Browser profile Mozilla Firefox includes all user browser settings. A Firefox profile includes browser settings, passwords, certificates, installed extensions, other user data.

During the installation of the browser on a computer, a user profile is created with the name “Default User” or simply “default”. This folder contains all user browser settings.

There are often situations when several people use the same browser. In this case, you can, of course, switch to another browser, but then you will have to abandon the browser you customized. In addition, one user can have two different profiles, for example, one for personal use, and the other for use for work purposes.

The Mozilla Firefox browser has great amount extensions (they are also called add-ons or plugins), with which you can customize your browser for comfortable use.

Users Firefox browser can use different settings and extensions. In order to ensure that when using one browser, each user has his own own settings, you will need to create new profile Mozilla Firefox.

You can create several different profiles in one Mozilla Firefox browser. Each browser profile will have its own settings that specific user will do as he pleases.

In order to create a new Mozilla Firefox browser profile, you will need to launch the Firefox Profile Manager.

Launching Firefox Profile Manager

To launch the profile manager on your computer, you will need to go to the “Start” menu, and in the search field you should enter the following expression - “firefox.exe -ProfileManager”, and then you will need to launch this application, or press the “Enter” button on your keyboard . There should be a space between the word "firefox.exe" and the dash sign.

Also, in order to launch the profile manager, you can enter another expression “firefox –f” in the search field, and then press the “Enter” button on your keyboard. There should also be a space after "firefox".

You can also launch the Mozilla Firefox browser profile manager by entering the full path to the file in the search field:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager

After this, the profile manager window will open. In the "Firefox - select user profile" window, you can create a new profile in the Mozilla Firefox browser. Here you can create more than one Firefox profile, but several more profiles, as many as you need to have in your browser.

How to create a new Firefox profile

To create a new Mozilla Firefox browser profile, in the Firefox profile manager window, you must click on the “Create...” button.

Then the “Profile Creation Wizard” window will open, in which you need to click on the “Next” button.

In the “Completing the New Profile Wizard” window, you will need to enter a name for the new profile. By default, the new profile is given the name “Default User.” But, usually, the already created profile that was created when installing the browser on the computer will most likely have exactly the same name.

Therefore, the new Mozilla Firefox browser profile should be given a different name. In this image, you can see that I have given the new profile the name “new profile”. You can give the new Firefox profile a name that you want to use.

During the process of creating a profile, you can select a different folder to store the new profile, but I think that this is not necessary.

After creating a new Firefox browser profile, you need to click on the “Finish” button.

Now in the “Firefox - select user profile” window you will see two browser profiles - the old one (Default User) and the new one (new profile).

How to save and restore your profile in Firefox

Firefox browser profiles in operating rooms Windows systems 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 are located in this path:

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile_name

Before the profile name there is a set of 8 letters and numbers, different for each profile.

You won’t be able to just get to the profile location, since the Mozilla Firefox browser profile, by default, is located in hidden folder. Therefore, you will first need to enable the display of hidden folders on your computer.

If you open the folder where the browser profile is located, you will see that there are various folders and files.

If you need to save your browser profile to install it on another computer, or after reinstalling operating system, then the Mozilla Firefox profile can be saved and then transferred to a new or different Mozilla browser Firefox.

Renaming a Firefox profile

You can rename the Mozilla Firefox browser profile. To do this, in the profile manager window, you need to select the profile that will need to be renamed, and then click on the “Rename..” button.

In the new “Rename Profile” window, give the profile a new name, and then click on the “OK” button.

After that, in the manager window Mozilla profiles Firefox, you will see the profile name already changed.

Deleting a Firefox profile

From the Mozilla Firefox browser profile manager window, you can delete a profile if for some reason you no longer need it. To delete a profile, in the “Firefox - select user profile” window, you will need to select the name of the desired profile, and then click on the “Delete...” button.

In the “Delete Profile” window, you will need to click on the “Delete Files” button.

After deleting a browser profile, all settings and user data that were in this profile will be deleted.

Selecting a profile when starting the Mozilla Firefox browser

After adding a new profile, when you launch the Mozilla Firefox browser, the profile manager window will open. In the "Firefox - select user profile" window, you will need to select a profile to launch by highlighting it, and then click on the "Launch Firefox" button.

