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Use the Profile Manager to create and remove Firefox 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.
Note: You normally don‘t need to create a new Firefox profile unless you are troubleshooting a specific problem with Firefox.
Note: The Reset 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
- Creating a profile
- Removing a profile
- Renaming a profile
- Options
- 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.
If Firefox is already included in your Linux distribution or if you have installed Firefox with the package manager of your Linux distribution:
- Click the menu button
and then click Exit 
- In Terminal run:
firefox -P
and then click Exit 
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
- To start the Create Profile Wizard, click Create Profile... in the Profile Manager.
- 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. - You can also choose where to store the profile on your computer. To choose its storage location, click Choose Folder....
Warning:
If you choose your own folder location for the profile, select a new or
empty folder. If you choose a folder that isn‘t empty and you later
remove the profile and choose the "Delete Files" option, everything
inside that folder will be deleted. - To create the new profile, click Finish.
Removing a profile
- In the Profile Manager, select the profile to remove, and click Delete Profile....
- 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 that your information is not
lost. "Don‘t Delete Files" is the preferred option because it saves
the old profile‘s folder and allows you to recover the files to a new
profile. - Delete Files removes the profile and its files, including the profile bookmarks, settings, passwords, etc.
Warning: 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.
- Don‘t Delete Files removes the
Renaming a profile
- In the Profile Manager, select the profile to rename, and then click Rename Profile....
- 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 Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.
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.
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