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Disable new profile prompt in Firefox?

Is there a way to disable profile locking in Firefox ? We are using Firefox as a front end to our application, but every time a new instance get's launched it prompts for a new profile. We would like to open new browsers under one profile all the time.


Dave's Answer:

A fascinating question and one that's solved by exploring the Profile Manager that's included as part of Firefox.

To start up Profile Manager in Windows, close Firefox by selecting File --> Exit, then choose Start --> Run... from the Windows START menu. Type in firefox.exe -profilemanager and click OK.

On a Linux systems, launch a command terminal and type in firefox -profilemanager.

On a Mac, well, on a Mac it's a bit more of a hassle because of how Mac OS X hides the actual application binaries. Let me show you how I got it to work on my own Mac OS X system...

First off, launch Terminal (Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal), then move into the directory where Firefox is located (probably /Applications/Firefox) with the command cd /Applications/Firefox. Now you have to go a bit deeper to get to the correct place, so enter another command: cd Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS. Now, finally, you can enter the necessary command. Here's all three, to make things a bit clearer:

$ cd /Applications/Firefox $ cd Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS $ ./firefox -profilemanager

Here's what you'll see:

Firefox Profile Manager

The key setting you want has already been checked in this screenshot: Don't ask at startup.

Check that and you'll find that you won't be prompted to select a profile when you start the Firefox browser in the future.

A simple solution, though it'd be nice if Firefox itself could launch the Profile Manager instead of making you jump through all these hoops!


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Reader Comments To Date: 2

Capish said, on February 12, 2006 5:32 AM:

U Rock dude thanks for being real and not bs'ing

What is Firefox? said, on April 14, 2007 2:44 AM:

Now that I've disabled the Profile Manager, I want to reenable it. How can I do that? I'm using Fedora Linux.

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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