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Why is the "Reset Firefox" button missing??

  • 3 replies
  • 42 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

porcelain_mouse
porcelain_mouse
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I have several FF preferences and add-on preferences that will not stay after a restart. I set them, but after I quite and restart FF, the old settings are back. I dutifully followed the mozilla support-site instructions and tried all options to fix the issue:

1) check for locked preferences--nope, not locked 2) User.js overides -- no such file 3) Reset Firefox to default -- not possible "reset" button is completely missing

I've used the reset several times, now, which was quite disheartening. But, it is very suspicious that I cannot find the reset button at all, now.

Someone seems to have asked this before, but the answer to just make a new profile was horrifying. Either this button is supposed to be there or it isn't. If it is supposed to be there, then this is an extremely serious security problem. Something is wrong and I must find out what. Why is this happening?

I have several FF preferences and add-on preferences that will not stay after a restart. I set them, but after I quite and restart FF, the old settings are back. I dutifully followed the mozilla support-site instructions and tried all options to fix the issue: 1) check for locked preferences--nope, not locked 2) User.js overides -- no such file 3) Reset Firefox to default -- not possible "reset" button is completely missing I've used the reset several times, now, which was quite disheartening. But, it is very suspicious that I cannot find the reset button at all, now. Someone seems to have asked this before, but the answer to just make a new profile was horrifying. Either this button is supposed to be there or it isn't. If it is supposed to be there, then this is an extremely serious security problem. Something is wrong and I must find out what. Why is this happening?

Chosen solution

You only see the reset button on the "Help > Troubleshooting Information" page if you use the profile that is marked as Default=1 in the profiles.ini file.
If you do not have the "Reset" button then either use the Profile Manager to create a new profile or use the Profile Manager to start with the current default profile to get the reset button in Firefox.

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

You only see the reset button on the "Help > Troubleshooting Information" page if you use the profile that is marked as Default=1 in the profiles.ini file.
If you do not have the "Reset" button then either use the Profile Manager to create a new profile or use the Profile Manager to start with the current default profile to get the reset button in Firefox.

porcelain_mouse
porcelain_mouse Question owner
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Ah, so, the problem is that this, which is my main profile, was not marked as the default. Is that what happens when I run a different profile? So, whatever profile I ran last becomes the default? This must be the real meaning of "don't ask at startup," which I've wondered about for many years. What is meant is "make this my default profile." Got it.

Modified by porcelain_mouse

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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This happens when you use a desktop shortcut that specifies the profile (-P "profile") to start Firefox.
In this case the profiles.ini file is not updated and keeps the previous setting for the default profile.