After this, a browser window will open with the settings of the corresponding profile. If you do not launch another Mozilla Firefox browser profile very often, then you can use only the Firefox profile that you regularly use when starting the browser.

To do this, you will need to select the main browser profile, then activate the “Don’t ask when loading” option, and then click on the “Launch Firefox” button.

After this, the Mozilla Firefox browser will launch immediately in the selected profile, without launching the profile manager first.

If you need to launch a different profile, you will need to launch the Firefox Profile Manager to do so. To do this, you will need to go to the Start menu, then enter the expression “firefox.exe -ProfileManager” in the search field, and then launch the desired browser profile from the profile manager window.

Conclusions of the article

In the Mozilla Firefox browser, you can create a new Firefox browser profile so that your computer can use one browser from different profiles. Using the Firefox profile manager, you can launch the desired browser profile, with your settings and user data.

Mozilla Firefox profile - creating a new profile (video)

How to transfer mozilla firefox. After switching to, after reinstalling the system, or you need to transfer the browser with all the settings to other computers. Today I will tell you how to do this. Let's consider, in my opinion, the simplest option.

Transferring the Mozilla Firefox browser

I’ll show you using the example of transferring from Windows to Linux Debian. We will transfer the entire profile along with plugins, bookmarks, certificates, settings, passwords, cache, cookies, etc. As a result, you will open the browser in the form in which you copied it at the time of transfer.

Copy the profile folder from Windows

If firefox was installed by default, then you need to open the folder in the following path:

C:/Users/System username/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Fireox/Profiles/t11n5wpzl.default

If you don't know where the browser is installed. For example, installed on another disk. You can open Mozilla settings. To do this, click the settings menu (the button at the top right with three horizontal stripes). And click on the icon with question mark at the bottom.

In the menu that opens, select “Information for solving problems”

On the page that opens. In the Profile Folder section, click the Open Folder button.

The profile folder will open.

The “t11n5wpzl.default” folder will be called differently in your case. This is exactly the firefox user profile directory. We copy it to any convenient place on a disk or flash drive. It’s better to create an archive so it will be more convenient to work in the future. You can now copy the contents of a folder on another system.

Transferring the profile to the computer with the system

Now let's look at how to do this in Debian (it's the same in any other distribution). We install and Russify. Open the profile folder. It is located in the user's directory.

~/home/Username/.mozilla/firefox/i8u5wobv.default

This directory is hidden so that it appears in file manager turn on display hidden files. This can be done by pressing the key combination “Ctrl+h”. Or, by opening the “viewing options”, check the “Show hidden files” flag.

To get to this directory you can use the same method as in Windows.

Open and delete everything that is there. Then we copy into it the contents of the folder that we are transferring from another system. Now launch the browser and use it.

Transferring a profile to Firefox to a disk, flash drive or hard drive is necessary to save custom settings in the browser after reinstalling it, formatting the system partition, installing the operating system. This procedure is also necessary when transferring Firefox data to another computer (for example, bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, etc.).

This article will show you how to transfer your profile to Firefox different ways, how to separately import and export bookmarks, as well as how to change its location on the disk (place it on another partition of the hard drive).

Profile structure

The profile folder is generated automatically by the browser. Its name consists of Latin letters and numbers. It stores information about user settings. Here are just some of the elements found in the profile that are necessary to restore the created Mozilla Firefox configuration:

• places.sqlite - bookmarks, history of visited pages and downloaded files;
• bookmarkbackups - reserve of saved bookmarks;
• key3.db, logins.json - credentials (passwords and logins);
• permissions.sqlite, content-prefs.sqlite - specialized Firefox settings (set scale, font size, resolution of pop-up windows for individual sites);
• search.json.mozlz4 - specified search engines;
• persdict.dat - additional words (browser dictionary);
• formhistory.sqlite - data for auto-filling fields;
• cookies.sqlite - cookies;
• extensions folder - connected extensions;
• cert8.db - settings of security certificates for secure network connections;
• secmod.db - database of security modules;
• mimeTypes.rdf - a set of browser actions for certain file types (for example, downloading, viewing PDF files);
• pluginreg.dat - MIME types of installed plugins;
• sessionstore.js - saved Internet session ( open tabs, window);
• xulstore.json - toolbar settings;
• prefs.js - options changed by the user.

