Unchecked "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" seems to be ignored
I have 3-4 different profiles running, one for work, one for using a proxy, one for developing (which turns off certain security features as I ONLY run my own code on it). I could have sworn that back in the old days when I unchecked the "Use the selected ... without asking ..." button that every time I started firefox by opening a link or clicking the icon for firefox that it would pop up the "Choose User Profile" dialog. Now it just seems to have decided to push it to some arbitrary profile, which for now seems to be my work one. I don't think it's stable and seems to be the first profile that I run when I start starting up firefox profiles. This is a problem if it randomly decides to start in my insecure for dev only profile.
What I did:
- Created a few profiles
- Started up multiple profiles at once w/ firefox -P
- Unchecked the "Use the selected ...." checkbox
What I expected:
- Bring up profile chooser dialog every time firefox starts
What's actually happening:
- It's picking a profile to start (not clear how it's choosing) and just starting with no dialog.
I'm running 68.8.0 esr 64-bit. Is this the new expected behavior, am I doing something wrong, or do I need to file a bug?
All Replies (3)
Hello...
I took some time to play around with the Firefox Profile Manager, and I can sort of get back to the behaviour that I expect by un-checking the "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" box.
In the past:
- I had configured "Profile 1" and "Profile 2" and checked the "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" box (which basically set "Profile 1" as the default profile);
- Starting Firefox without any parameters would open my default profile ("Profile 1");
- Starting Firefox with a specified profile would open the specified profile (in practice, I only ever had to specify "Profile 2");
- Whichever profile I started was the one used to open URLs (in a new tab), regardless of how I opened them (from Thunderbird, from a link in a PDF, from Windows' "Run..." dialogue box).
Now:
- I have configured "Profile 1" and "Profile 2" and unchecked the "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" box (which means that I do not have a default profile for Firefox);
- Starting Firefox without any parameters opens Profile Manager, from which I must select which profile I want;
- Starting Firefox with a specified profile opens the specified profile (in practice, I have a shortcut that specifies "Profile 2");
- Whichever profile I start is the one used to open URLs (in a new tab), regardless of how I open them (from Thunderbird, from a link in a PDF, from Windows' "Run..." dialogue box).
Basically, the currently running profile is set as the default, and Firefox uses it for any subsequent URL requests just as though the "Use the selected profile without asking at startup" box were checked in Profile Manager.
During testing, I had one URL open a new window of the currently running Firefox profile instead of opening a new tab in the currently running window of the currently running Firefox profile, but I have not been able to duplicate that. It may have been just my two profiles getting their new instructions.
If I run Firefox with "Profile 2" and then run a second instance of Firefox with "Profile 1," I get two instances of Firefox, as expected. Launching URLs uses "Profile 2," the first instance that I launched (perhaps, the first instance's "I'm the default" setting prevails?). Similarly, launching "Profile 1" and then "Profile 2" results in "Profile 1" being preferred for external URL requests. If I close the instance of Firefox that I started first, my next external request for a URL results in the Profile Manager coming up and asking which profile I want to use. If I select the still-running profile, the URL opens in a new tab in the currently running Firefox instance.
In conclusion, it is a minor annoyance to have to be prompted for my "Profile 1" Firefox profile instead of having it as the default. The larger issue appears to me to be that, whatever change was made to how profiles are handled for multiple installations, there is an unintended consequence for regular profile handling introduced in Firefox 67.0. I would like to get to the bottom of it and change the behaviour back (or have a setting to regulate the behaviour).
That isn't helpful at all. Your description of "in the past" is not what I want. It is the exact opposite. Your description of now is also not what I want. This is NOT a minor annoyance, this is a huge problem. I need it to ask me what profile to launch with EVERY time I click on a link.