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

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Undue refresh in firefox

more options

FireFox?! What are you folks doing?! WHAT a disaster! WHY do you do this? REFRESH to the entire world mean refresh the screen. So I refresh Firebox and disaster! Add ons ? GONE! Bookmarks? GONE! Pocket app? GONE! INSANE? WHO conjured this? In an instant! Disaster! This is not what the rest of the world means by REFRESH! WHAT are you thinking? NO warning. NO clue the rabbit hole you send us down. WHY do you do these things. HOW do I get back were I was? PLEASE! WHY do you do these things to us? WHY do you led us into major changes without warning and give us no way back. This kind of lost time costs a fortune.

Plain, simple, language please. Step by step. How do I undue this disaster?

FireFox?! What are you folks doing?! WHAT a disaster! WHY do you do this? REFRESH to the entire world mean refresh the screen. So I refresh Firebox and disaster! Add ons ? GONE! Bookmarks? GONE! Pocket app? GONE! INSANE? WHO conjured this? In an instant! Disaster! This is not what the rest of the world means by REFRESH! WHAT are you thinking? NO warning. NO clue the rabbit hole you send us down. WHY do you do these things. HOW do I get back were I was? PLEASE! WHY do you do these things to us? WHY do you led us into major changes without warning and give us no way back. This kind of lost time costs a fortune. Plain, simple, language please. Step by step. How do I undue this disaster?

All Replies (2)

more options

When you use the refresh feature in Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks and history, form data, tabs) is automatically imported. The current profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

It is possible to recover data from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

You can move the profile folder from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to the location used for profiles. You need to use the Profile Manager to register this profile or edit the profiles.ini file to modify the current default entry that point to the newly created profile with a time stamp appended.

you can recover an orphaned profile via these steps:

  • use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
  • click "Choose Folder" in the Profile Manager
  • browse to the location of a lost profile to recover this profile and register it in the Profile Manager

Note that you should never use "Choose Folder" to specify a folder that already contains files that do not belong to Firefox (i.e. only use "Choose Folder" to recover an orphaned profile)

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.


Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location. Location used for the main profile in "AppData\Roaming" that keeps your personal data.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files in "AppData\Local".

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
more options

Help. I am drowning in jargon: “Profile Manager (what’s that) to register (what’s that?) this profile or edit the profiles.ini file (what on earth is that?) to modify the current default entry (what’s that?) that point to (point to?) the newly created profile with a time stamp appended. “

Incomprehensible. I have nary a clue what you are trying to say.