How to access?

There are two ways to open the directory with profile settings:

Method No. 1: using the FF option

1. Click the Menu icon at the top right (three stripes icon).

2. In the window that pops up, under the block of icons, click “question mark”.

3. In the list, click “Information...”.

4. In the loaded tab, click “Open...”.

5. The contents of the profile folder will appear in the system window.

If you want to view all available profiles, in the address bar of the window, click on the “Profiles” location path. The OS Explorer will “rise” one level in the hierarchy.

Method number 2: through the Start menu

1. Select “Start” in the taskbar.

2. B search bar type:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

3. A directory icon will appear in Start. Click it to view the contents.

Backup and Restore

Method #1: manually

1. Open the directory with profiles.

2. Close the browser: click the “cross” at the top left.

3. Click right click by profile that must be reserved for subsequent restoration. In the menu, click "Copy".

4. Transfer the copy to another folder on your hard drive (preferably not in system partition) or to the desktop: click on empty space right-click, click "Insert".

5. Open the profile in which you want to place the created copy (on another PC, in the one you just installed distribution FF, etc.).

6. Select all the elements in it (files and folders): select any object by clicking the mouse and pressing Ctrl + A.

7. Right-click on the highlighted list. In the menu, run the “Delete” command.

8. Open the previously copied folder (profile copy).

9. Copy its contents:

• select all elements;
• Right-click the menu and click Copy.

10. Go to the cleaned folder in the FF directory.

11. Right-click and click the “Insert” command in the list.

Note. If the folder has the same name as the backup folder, go up to the Profiles directory, and then click “Insert” and confirm replacing the entire folder.

12. Now that the data has been transferred, launch FF.

Method No. 2: automatically - in the MozBackup program

Mozbackup is a program that performs user data recovery in FF at the level individual elements in automatic mode. Frees the user from having to manually transfer the profile folder. Recommended for use primarily by novice users.

To use it, follow this guide:

Download and installation

1. Download the offsite - http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com.

2. Click the “Download” section.

Note. Anchors marked “no install” for download portable version programs.

4. Run the downloaded file and complete the installation.

Creating a backup

1. Click the utility shortcut. Click Next.

2. Make sure that the “Backup a profile” mode is enabled in the “Operation” block.

3. Click “Browse”, set the backup directory.

4. Select “Next” to proceed.

5. In the Question window:

• click “Yes” if you want to block access to the file with a password, and enter the key;
• Click "No" if you don't need a password.

6. Select the data you want to copy. Place “birds” near them.

7. When the reservation is complete, click “Finish”.

Recovering from a file

1. Close your browser, open MozBackup.

2. Turn on the “Restore a profile” mode.

3. Specify the path to the backup copy (Browse button).

4. Select the items to recover.

5. Confirm the launch of the operation: click “Yes” in the “Question” request.

Method #3: copy to Firefox account

The method allows you to store a backup on the FF developers' server and use it to transfer user settings to PCs and mobile devices.

To use it, do this:

1. In the browser, click: Tools → Settings.

2. Open the “Synchronization” subsection.

3. Click "Create an account".

4. Enter your email, login password (at least 8 characters long), and your age.

5. Click “Create...”.

6. Confirm entering synchronization mode.

7. Indicate which data needs to be backed up and which does not. By default, everything is checked (tabs, history, passwords, etc.). Click "Save...".

8. In the specified e-mail, open the notification from Firefox and use the link to confirm.

9. To restore the profile, go again: Tools → Settings → Synchronization.

10. Log in to your account: click Login, enter your login (e-mail) and password.

Transferring a profile to another section

Sometimes for safety reasons, economy free space on drive C, there is a need to move the user profile from the default directory to an alternative storage (folder) located on another partition or hard drive.

This add-on is performed as follows:
1. Create a folder to store your profile.

For example: e:\profile\firefox\

Where "e:" is the drive partition letter.

2. Copy the contents of the profile folder in the browser (see instructions for manual backup).

3. Paste the copied data into the prepared empty folder.

4. Specify the path to the new storage location in your browser using one of the methods described below:

Method number 1: add-on in a shortcut

1. Right-click on the browser shortcut located on your desktop (which you use to launch). Open the Properties panel.

2. In the “Object” line to the existing entry (path to executable file) add the key:

Profile "d:\profile\firefox"

The quotes indicate the path to the new repository.

