This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

firefox won't open and profile can't be found

  • 3 antwoorde
  • 1 het hierdie probleem
  • 12 views
  • Laaste antwoord deur cor-el

more options

We can't open firefox any longer, as we get an error message that says our profile can't be found. It is missing or inaccessible. I've read all of your help questions on it and can't figure out how to fix our issue. Please help.

We can't open firefox any longer, as we get an error message that says our profile can't be found. It is missing or inaccessible. I've read all of your help questions on it and can't figure out how to fix our issue. Please help.

All Replies (3)

more options

See:

This is usually caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file and the profile marked as Default=1 in this file is no longer present on the hard drive.

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
  • Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or reuse an existing profile:

  • Delete the profiles.ini file to force Firefox to create a new default profile
  • Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
    Use "Choose Folder" when you create a new profile to select the location of a lost profile and recover this profile
more options

Can someone explain in a simple, step by step manner how to do this? I appreciate the help, but not sure of what to do exactly.

more options

You would have to go this folder and delete the profiles.ini file. Windows will probably show this as a Profiles file as it hides the .ini file extension.

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

The "AppData" folder in Windows Vista and later Window 7+ versions is a hidden folder.

If you delete the profiles.ini file then Firefox will create a new profiles.ini file and a new default profile folder.

If there are other profiles present then you can try to recover some personal data like the bookmarks from that profile if necessary.