Can a saftey check be added for profile deletion which alerts the user if more than one profile uses the folder that is about to be deleted?
Over time I've created a lot of profiles and I've always kept them in subfolders inside C:\Firefox Profiles. Well, recently (with a hazy memory after having not created any new profile for a couple of years) I created a new temporary profile for testing and I forgot to specify a subfolder. Instead I specified just the parent folder (C:\Firefox Profiles) as the path for the profile. Well, as a result, when I was finished using the new temporary profile and I went to delete it, the profile manager deleted the entire parent folder. All of my profiles were deleted. Not only were they deleted, they were deleted in such a way that forensic file recovery software wasn't able to recover them. It seems like it would be logical and fairly easy to have the profile manager run a quick check before deleting a profile's folder to see if any of the other profiles are dependent on that folder, then alert the user if so.
Modified by JuzBeKind
All Replies (5)
Your oversight was a fatal mistake that Mozilla warns about in the Firefox support KnowledgeBase. Mozilla also does not condone creating Profiles in other that the default location.
As far as creating a "safety check" given the manner in which you handle Profiles, how is a developer supposed to plan on a user sticking a bunch of Profiles anywhere they feel like placing them? Expecting a lot for the potential stupid mistakes that a user may make when they deviate from the normal installation.
IMO, you have to treat that as a "learning experience" and not do that same thing again. In the last 16 years I have made many of those stupid mistakes when screwing with modifying Firefox: I learned from each one and didn't make the same mistake again.
And don't think I am following the "company line" and "playing by the rules", I have Profiles all over the place myself. Most are on my D:/ drive which is a separate hard drive so that should I need to reformat Windows with out prior planning those Profiles are "safe" and won't disappear.
I also went thru a stage where I was creating the Profile for a new Firefox installation right in the Program Files folder for that new version; and of course the Firefox Program Files aren't / weren't in the default location, either. Some were placed on the D:/ drive, too.
Overall, I tried so many non-default schemes that I could easily suffer a loss like you did; BUT, I didn't lump them all together (after the first time) with any Profiles left sitting in the root folder where the other Profiles resided. Once mistake was all it took for me to learn that hard lesson.
On a positive note, please see this support posting over at the MozillaZIne fora. http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2821799 The 5th similar thread that I started over the last 12 years about advanced users working with "Profiles" and multiple versions of Firefox being installed. The first 4 threads are hyperlinked at the bottom of that page. Versions 1 & 2 have input from other users who were doing the same thing many years ago.
Perhaps the long path could go on its own line so someone who chooses their own folder could more easily see a potentially bad situation coming. But otherwise, I would not expect any changes. Even that seems unlikely.
This is what backups are for.
the-edmeister said
Mozilla also does not condone creating Profiles in other that the default location.
They provide a clearly visible, out-in-the-open profile manager option for doing it. There's only a couple of options and it's one of them. They clearly understand that changing the profile location is not some obscure interest but rather a very valuable/useful ability.
how is a developer supposed to plan on a user sticking a bunch of Profiles anywhere they feel like placing them?
They don't need to. The profile manager already knows the paths of all profiles created by the profile manager. Having the profile manager check those paths at the time of deletion to see if the folder of the profile to be deleted is a parent folder of one of the other profiles is a *very* simple bit of code.
Expecting a lot for the potential stupid mistakes that a user may make when they deviate from the normal installation.
I'm not expecting a lot at all. This is a very simple request for a very simple bit of code that I personally would put in my own program to improve it. The tone of your reply is that of someone who has become bitter and eager to jump down people's throats. Take a vacation bud.
jscher2000 said
Perhaps the long path could go on its own line so someone who chooses their own folder could more easily see a potentially bad situation coming.
Checking the path wouldn't have prevented the issue I outlined, as I would have just assumed Firefox was telling me that it's deleting files located in C:\Firefox Profiles, which would have been in line with the action I was requesting.
This is what backups are for.
What I'm suggesting still seems like a reasonable additional safety check because it's such a small bit of code to add it. It seems like a worthwhile improvement to me. That's why I'm suggesting it - to improve Firefox, and to prevent this from happening to someone else. Developers often add small improvements to software as courtesies to the users; to make the software more helpful and user friendly. Not everything that is added is done so out of absolute ironclad necessity.
You can file a bug here:
More info: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines