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Im getting the profile can't be loaded or is missing mssg, i can't open firefox at all. I've even uninstalled and reinstalled and no help, how can i fix this

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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something happened and I lost my firefox, I can't get it back even after reinstalling. I can't access my profile or don't know how, can't open firefox at all.

something happened and I lost my firefox, I can't get it back even after reinstalling. I can't access my profile or don't know how, can't open firefox at all.

All Replies (3)

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You need to locate the profiles.ini file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See:


This can be caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file and the profile marked as Default=1 in this file is no longer present on the hard drive.

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:

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
  • Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/

Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see a file name without file extension. You can check the actual file extension (type) in the properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.


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i typed in the %appdat% and opened a file, that file had a bunch of stuff like bookmarks but not profile. I typed in profiles and some things came up, I clicked on them and got the error mssg still.

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Did you type the full path?

  • %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\

Do you see a Profiles file in that location?

Modified by cor-el