Firefox saves your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords and user preferences in a set of files called your profile, which is stored in a separate location from the Firefox program files. You can have multiple Firefox profiles, each containing a separate set of user information. The Profile Manager allows you to create, remove, rename, and switch profiles.

• If you have (or plan to have) multiple installations of Firefox on one computer, see Dedicated profiles per Firefox installation.
• If you are troubleshooting a problem with Firefox: The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.

Starting the Profile Manager

Manage profiles when Firefox is open

Type about:profiles into the address bar and press the EnterReturn key. This will open the About Profiles page, where you can view, create and manage your Firefox profiles.

The About Profiles page includes the following options:

• Create a New Profile Click this and follow the prompts in the Create Profile Wizard (see the Creating a profile section below for details). After you finish creating the new profile, it will be listed in the Profile Manager. The new profile will become the default and will be used the next time you start Firefox.

To manage profiles, find the profile you want to change and choose from these buttons underneath that profile:

• Rename Click this to change the name of a profile in the Profile Manager. Note: This does not rename the folder containing the files for the profile.
• Remove Click this to delete a profile. (The profile in use cannot be deleted.) Don't Delete Files is the preferred option. See the Removing a profile section below for more information.
• Set as default profile This option allows you to switch profiles. Click this to make Firefox use this profile by default at startup.
• Launch profile in new browser When you click this, another Firefox window will open using that profile.

Start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed

If you have multiple installations of Firefox, see below.

1. If Firefox is open, close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu and select Quit.
2. Press + R on the keyboard. A Run dialog will open.
3. In the Run dialog box, type in:
   firefox.exe -P
   You can use -P, -p or -ProfileManager (any of them should work).
4. Click OK. The Firefox Choose User Profile window should open.

Note: Another way to start the Profile Manager is from the Search box in the Windows Start menu. Close Firefox (if open), press , type firefox.exe -P and press enter.

If the above instructions do not work or if you have multiple installations of Firefox, use the following instructions instead.

Multiple Firefox installations

You can have multiple Firefox programs installed in different locations. To start the Profile Manager for a specific Firefox installation, replace firefox.exe in the above instructions with the full path to the Firefox program, enclose that line in quotes, then add a space followed by -P.

Examples:
Firefox (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P

Firefox (32-bit) on 32-bit Windows (or 64-bit Firefox on 64-bit Windows)
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P

If the Profile Manager window still does not open, Firefox may have been running in the background, even though it was not visible. Close all instances of Firefox or restart the computer and then try again.

Create, remove or rename a profile

You can create, remove or rename a profile either from the Choose User Profile window when Firefox is closed or from the About Profiles page when Firefox is open, as follows:

Creating a profile

1. Click the Create Profile… button in the Choose User Profile window, or click the Create a New Profile button in the About Profiles page, to start the Create Profile Wizard.
2. Click Next and enter the name of the profile. Use a profile name that is descriptive, such as your personal name. This name is not exposed on the Internet.

   

3. Disregard the Choose Folder prompt unless you wish to choose where to store the profile on your computer.
   Warning: If you choose your own folder location for the profile, select a new or empty folder. If you choose a folder that isn't empty and you later remove the profile and choose the Delete Files option, everything inside that folder will be deleted.
4. To create the new profile, click FinishDone.

You will be taken back to the Choose User Profile window or the About Profiles page and the new profile will be listed. When you first start Firefox with the new profile, you will be prompted to sign in to your Mozilla account so that you can sync your data with the new profile (see below).

Removing a profile

You can remove an existing profile as follows:

1. Select the profile to remove and click Delete Profile… in the Choose User Profile window, or click the Remove button in the About Profiles page under the name of the profile you wish to delete.
2. Confirm that you wish to delete the profile:

   

   • Don't Delete Files removes the profile from the Profile Manager yet retains the profile data files on your computer in the storage folder, so that your information is not lost. Don't Delete Files is the preferred option because it saves the old profile's folder and allows you to recover the files to a new profile.
   • Delete Files removes the profile and its files (including the profile bookmarks, settings, passwords, etc.). If you use the Delete Files option, the profile folder and files will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.
   • Cancel interrupts the profile deletion.

Renaming a profile

You can rename a profile as follows:

1. Select the profile to rename in the Choose User Profile window and click Rename Profile… or click the Rename button in the About Profiles page under the profile you wish to rename.
2. Enter the new name for the profile. Type in the new profile name, and click on OK.
   • Note: The folder containing the files for the profile is not renamed.

Options

These options are only available when you start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed.

Work Offline

Choosing this option loads the selected profile and starts Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can view previously viewed web pages and experiment with your profile.

Use the selected profile without asking at startup

When you have multiple profiles, this option tells Firefox what to do at startup:

• If you check this option, Firefox will automatically load the selected profile at startup. To access other profiles, you must start the Profile Manager first.
• If you uncheck this option, Firefox will show you the Profile Manager each time you start Firefox, so that you can select a profile to use.

Use Sync with a new profile

You can sync your new profile with other Firefox profiles and devices. To learn more, see How do I set up Sync on my computer? and How do I choose what information to sync on Firefox?

Moving a profile

To copy all of your Firefox data and settings to another Firefox installation (for example, when you get a new computer), you can make a backup of your Firefox profile, then restore it in your new location. For instructions, see Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Recovering information from an old profile

If you have important information from an old Firefox profile, such as bookmarks, passwords, or user preferences, you can transfer that information to a new Firefox profile by copying the associated files. For instructions, see Recovering important data from an old profile. You can also switch to a previous profile to recover old profile data. See Recover user data missing after Firefox update for details.