How to change the location of the "Mozilla" folder

[BeigeBox]

Hi,

I want to change firefox so that it will no longer save its stuff into %appdata%\Mozilla but instead into a directory that is contained inside of a directory i specify. so basically moving the "Mozilla"-folder and all its stuff out of %appdata% to somewhere else (e. g. differentdirectoryname\Mozilla).

is there a line of text i can change somewhere in the many files inside of the installation folder? or will it be harder than that?

i am not just talking about the profiles here, i mean the whole thing.

[DanRaisch]

The only thing that Firefox stores under %appdata%\Roamsing\Mozilla IS the profile. If by "the whole think" you mean the program itself, that's installed under C:\Program Files\Mozilla or C:\Program Files (X86)\Mozilla. They are installed separately to ensure that the profile data is not unintentionally overwritten during program updates.

What is it, exactly, that you are trying to accomplish?

[mightyglydd]

Use the Portable Fx ? All in one Folder.
Release/ESR/Beta/Developer Edition/Mesh Nighties versions available...next to "Also Available:"
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

[BeigeBox]

The only thing that Firefox stores under %appdata%\Roamsing\Mozilla IS the profile. If by "the whole think" you mean the program itself, that's installed under C:\Program Files\Mozilla or C:\Program Files (X86)\Mozilla. They are installed separately to ensure that the profile data is not unintentionally overwritten during program updates.

What is it, exactly, that you are trying to accomplish?

the profile is definitely NOT the only thing that is stored there, and no i do NOT mean the folder in which firefox is installed.

i try to accomplish exactly what i described. change firefox in a way so that it stores its stuff elsewhere.

Use the Portable Fx ? All in one Folder.
Release/ESR/Beta/Developer Edition/Mesh Nighties versions available...next to "Also Available:"
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

close but not quite, i would much prefer to edit the original firefox myself rather than download a readily made version from some third party.

i was hoping for instructions on how this could be done.

[the-edmeister]

As Dan said the Profile is stored in %appdata%\Roaming\Mozilla, but what he didn't mention is that the cache and some miscellaneous files are stored on %appdata%\Local\Mozilla.

The Profile can be moved in few different ways and the cache can be moved, too, all by itself.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder -when moving the Profile the contents of the \Local\ folder will be moved into the Profile folder automatically. That makes the Profile folder huge which makes it hard to backup the Profile folder, which I do frequently; so I move the cache to a different logical drive that has very few other files on it.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file# ... js_entries - see Note that in Windows, if the preference value is a folder path then the path separator must be two backslashes. For example,

Code: Select all

// Relocate parent directory for browser cache
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.parent_directory", "D:\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\");

[Brummelchen]

%appdata%\Roamsing\Mozilla

only %appdata%\mozilla

that folder is fixed, you can not change it in no way.
but you can create a symlink to anywhere - but for that i dont give support to unexperienced users
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc753194(v=ws.10).aspx

but that would undermine windows security and users security because the new folder is outside users security and outside windows security - any malware can do like it wants to and you wont notice it.

that why firefx is installed into \program files\ because this is also a windows protected folder.

if you dont want this - use the portable from portableapps.com! in both cases no one is responsible here, we can not help further.

[DanRaisch]

the profile is definitely NOT the only thing that is stored there, and no i do NOT mean the folder in which firefox is installed.

Please tell us what else is in %appdata%\Roamsing\Mozilla that is NOT the profile.

[BeigeBox]

when moving the Profile the contents of the \Local\ folder will be moved into the Profile folder automatically. That makes the Profile folder huge which makes it hard to backup the Profile folder, which I do frequently; so I move the cache to a different logical drive that has very few other files on it.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file# ... js_entries

while this isn't what i was looking for, it still seems like valueble information to know and might be useful to me later on, thank you.

that folder is fixed, you can not change it in no way.

well, it has to be possible somehow, after all the folks who made the portable firefox where able to do this was well (i assume).

or are you trying to say, that its "hardcoded" into the source code?

the profile is definitely NOT the only thing that is stored there, and no i do NOT mean the folder in which firefox is installed.

Please tell us what else is in %appdata%\Roamsing\Mozilla that is NOT the profile.

lets see.. for me its the "Extensions" folder, the "Crash Reports" folder and the "profiles.ini"-file which isn't part of the profile itself, but points FF to where the profile is stored. basically everything that remains there after the profile has been moved elsewhere via profile manager, is not the profile.

and i think you where entirely capable to check this info for yourself.

[mightyglydd]

lets see.. for me its the "Extensions" folder

I see that too, and it's empty.
@Portable Fx is hardly "some third party" ......Archived. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1111025

Many thanks to Gerard Balagué (mai9), tracon, FlashBanG and all the folks participating in the mozillaZine forum thread for their ideas, suggestions and support

[Brummelchen]

or are you trying to say, that its "hardcoded" into the source code?

does not matter - it is not changeable. you had your solution from me, other is not possible. take it or leave but anything else is pointless because you can not change its behavior.

edit: from your link mighty
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder
this is only half true - this wont move the %appdata%\mozilla folder - it is only the option to use profiles anywhere laid - firefox portable is using this -p option.
but i can tell you that also firefox portable will create under circumstances %appdata%\mozilla but it has no relevant data.

but i mentioned portable before - look upper.

[therube]

FF can be installed (or extracted) anywhere (basically).

A Profile folder can be anywhere (basically).

AFAIK, the location of the file, profiles.ini, is fixed.
That said, you do not need (to use, to reference) profiles.ini, necessarily.

(Crash Reports, I'm not sure of, offhand.)