Firefox: Using multiple instances with different profiles?

Let's say, Firefox's instance is running with profile 1. Is it now possible, to start a new Firefox instance with profile 2?

Normally, when Firefox is already running, no new instance is created. Instead, just a new browser window is opened.

Note: By saying "profile", I'm referring to Firefox user profiles.

linux_is_for_desktop

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 678

try searching. it is the number one question regarding firefox in superuser.com – Capi Etheriel – 2010-01-25T15:08:52.993

Answers

Here's an article from Lifehacker dealing with this. It's not extremely complicated, I've used this a couple of times.

alex

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 16 172

Wow! Couldn't imagine that it's so simple and supported out-of-the-box ;) Thanks! – linux_is_for_desktop – 2009-09-15T08:14:19.097

You can do it from the command line:

firefox -no-remote -P profile_name

hasen

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 4 556

1It isn't really: -P says 'load the named profile' it will only open ProfileManager it the profile you've named doesn't exist. – robertc – 2010-01-25T14:11:34.623

firefox -no-remote -P brings up the profile manager for me. Anyway, you can avoid dealing with the Profile Manager at all using the -profile switch as described in my answer. – Nickolay – 2015-04-13T21:06:02.483

2First run 'firefox --profilemanager' to set up separate profiles. – postfuturist – 2009-10-30T22:23:01.013

2-P is a shorthand for that – hasen – 2009-10-31T23:25:53.207

Try MultiFirefox:

MultiFirefox is a small launcher utility that allows you to run multiple versions of Firefox side-by-side. It helps you set up multiple profiles (one or more for each version of Firefox), remembers your last launch preferences for easy launching, has auto-updating built in for when we make improvements, and is 100% open source, MIT licensed.

brandstaetter

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 4 119

Welcome to SU. Please provide more information then just a link. SU is a repository of answers and desciptive answers are encouraged. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-09-15T11:25:20.693

It is an external tool, which allows multiple instances of firefox to be started, also with different profiles and different sets of addons. – brandstaetter – 2009-09-15T11:27:49.487

Also, it is way more comfortable than using the built-in profile manager. Give it a try, a frined uses it all the time: He launches one instance for web developing with loads of add-ons, and one sleek with minimal add-ons for the usual web surfing, without the add-on bloat. – brandstaetter – 2009-09-15T11:37:09.920

@brandstaetter: I edited your answer a bit to add more info about the app from the authors site. Hope you don't mind! Also, cool little app :) – alex – 2009-09-15T12:04:21.847

awesome, thanks @alex. I'm still getting used to this here, Hope to improve my skills soon :) – brandstaetter – 2009-09-15T12:07:08.313

It's not very hard; you'll learn as you go along. When composing your answers, use the buttons to add hyperlinks and edit your text as you see fit. – alex – 2009-09-15T12:13:08.520

Using an unx environement, you can use a command like :

env MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 firefox -P Profile2

Using a windows or Mac OS X env, I don't know how you can do it

slubman

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 932

OSX is pretty much an unx environment, so it works there as well. – Erika – 2013-09-19T14:15:25.537

An alternative to using the Profile manager (the -P switch described in @hasen's answer) is to specify the path to profile directly in the command line.

firefox -no-remote -profile absolute-path-to-the-profile-dir will create the directory specified (if it doesn't exist) and use it as the profile.

Example on Windows:

C:\Progra~1\Firefox\firefox.exe -no-remote -profile C:\FxProfiles\myprofile

On OS X it is slightly more complicated:

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -foreground \
   -no-remote -profile /Users/me/fx-profiles/myprofile

-foreground switches from the terminal window to Firefox. Note that on 10.5 you have to use an even more complicated comand to work around the dyld error.

Nickolay

Posted 2009-09-15T08:05:32.140

Reputation: 282