How to fix Firefox starting with a blank user profile

[harlan4096]

Mozilla released Firefox 67.0 recently and integrated in that release came a -- long-overdue -- feature that assigned unique profiles to each Firefox installation on the system.

The change should not have affected existing Firefox installations and profiles on the system but reports are coming in from all over the Internet that this is not the case for some users of the browser.

Mozilla's implementation assigns a unique profile to any new Firefox installation. That is a good thing for systems with multiple Firefox installations as you don't have to create and assign profiles for these installations manually anymore using the profile manager or other means.

Firefox uses the set profile from that moment on during start so that it is no longer necessary to tell the browser what to do (either manually on start or by using shortcut parameters).

Some Firefox users who upgraded the browser to version 67.0 noticed that it started with a blank profile; all their user data, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords, history, and other data appeared gone.

The problem that these users experienced is that Firefox assigned a new default profile to the installation; this should not have happened, but it appears to have happened to some.

Good news is that the user data is not deleted or gone. All that is needed is to assign the old profile to the installation of Firefox to restore it.

You have two main options to do so, one uses the Firefox interface to change the assigned profile, the second loads it using a parameter that you add to the Firefox shortcut.

Option 1: Set a default profile for Firefox in the interface

1. Load about:profiles in the Firefox address bar. The page that opens displays all known profiles and the paths assigned to them.

2. The page displays the current profile at the top and any unused profile (that the current Firefox installation does not touch) below.

3. Locate the previous user profile. If you cannot locate it using the folder name, you may use trial and error until you get the right profile, or use open folder to
browse the profile folder and check it out.

4. Select "Set as default profile" to assign a new profile to the installation. You may also use "launch profile in a new browser" to check it out without switching to it permanently.

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