I cannot find my Profiles folder
I had to erase my hard drive and reinstall everything. I want to restore my Firefox bookmarks and everything I have found says I need to restore my Profiles folder but I cannot find that folder anywhere. It is not in the Mozilla folders, all that is there is a folder called Extensions. How do I restore my bookmarks if there is no Profiles folders?
All Replies (10)
I suppose you made regular backups.
Restore the backup and your bookmarks are back in Firefox.
Please see this support article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile
Do you still have a Time Machine backup ?
If you didn't backup any of your personal data then I'm afraid that your previous personal data is lost. For future prevention:
I have a Time Machine backup as well as two cloned backups. I restored Firefox from the Time Machine backup but that did not restore the bookmarks. I have looked in all the suggested locations, in the Mozilla folder in Application Support as well as in the Caches folder. There is no profiles folder to be found.
Hi mark.castleman, your Firefox data is stored in a hidden Application Support folder in your Library. The article linked by the-edmeister describes how to view that in Finder. I'm not sure what trick to use for viewing a hidden folder in your backup, but there may be generic Apple help available for that.
jscher2000 said
Hi mark.castleman, your Firefox data is stored in a hidden Application Support folder in your Library. The article linked by the-edmeister describes how to view that in Finder. I'm not sure what trick to use for viewing a hidden folder in your backup, but there may be generic Apple help available for that.
I have looked into the Application Support folder and there is no profile folder present. I am at a loss where else it might be.
Note that you need to look in the Library folder in your home directory
- ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
- /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
Hi mark.castleman, where does the trail end?
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/individual.folders
I don't have a Mac any more, but I'm attaching a screen capture from around the time of Firefox 57-58 showing my profile folder in Finder, in case it's useful.
jscher2000 said
Hi mark.castleman, where does the trail end? ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/individual.folders I don't have a Mac any more, but I'm attaching a screen capture from around the time of Firefox 57-58 showing my profile folder in Finder, in case it's useful.
I have looked I both my user library and my system library. In the Application Support folder the only thing there is a folder labeled "Extensions" but no Profiles folder.
mark.castleman said I have looked I both my user library and my system library. In the Application Support folder the only thing there is a folder labeled "Extensions" but no Profiles folder. </blockquote>
Hmm, that's strange. In my screenshot, the Firefox folder doesn't have an Extensions subfolder at all. It has 3 subfolders -- Crash Reports, Pending Pings, and Profiles -- and the profiles.ini file (in Firefox 67+ you could also expect to find an installs.ini file).
Well, if your Time Machine backup doesn't contain your old profile, I don't know of any other place to find it.