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

How do I determine what is my CURRENT Profile, because Profile manager shows 3 and all the Q&As are ambiguous in that respect. Thx.?

  • 11 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3255 views
  • Last reply by Zeddic

more options

Yes, I see ambiguity. I also have some old backed up profiles and I have 3 profiles showing under the Profile Manager. The folder under "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ " shows 2 of them, but HOW do I determine WHICH ONE is my current profile?? So far I was unable to browse up a clear answer. Thx.

Yes, I see ambiguity. I also have some old backed up profiles and I have 3 profiles showing under the Profile Manager. The folder under "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ " shows 2 of them, but HOW do I determine WHICH ONE is my current profile?? So far I was unable to browse up a clear answer. Thx.

Chosen solution

You appear to have created a profile in the Profiles folder and not as you should have in a new, empty, folder.

Did you ever clicked the Choose Folder button and specified the Profiles folder as the new profile folder?

You should always specify a new and empty folder for the profile if you really want to create a profile other than what Firefox suggests (you can modify the file extension part after the ".": e.g. Default User -> <my name>)

It would be best to cleanup the Profiles folder and remove all files apart from the profiles.ini file and the xxxxxxxx.default and "xxxxxxxx.default user" folders, although you can consider to move those to another location and start anew. If necessary then you can recover data from one of the two folders.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (11)

more options

The one with the latest folder date?

Help > Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder - Show Folder

more options

Thanks for the try... but that just opens the folder called : /Profiles.. with no name. In that folder, I do see 2 of the profile name folders of my 3! profiles I see in the Profile Manager. Yes, they do have different dates... but I want to know, which one is REALLY my CURRENT Profile. If I have a hiccup or need a migration and need to restore my Profile from the MozillaBackup backed-up profiles, which one do I choose? I have actually 4 there, LOL, because I will need to restore my latest, ie. NOW CURRENT Profile. Right? That is why I need to know. Any more ideas?  :)


P.S... Your Help may have been correct... as I display the /Profiles, the 'cursor' highlights on the right side pane the Profile that has the latest date. So i will presume that is the CURRENT profile. Thanks for your help! The Profile Manager should be improved to reflect on that. Upon opening that utility, the highlight there is on the TOP profile, not on the the current. Whence the confusion... at least on my part. :)

Modified by Zeddic

more options

Provide a screenshot of the folder that opens from the Show Folder button. It sounds like you have two Profiles in the active Profile folder!

edited


https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem

It is best to use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot and make sure that you do not exceed a maximum file size of 1 MB.

Then use the Browse .... button below the Post a Reply text box to upload the screenshot.

Modified by the-edmeister

more options

Thanks... I believe I have explained myself to myself in my previous P.S. in that message. ( it was being edited probably while you were sending your last reply. )

more options

here is the snap of that Profiles folder opening. So I am presuming the "se63pro0.Default User" is the CURRENT profile and the one above, the "g39q0q09.default" is not. The third profile from the ProfileManager is not to be found. I can live with that.

more options

Close to what I suspected, the Profiles folder has two other Profile folders inside.
g39q0q09.default and set63pro0.Default User which is dated 04/27/2013 - which would be the last time that particular Profile was used

If Show Folder opened the Profiles folder, that would be the Profile folder which was being used when you were using Firefox and hit that Show Profiles button. You got sumptin really screwed up there.

Scroll down the left pane of that Profiles folder to profiles,ini (the gatekeeper for the Profile Manager) and open that file in a text program like Word, and provide a screenshot of that file. I want to try to help you sort this out without losing any data.

more options

[General]

StartWithLastProfile=1


[Profile0]

Name=default

IsRelative=1

Path=Profiles/g39q0q09.default


[Profile1]

Name=Default User

IsRelative=1

Path=Profiles/se63pro0.Default User


[Profile2]

Name=JP1

IsRelative=1

Path=Profiles

Default=1

Modified by Zeddic

more options

Somehow the newest Profile (Profile 2) ended up in the \Profiles\ folder instead of in it's own Profile folder which would have a name similar to the other two Profiles - 8 alpha / numeric string followed by a suffix, either Firefox assigned or user specified, like JP1.
Default=1 indicates the "active" Profile so we know that is the most current Profile.

[Profile2]
Name=JP1
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles
Default=1 

Sorry, I need to break now for dinner right now, be back in 1/2 hour or so.

more options

Enjoy the dinner... I just finished mine (EST) !! What you say so far, makes sense. I believe I would have been able to reconcile the issue, but there seems to be a score of ambiguities, or rather problems as you point out. I have had a major crash (HD) some last year and had to recover stuff, (I do not do backups every day) it was before I got the MozillaBackup utl. Still, the moment there are more profiles in existence, the ProfileManager should be more helpful.

more options

Chosen Solution

You appear to have created a profile in the Profiles folder and not as you should have in a new, empty, folder.

Did you ever clicked the Choose Folder button and specified the Profiles folder as the new profile folder?

You should always specify a new and empty folder for the profile if you really want to create a profile other than what Firefox suggests (you can modify the file extension part after the ".": e.g. Default User -> <my name>)

It would be best to cleanup the Profiles folder and remove all files apart from the profiles.ini file and the xxxxxxxx.default and "xxxxxxxx.default user" folders, although you can consider to move those to another location and start anew. If necessary then you can recover data from one of the two folders.

more options

Thank you... I will go back to refreshing my awareness about the Profiles, it has been long time ago... to get with it. I will use your suggestions there, I will save it all (I always do :) and start anew, recovering then the stuff from my 'old' profile. In retrospect, I had some problems recovering my Bookmarks (obsolete backups) and that got me to creating more profiles to access the staff on different drives. And now I obviously have to do some more reading too.

 Thanks again, I will have to get my fingers dirty.    It is like the Micro$oft,  offering so many screw-ups, that one HAS to dig in and learn.   Blessing in disguise.   

Be well. Zed.