linked with a copy of Firefox 3.5.3.

When launched, Profile Manager will look in some default locations for installed versions of Firefox (or other application you're using Profile Manager with). Additionally, you can manually add Firefox versions by clicking the 'Manage Firefox versions...' button:

Each Firefox version in the list has the following properties: path, version, and default. The default property indicates that this version of Firefox will be used with profiles that don't have a specific application version associated with them.

Creating a profile

Firefox

To create a new profile, just click the New button from Profile Manager's toolbar. A dialog will appear that allows you to specify the profile's name, and optionally the profile's path, and the version of Firefox (or other application) that will be used with this profile:

Launching Firefox with a profile

To launch Firefox with a specific profile, select the profile in the main window, and hit the 'Start Firefox' button: Firefox will be launched with that profile, and Profile Manager will terminate. The version of Firefox which will be launched is indicated in the 'Firefox version' dropdown in the Launch Options box:

There are several additional launch options available for Firefox. These cause Firefox to be launched with various command-line arguments. See Command Line Options for a description of these.

Note: It isn't possible to start a second instance of Firefox without passing it the -no-remote command line argument. For this reason, if you attempt to launch Firefox using Profile Manager, and it detects that another instance of Firefox is already running, it will automatically add the -no-remote argument for you, regardless of whether this launch option was checked.

Firefox For Mac Profile Download

Locked profiles

Some profiles may be shown as locked in the main window. Such profiles are currently being used by an instance of Firefox. If you attempt to perform any operation on a locked profile, you'll get a warning; if you choose to continue despite the warning, you may encounter errors or corrupt a profile.

It's strongly recommended to avoid operations on locked profiles. If you need to do something with a locked profile, close the instance of Firefox which is using the profile first.

Backing up and restoring profiles

Profile Manager offers two different mechanisms for backing up and restoring profiles.

Backup folder

Profile Manager has a local backup folder where it can manage profile backups. This is the easiest way to backup and restore profiles.

To backup a profile: select the profile you want to backup, and choose 'backup to->backup folder' from the toolbar's Backup menu. The profile will be backed up, and the backup will appear under the backups column in the main display:

To restore a profile: select the backup in the main display, open the context menu, and choose 'restore'. When you restore a profile, the backup is retained, so you can restore from the same backup at a later date.

To delete a backup: select the backup in the main display, open the context menu, and choose 'delete'.

Profile archives

Profile Manager can also backup to and restore from .zip archives. Profile Manager does not track these backups in the UI, but using profile archives is an easy way to move profiles between machines.

To backup a profile to an archive: select the profile you want to backup, and choose 'backup to->archive' from the toolbar's backup menu. You'll be prompted for a name and location for the archive.

To create a profile from a profile archive: Select 'restore from->archive' from the toolbar's backup menu. You'll be prompted for the location of the archive, and then for the name of the profile you'd like to create from the archive.

Other Operations

Context-clicking any profile in the profile list will cause a popup menu to appear with the following commands:

• Copy - makes a copy of the profile using a name and location of your choice.
• Delete - deletes the profile, and all files associated with it.
• Properties - shows a dialog that displays the profile's path and last-modified date.
• Rename - allows you to specify a new name for the profile.
• Version - allows you change the default application version to be used with the profile.

Future Enhancements

• Ability to install/uninstall/enable/disable extensions in profiles.
• Ability to copy certain assets (e.g., bookmarks) between profiles.
• Add 'Profile Size' to the Properties dialog.
• Ability to reset a profile (return it to a default state excluding bookmarks and passwords).
• Add option to specify the location of profiles.ini.

Firefox stores your personal data, such as bookmarks, passwords and extensions, in a profile folder on your computer, in a location separate from the Firefox program. This article explains how to back up your profile, restore it, or move your profile to a new location or computer.

• To restore or move selected information instead of the entire profile, see Recovering important data from an old profile.
• Just Bookmarks? For backing up, restoring, or moving your bookmarks (not other data), see Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

Table of Contents

• 3Restoring a profile backup

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Troubleshooting Information.From the Help menu, select Troubleshooting Information. 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.

To back up your profile, first close Firefox if it is open and then copy the profile folder to another location.

1. Locate your profile folder, as explained above.
2. Close Firefox (if open): Click the Firefox menu and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu and select Quit.
3. Go to one level above your profile's folder, i.e. to %APPDATA%MozillaFirefoxProfiles~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/~/.mozilla/firefox/
4. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on your profile folder (e.g. xxxxxxxx.default), and select Copy.
5. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click the backup location (e.g. a USB-stick or a blank CD-RW disc), and select Paste item.

1. Click the Firefox menu and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu and select Quit.
2. If your existing profile folder and profile backup folder have the same name, simply replace the existing profile folder with the profile backup, then start Firefox.
   Important: The profile folder names must match exactly for this to work, including the random string of 8 characters. If the names do not match or if you are restoring a backup to a different location, follow the steps below.

Restoring to a different location

If the profile folder names do not match or if you want to move or restore a profile to a different location, do the following:

1. Completely close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu and select Quit.
2. Use the Firefox Profile Manager to create a new profile in your desired location, then exit the Profile Manager.
   Note: If you just installed Firefox on a new computer, you can use the default profile that is automatically created when you first run Firefox, instead of creating a new profile.
3. Locate the backed up profile folder on your hard drive or backup medium (e.g., your USB-stick).
4. Open the profile folder backup (e.g., the xxxxxxxx.default backup).
5. Copy the entire contents of the profile folder backup, such as the mimeTypes.rdfhandlers.json file, prefs.js file, bookmarkbackups folder, etc.
6. Locate and open the new profile folder as explained above and then close Firefox (if open).
7. Paste the contents of the backed up profile folder into the new profile folder, overwriting existing files of the same name.
8. Start Firefox.