Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Do add-ons functionality change if I set all about:config values to default?

more options

I was wondering if I could clean-up my old FF database/values.

Can I set all defaults in about:config without any problems with my add-ons? How do I set about:config to default? Do you have any other tips to make my FF fresh as new without exporting all my data, and then reinstall the whole thing?

Thanks!

I was wondering if I could clean-up my old FF database/values. Can I set all defaults in about:config without any problems with my add-ons? How do I set about:config to default? Do you have any other tips to make my FF fresh as new without exporting all my data, and then reinstall the whole thing? Thanks!

Chosen solution

You can delete the prefs.js file in the Firefox Profile Folder to reset all prefs to the default values and start from scratch with making changes.

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (8)

more options

You can't set all prefs to the default on the about:config because some are set by Firefox to specific values and making changes to prefs without knowing the consequences can be dangerous. This is why you initially get a warning page when you first open the about:config page.

Why do you want to set prefs to the default?

If you have prefs from extensions that you had installed in the past and that are no longer present then you can safely right-click those and reset them and they will be removed after a Firefox restart.

more options

Since I had this profile for a long-time and who knows what mistakes I have made in the pass : )

To go through ALL configs would be a lot of work and I'm no pro in knowing what everything means.

I'm having a little problem with memory hogging when FF has been on for some time with 15-20 windows.

I could try to make a new profile and send history bookmarks and addon to that one. That would be an alternative. But not sure how to the everything including auto-complete history to go to the next profile. But maybe that's for another question.

Modified by johanfromsweden

more options

Chosen Solution

You can delete the prefs.js file in the Firefox Profile Folder to reset all prefs to the default values and start from scratch with making changes.

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
more options

What things get affected by that? Will that change behavior of addons? Erase history?

Thanks!

more options

This won't affect the history and the bookmarks and other data stored in an SQLite database file.

This will only effect the settings that you make in Options and data/settings that extensions store as a preference, so you will have to redo such settings.
You can opt to edit the prefs.js file and only remove specific lines if you wish to keep some settings, but you have to be cautious not to remove lines that Firefox uses to store specific settings needed for normal operation.
Settings from extensions that you used in the past, but no longer have installed may still show as prefs and those can safely be removed.

more options

Ok, thanks! That might be something to try.

What settings do you recommend someone to change under options? I guess "block phising sites" just makes FF slower, and that kind of setting is only needed for people that don't know anything about security.

So that one I could uncheck as I currently have. Also, web cache is currently set from auto to 50 MB. If I don't set it manually it goes to 1 GB and that can hardly improve browser speed.

Any other tips also very much welcomed!

more options

Just leave all settings in options at their default unless you know what you are doing.
Disabling security features makes you vulnerable to security issues and changing other settings can cause websites to malfunction or content may be missing or you may suffer rendering issues.

more options

Ok, I'll start another thread regarding tweaking. Thanks a lot as usual for your feedback!