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cant load firefox and says profile lost

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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i loaded a best buy software security program yesterday, . I see a new fold on desktop labeled "old Firefox Data" i didnt put it there

i loaded a best buy software security program yesterday, . I see a new fold on desktop labeled "old Firefox Data" i didnt put it there

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When you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop then the Refresh feature in Firefox has been used and a new profile has been created.

In your case it looks that something went wrong and that Firefox failed to create a new profile or failed to update the profiles.ini file.

You can use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.


You can copy some files with Firefox closed from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved form data
  • logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  • cert8.db and possibly cert_override.txt for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other Site Preferences
  • sessionstore.js for open tabs and pinned tabs

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.