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

My profile may have been reset to default, not by me.

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

I exited Firefox and restarted my Windows 10 computer. Upon attempting to launch Firefox, I was presented with the profile manager. It did not list any profiles from which to choose. In Windows Explorer, I found that my profile did exist. And there is a profiles.json file in the Profiles folder, but it is empty. I attempted to copy my good profile data into a new profile folder (that I created using profile manager) but upon launching, everything was set to default.

So, to sum up, cannot seem to use my profile, but it does seem to exist.

I exited Firefox and restarted my Windows 10 computer. Upon attempting to launch Firefox, I was presented with the profile manager. It did not list any profiles from which to choose. In Windows Explorer, I found that my profile did exist. And there is a profiles.json file in the Profiles folder, but it is empty. I attempted to copy my good profile data into a new profile folder (that I created using profile manager) but upon launching, everything was set to default. So, to sum up, cannot seem to use my profile, but it does seem to exist.

All Replies (4)

more options
more options

Modified by FredMcD

more options

There is no profile folder on my desktop. I tried "Recovering important data from an old profile" with no luck. "How to run Firefox when profile missing/inaccessible" did not help. When this problem first appeared, profile manager appeared when I attempted to launch. There were no profiles listed, so I could not even choose one. The profiles folder was in its proper location however. And it contains my good profile, that I want to use.

I created a new profile and browsed to my good profile to launch with it. Upon doing so, it was set to default--no history or bookmarks, etc. I created another new profile and manually copied all of my good profile data into it (yes, while Firefox was not running). Same problem.

When I type about:profiles, all I see are the two new ones I created.

more options

FredMcD said

Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.