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Firefox only runs in administrator mode (else get the profile missing message).

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I can only run Firefox in admin mode. I implemented ALL of the profile manager suggestions. My User Account Control is set to 2nd to bottom.

-Deleted ALL the profiles -Deleted the profiles.ini (and let Firefox recreate one when I ran new install for the first time) -I uninstalled Firefox/reinstalled Firefox -Created a brand new profile -Compatibility mode is not clicked

And STILL when I run firefox.exe it gives me the message can't find my profile etc. It does seem to find the profile WHEN I click the "run as administrator" or right-click on that option on the icon etc.

This all happened after some firefox update a couple of months ago....I should never let that update service run! This is really annoying...................!!!!!

I can only run Firefox in admin mode. I implemented ALL of the profile manager suggestions. My User Account Control is set to 2nd to bottom. -Deleted ALL the profiles -Deleted the profiles.ini (and let Firefox recreate one when I ran new install for the first time) -I uninstalled Firefox/reinstalled Firefox -Created a brand new profile -Compatibility mode is not clicked And STILL when I run firefox.exe it gives me the message can't find my profile etc. It does seem to find the profile WHEN I click the "run as administrator" or right-click on that option on the icon etc. This all happened after some firefox update a couple of months ago....I should never let that update service run! This is really annoying...................!!!!!

All Replies (1)

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Did you try to delete the profiles.ini file in not working Windows accounts?

You can find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

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

"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.

If deleting the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Windows: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/

You can also try to rename/delete the Mozilla\Firefox\ folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).