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unable to open firefox because of profile missing in ubuntu

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by psvkushal

psvkushal
psvkushal
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I accidentally deleted my cache file in Ubuntu 18.04 and deleted it in the trash also, so I cannot recover it, I tried uninstalling firefox and completely deleting any folders related to firefox in /usr/lib/mozilla and mozilla-addons and also the data in opt and also hidden folders in home directory, tried it trice and updated the system if it can solve anything but no results, any idea on how to go about this problem

I accidentally deleted my cache file in Ubuntu 18.04 and deleted it in the trash also, so I cannot recover it, I tried uninstalling firefox and completely deleting any folders related to firefox in /usr/lib/mozilla and mozilla-addons and also the data in opt and also hidden folders in home directory, tried it trice and updated the system if it can solve anything but no results, any idea on how to go about this problem

All Replies (5)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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You went overboard with the deleting of files. If you removed the profile folders, no more profile.


https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles


Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there? Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You still seem to have the profiles.ini file pointing to the profile folder you removed.

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

Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).

  • ~/.mozilla/firefox/

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).

  • ~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
psvkushal
psvkushal Question owner
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I tried above methods but the issue was whenever I tried to open from both terminal or the icon but both give the window that profile is missing.In the cache file mozilla folder is not being created when I opened it.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Could be a permission issue, so make sure that you have read/write permission to all files and folders in both locations.

  • ~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • ~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
psvkushal
psvkushal Question owner
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When I tried running the command as root I encountered this error

Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($HOME is /home/kushal which is owned by kushal.)

i tried to run firefox command in home directory is it that I have to run it in cache or mozilla directories in home