Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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dickvl
Posts: 54145
Joined: July 18th, 2005, 3:25 am

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by dickvl »

The main profile folder and profiles.ini are in the "Application Data" location.
The location in "Local Settings\Application Data" is used for the disk cache and other temporary data and you can normally ignore this location although you may want to do a cleanup are remove used profiles.

Did you try to use the Profile Manager to register unlisted profiles?
This is usually safest since Firefox creates new entries in profiles.ini.

Make sure that security software isn't blocking access to profiles.ini or tries to restore an older copy on reboot.
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therube
Posts: 21703
Joined: March 10th, 2004, 9:59 pm
Location: Maryland USA

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by therube »

(I'm actually kind of surprised that FF doesn't make automatic backups of profiles.ini as a matter of course.)
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
Brummelchen
Posts: 4480
Joined: March 19th, 2005, 10:51 am

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by Brummelchen »

firefox also dont backup profiles ;) windows 10? try "file history".
conceptualclarity1
Posts: 22
Joined: March 21st, 2017, 6:34 pm

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by conceptualclarity1 »

Thank you gentlemen again for your help. :) I apologize for getting distracted and not posting back again.

Here's how I was able to resolve my problem. I saw that I needed to have Firefox shut down while editing profiles.ini as Brummelchen suggested. When I tried that it worked.

A couple of days ago I had Firefox once again forget my default profile and impose upon me a new empty profile. I had to go back over all this material.

Should I make a bug report to Mozilla about this casting aside of my default profile for new empty profiles?
Firefox 52 ESR is the last version of Firefox that is compatible with WinXP
I see here https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases ... and-vista/ they've extended it:
Last year we announced that Windows XP and Vista users would be automatically moved to the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR), ensuring them continued updates until at least September, 2017.

Today we are announcing June 2018 as the final end of life date for Firefox support on Windows XP and Vista. As one of the few browsers that continues to support Windows XP and Vista, Firefox users on these platforms can expect security updates until that date. Users do not need to take additional action to receive those updates.
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DanRaisch
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Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by DanRaisch »

Should I make a bug report to Mozilla about this casting aside of my default profile for new empty profiles?
Little point in that as the problem is more likely something on the local system (security software, hard drive problem, or the like) that is causing problems with the profiles.ini file, as editing that was all that was needed to resolve the issue.
conceptualclarity1
Posts: 22
Joined: March 21st, 2017, 6:34 pm

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by conceptualclarity1 »

DanRaisch wrote:
Should I make a bug report to Mozilla about this casting aside of my default profile for new empty profiles?
Little point in that as the problem is more likely something on the local system (security software, hard drive problem, or the like) that is causing problems with the profiles.ini file
Have any pointers as to how I could look for evidence of what is the culprit?
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DanRaisch
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Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by DanRaisch »

What security software is running on that system?
Do you run CCleaner on that system?
Have you run any hardware tests on the system? https://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to ... -is-dying/
conceptualclarity1
Posts: 22
Joined: March 21st, 2017, 6:34 pm

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by conceptualclarity1 »

DanRaisch wrote:What security software is running on that system?
Panda Antivirus Pro
IObit Malware Cleaner Pro giveaway
SpyShelter Premium
UnHackMe
CryptoPrevent
SpyTheSpy
DanRaisch wrote:Do you run CCleaner on that system?
Not realtime, only once every 2 or 3 months.
DanRaisch wrote:Have you run any hardware tests on the system? https://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to ... -is-dying/
Hard Disk sentinel indicates it's doing fine.
http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/8285/ucU2mI.png
http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/8728/BYesQ1.png
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DanRaisch
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Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by DanRaisch »

Panda Antivirus Pro
IObit Malware Cleaner Pro giveaway
SpyShelter Premium
UnHackMe
CryptoPrevent
SpyTheSpy
#-o Ouch! I hope you don't have all of those set to run real time scanning at the same time. Running multiple security programs simultaneously can cause more harm than good.
DanRaisch wrote:
Do you run CCleaner on that system?
Not realtime, only once every 2 or 3 months.
And that's another risk. There have been numerous reports on these forums of Ccleaner corrupting Firefox (and Thunderbird) profiles by deleting elements needed for the program to run correctly. Be sure to set Ccleaner to not touch anything related to Firefox.
conceptualclarity1
Posts: 22
Joined: March 21st, 2017, 6:34 pm

Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by conceptualclarity1 »

DanRaisch wrote:
DanRaisch wrote:
Do you run CCleaner on that system?
Not realtime, only once every 2 or 3 months.
And that's another risk. There have been numerous reports on these forums of Ccleaner corrupting Firefox (and Thunderbird) profiles by deleting elements needed for the program to run correctly. Be sure to set Ccleaner to not touch anything related to Firefox.
This is what I had marked for Firefox and Thunderbird:

Image
Image

Could these have caused problems?
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DanRaisch
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Re: Firefox not recognizing any of my profiles

Post by DanRaisch »

Possibly. Uncheck all of those options and don't let Ccleaner anywhere near Firefox or Thunderbird.
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