Method number 2: changing initialization

1. In the Start line, enter - %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini

2. Click on the profiles.ini file icon that appears. By default, it opens in the Notepad application.

3. Edit it:

Replace the line Path=Profiles/xxxxx.default with Path=d:\profile\firefox.

Where "d:\profile\firefox" is the path to the profile folder.

In the line IsRelative=1, replace the value “1” with “0”.

4. Save the option changes. In the Notepad menu, click File → Save (or Save As...).

After transferring the profile, all data and settings will be saved in the specified folder.

Transferring bookmarks

1. In the menu, click: Log → Show entire log.

2. In the Log panel, open the “Import and...” drop-down list and select “Export... to...”. Specify the directory for the bookmark file.

Accordingly, to restore or transfer bookmarks, for example, from Chrome to Firefox in HTML format, go to the log again, to “Import and ...” and click the “Import ...” option. Then specify the path to a copy of your bookmarks and download it. A collection of links will appear in the sidebar with your saved URLs.

Restoring a profile allows you to significantly save time during the individual process of reinstalling the system and installing it on another PC. Choose any of the described methods and create backup copy profile folder right now. And then you probably won’t lose sight of the selection of your favorite sites, connected addons, network settings, history of visited pages.

Today, dear readers, I will tell you how to create a new profile in Mozilla Firefox. Why might you need this? The reasons may be different, I will give a few examples. For example, one computer and one account used by different users. They can use two profiles in Mozilla Firefox to avoid confusion. Another example: you need to completely clear your browser. This can be done using settings or third party utilities, or you can simply, in which there will be no information at all. In general, be that as it may, let's start creating a new profile in Mozilla Firefox.

Instructions for creating a profile

An example will be shown in Windows based 7, it can also be safely used on Windows 8 (8.1).

After you have closed your Internet browser, press the WIN+R key combination to display the “Run” window.

Enter the command in the window firefox.exe -ProfileManager, then click OK or Enter key on your keyboard.

This must be done in order to launch the profile manager. It can be launched in another way. For example, instead of the command firefox.exe -ProfileManager enter "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager depending on the bit size of your system.

So, the profile manager is launched. This is what he looks like.

Click on the “Create” button, after which the profile creation wizard window will appear. Click "Next".

Here you will need to enter a name for the new profile and, if desired, select where the data will be stored for specified profile. If you do not want to change the location of the directory, simply click the "Done" button after entering the name.

A new profile has been created, as reported by the profile manager. Click on the new profile, then click on the “Launch Firefox” button.

A new profile has been launched. However, every time you launch the browser will ask you which of the current profiles to load. In order to always load the same profile, you need to check the box next to the item “Launch the selected profile without prompting”.

Now the selected profile will always be launched. You can change it if you launch the Mozilla managers profile using the command firefox.exe -ProfileManager.

Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, and user preferences in a set of files called yours, 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.

• If you have (or plan to have) multiple installations of Firefox in one computer, see Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation .
• If you are troubleshooting a problem with Firefox: The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.

Table of Contents

Starting the Profile Manager

Manage profiles when Firefox is open

Type about:profiles into the address bar and press the EnterReturn key. This will open the About Profiles page.

The following options are available:

To manage profiles, find the profile you want to change and choose from these buttons underneath that profile:

• Launch profile in new browser: This option is not used to manage profiles. It"s intended for advanced users who have launched Firefox with a special startup command.When you click this button, another Firefox window will open using that profile.

Start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed

Note: Another way to start the Profile Manager is from the Search box in the Windows Start menu. Close Firefox (if open), press , type firefox.exe -P and press enter.

If the Profile Manager window does not appear, you may need to include the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P. Examples:

Firefox (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows

• "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P

Removing a profile

After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can remove an existing profile as follows:

Renaming a profile

After starting the Profile Manager as explained above, you can rename a profile as follows:

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.

Use the selected profile without asking at startup

When you have multiple profiles, this option tells Firefox what to do at startup:

• If you check this option, Firefox will automatically load the selected profile at startup. To access other profiles, you must start the Profile Manager first.
• If you uncheck this option, Firefox will show you the Profile Manager each time you start Firefox, so that you can select a profile to use.