See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile

I already tried the Profile in use link last night, and couldn't do an unlock, as there were no folders of which one would be the unlock option. The ini looks fine: at least I had that notebook file with the details as should be. There may be a problem with my windows access rights, but I went into "view" and unhid folders etc, to no avail. Secondly: I had not seen the "recovering missing profile" link, and just tried it: but the missing folder, while appearing in ff profile manager, does not appear when I go through the motions of recovery. The only visible folders belong to my new profile. I might add that from the beginning of this problem, I saw that my old profile folder was named "default", if that is of any relevance. Please help, and thank you.

I realised that by hovering my mouse over the old profile that I could see its location. So I typed in the location, but Windows says it cannot find the file. Does this mean that my old profile is deleted? And if so, why does profile manager still think it's there? From time to time, I try opening ff via the old profile, but I am still getting the same message, that it's in use.

Firstly, thanks so much to cor-el for replying, I read on another string that you do so voluntarily! It seems I was one of the rare victims of when ff deletes the profile, for it was nowhere to be found. So, since I back my computer up regularly, I remembered to look for the profile in the backup, which I found - so I was able to restore the bookmarks I wanted from a relatively recent date. Let it be known that profiles can be deleted: it would be great if we could be reminded to backup our bookmarks by ff.

Firefox automatically makes a Backup of your Bookmarks periodically.

-> Backing up and Restoring Bookmarks

• https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20and%20restoring%20bookmarks

-> Recovering important data from an old profile

• https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering%20important%20data%20from%20an%20old%20profile

Check and tell if its working.

Thanks mha007 for responding, but I'd already tried the recovering link, and since I couldn't open my original profile (since I kept getting the "in use" message) I could not follow through with the backing up and restoring link advice. This is why I am pretty sure the profile was deleted (especially since I had no problem accessing it in its appropriate folder from my backup usb). Since I am a bit obsessed by this problem now, I keep reading, and wonder if my crash was caused by FF6 update/java console problems.

Just to clarify, i think you resolved your problem as you mentioned in your previous reply:

Since I back my computer up regularly, I remembered to look for the profile in the backup, which I found - so I was able to restore the bookmarks I wanted from a relatively recent date.

So is it resolved or not yet ??

Sorry about lack of clarification: my problems are resolved - but the ff problem isn't: I was never able to stop ff from running invisibly in the background, and stopping the old profile from being "in use". Should I delete the old profile now that I have all I need on the new one? Or does it not matter? Thank you, mha007!

You can delete the old profile if you want to. It doesn't matter though. However, maybe you should still keep that Backup from where you restored your old profile's data. Who knows, it might come in handy again :-p

How do I avoid crashes?

• https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/avoid-crashes

OK, thanks so much mha007, and cheers!

Glad to hear it

Understood, and done. Thanks again.