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Error message "Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible", but I've verified that my profile is in the right folder" What now?

  • 4 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by philipp

ClareO
ClareO
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I'm using Windows 10. Out of the blue yesterday, when I tried to open Firefox, I get a message saying "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window." Choices: Close Firefox or Cancel. Before doing anything else, I verified in Task Manager that there were no processes running for Firefox. Then I click "Close Firefox". Get Profile Missing message box saying "Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible ". I then verified that I do have a default profile in the proper folder. What now?

I'm using Windows 10. Out of the blue yesterday, when I tried to open Firefox, I get a message saying "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window." Choices: Close Firefox or Cancel. Before doing anything else, I verified in Task Manager that there were no processes running for Firefox. Then I click "Close Firefox". Get Profile Missing message box saying "Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible ". I then verified that I do have a default profile in the proper folder. What now?

Chosen solution

My profiles.ini file is missing. Can it be recreated?

Update: I found the profile.ini in another folder? And no, I have no idea how it got moved ;-) I'm back up and running.

Thanks for your help!

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All Replies (4)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hi ClareO, please go to %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles - in this folder you should find a file named profiles.ini which contains the path to your profile which the application will use. please check that the path within profiles.ini matches your actual folder...

ClareO
ClareO Question owner
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Chosen Solution

My profiles.ini file is missing. Can it be recreated?

Update: I found the profile.ini in another folder? And no, I have no idea how it got moved ;-) I'm back up and running.

Thanks for your help!

Modified by ClareO

gjkleier
gjkleier
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I have the same issue of thunderbird not shutting down and the lost profile error message. I have no idea where to look for my profile and wouldn't recognize it if I saw it. I tried rebooting, but that didn't work. Even reinstalled Thunderbird with no affect. Any thoughts?

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hi gjkleier, please just open a new question in the thunderbird section at https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new. your issue won't get the necessary attention at the bottom of an already solved thread...