http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save

Thanks, I appreciate the link, but I've been through this article already and tried what I thought was relevant, specifically ensuring that the preference file is not read-only or locked, or corrupt or damaged (did a clean re-install). Nothing is synced and I don't think it's a problem with another extension, since nothing saves after closing the program.

Just to be clear, my problem is not that these won't save at all - I can install add-ons with no problem and they work fine - it's just that anytime I close and re-open firefox (or after computer restart or shutdown), the program opens completely clean, with no add-ons, no bookmarks, nothing, as if it has just been downloaded. It asks if I would like to import bookmarks, etc from chrome or safari and also if I would like to make firefox my default browser. It does this with every single re-open, always with anything I've installed or saved completely wiped. Very frustrating!

The good thing is I don't really need to recover anything as I'm just starting (or just trying to start) to use firefox. SO if I can just get it to remember the add-ons I've installed, bookmarks and other standard operating procedures everytime I reopen it, I'd be a happy camper, would install the add-ons I want and could move forward using the software.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile

What do you mean with: I do see to have many prefs folders and files ?

Can you attach a screenshot that shows the content of the Firefox profile folder in a details format (i.e. not icons only)?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

• Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot
• Make sure that you do not exceed the maximum size of 1 MB

You can check for problems with the profiles.ini file.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-run-firefox-when-your-profile-missing-or-inacc

Make sure that you have write permission for the location where profiles.ini is located and the profiles.ini file itself.

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or reuse an existing profile:

• Delete the profiles.ini file to force Firefox to create a new default profile
• Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
  If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the PM and select the location of a lost profile and recover this profile.

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

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/

In Mac OS X v10.7 and later, the ~/Library folder is a hidden folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders#Mac_OS_X

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Thanks. A lot of this is new to me. I managed to open the library, found the application support folder and the firefox folder within that but could not find the profile.ini file. see 1st attached image.

As you can see, there is a profile folder and a profiles.ini folder. When I open the profiles.ini folder, there is a grayed out ".DS_Store" file and an extensions folder. see 2nd attached image.

Inside the extensions folder is a file called "{B51267E0-2F92-11E1-B448-37B64724019B}.xpi". see 3rd attached image.

Inside the profiles folder are 129 folders, all of them ending in ".default". Attached image 4 is a screenshot of this opened folder. I can take a screenshot inside one of those if it will help.

So I am not really sure what do to. Some of the links people have been providing is for when the profile is inaccessible, which I don't think is the problem - in any case I've never received an error message like that. Perhaps this means the profile is missing and I should simply create a new one?

Firefox will recognize any add-ons I download, so it must (at least temporarily?) save those somewhere, but after closing and re-opening, the software is always wiped clean, as if I freshly downloaded it.

Thanks for any additional thoughts, I appreciate it. (Mac-mini 10.8.5, FF v.38.0.5)

cor-el said

What do you mean with: I do see to have many prefs folders and files ? Can you attach a screenshot that shows the content of the Firefox profile folder in a details format (i.e. not icons only)?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

• Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot
• Make sure that you do not exceed the maximum size of 1 MB

Sure, I posted some screenshots in reply to your post below, but in case it helps, here is (I Think) the detailed view you requested.

Thanks

You seem to have profiles.ini as a folder. It is not supposed to be a folder. It should be a text file inside the Profiles folder. My profiles.ini file has this format:

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/grb7ld4.default

Try to delete the profiles.ini folder (i.e. move the folder to the trash).

You can also delete all the folder in the Profiles folder that Firefox has created because it wasn't able to safe the new profile folder to the profiles.ini files.

cor-el said

Try to delete the profiles.ini folder (i.e. move the folder to the trash). You can also delete all the folder in the Profiles folder that Firefox has created because it wasn't able to safe the new profile folder to the profiles.ini files.

Thanks, Cor-el - that did the trick. I deleted both the profiles.ini folder and all the contents of the profiles folder (but didn't delete that folder itself). I opened FF, added an add-on, closed and re-opened and lo and behold, it's still there. Very grateful. I will use it for a week or so and run some tests and report back if all stays well.