How to create a fresh profile in about:profiles?

Firefox has a profile manager in about:profiles. I created a new profile to troubleshoot compatibility issues, but absolutely everything including addons and about:config entries was moved to the new profile.

I can't understand as this is the description on the page:

This page helps you to manage your profiles. Each profile is a separate world which contains separate history, bookmarks, settings and add-ons.

How to reset everything to the default in the new profile?

user598527

Posted 2017-08-13T08:46:33.643

Reputation: 2 399

1Just tried it out myself. Created a new profile through about:profiles and none of the addons, bookmarks, etc, followed over to the new profile. – n8te – 2017-08-13T08:52:56.117

Rename both Firefox user folder in %LocalAppData% and %AppData% folder. Open Firefox and it will create a new profile. – Biswapriyo – 2017-08-13T08:59:05.310

@n8te: Did you press "next" and "finish" in the profile wizard, no custom changes? It may be necessary the refresh Firefox to solve this issue of mine. – user598527 – 2017-08-13T09:24:42.203

@Biswa: Does this yield different results than this answer?

– user598527 – 2017-08-13T09:25:33.077

Yep, just "next" and "finish." No custom changes at all. – n8te – 2017-08-13T09:27:53.460

1idk about this about:profiles page but you can just rename your entire "profiles" folder to something else, start Firefox and it will create a completely fresh profile for you. – user1306322 – 2017-08-13T20:43:54.547

Answers

I was able to create a new profile using Firefox's alternative profile manager.

Important: Before you can start the Profile Manager, Firefox must be completely closed.

Press Windows Key+R on the keyboard. A Run dialog will open.

In the Run dialog box, type in: firefox.exe -P
Note: You can use -P, -p or -ProfileManager.

Click OK. The Firefox Profile Manager (Choose User Profile) window should open.

user598527

Posted 2017-08-13T08:46:33.643

Reputation: 2 399

1The Mozilla support page has no instructions for other operating systems. – user598527 – 2017-08-13T09:41:52.510

2Running that (without .exe, of course) on terminal on archlinux worked fine. – Ave – 2017-08-13T19:03:12.083

1Adding the parameter --no-remote allows you to use the profile manager while Firefox is running, but of course you will not be able to modify or load any profiles currently active. – BoffinBrain – 2017-08-30T12:17:06.073

It might be easier to do it manually.

Go here: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Then create a new folder.

Then edit %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini

And add a new section like:

[Profile1]
Name=my-test-profile
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/the-name-of-the-folder

You can also change this to 0 in the file to get it to prompt for the profile you want:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

Paul

Posted 2017-08-13T08:46:33.643

Reputation: 52 173

While the process for creating a new profile is correct, this method either isn't unfortunately working for me. I will likely refresh Firefox. – user598527 – 2017-08-13T09:22:43.270