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easily running various profiles

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  • Last reply by TechHorse

mak2
mak2
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I started using Chrome/Brave in order to be able to use profiles because I did not find that feature in Firefox. I really try to get away from google, so I searched extensively and found out: profiles do indeed exist as a feature in Firefox. My question now is: why are there no buttons or easily accessible settings (for example in connection with sync-settings) for using profiles and why does one need to type in strange things in the address bar to access the feature and even to start another instance of firefox with another profile?

My use case is this: I have a private profile, one for my job and one for union stuff which I don't want to mix into my job profile. Yet, on my home computer I'd like to have all three profiles running simultaneously. Sometimes one or more profiled windows have been closed down and I need to open a new window with a specific profile. I understand that I need to open a tab, type "about:profiles" and then scroll through a page with large amounts of techy information on all profiles and press the last one of four buttons under that profile.

I'm quite tech-savvy and typing "about:profiles" is doable for me, but it seems absurd, given that the feature is not sci-fi and is well visually accessible in other browsers (Chrome and Brave: rightclick on profilesymbol and choose from simple list).

I started using Chrome/Brave in order to be able to use profiles because I did not find that feature in Firefox. I really try to get away from google, so I searched extensively and found out: profiles do indeed exist as a feature in Firefox. My question now is: why are there no buttons or easily accessible settings (for example in connection with sync-settings) for using profiles and why does one need to type in strange things in the address bar to access the feature and even to start another instance of firefox with another profile? My use case is this: I have a private profile, one for my job and one for union stuff which I don't want to mix into my job profile. Yet, on my home computer I'd like to have all three profiles running simultaneously. Sometimes one or more profiled windows have been closed down and I need to open a new window with a specific profile. I understand that I need to open a tab, type "about:profiles" and then scroll through a page with large amounts of techy information on all profiles and press the last one of four buttons under that profile. I'm quite tech-savvy and typing "about:profiles" is doable for me, but it seems absurd, given that the feature is not sci-fi and is well visually accessible in other browsers (Chrome and Brave: rightclick on profilesymbol and choose from simple list).

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TechHorse
TechHorse
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mak2, you can create a shortcut to the about:profiles page in the bookmarks toolbar.

open about:profiles and bookmark it. Place the bookmark in the bookmarks toolbar for easy access.

Or: Open the library with ctrl+shift+O and navigate to the bookmarks toolbar, then select Organise > Add Bookmark… You can enter "about:profiles" in the URL field.

Either way, in the main window, as long as the bookmarks toolbar is visible (ctrl+shift+B) you will have a quick way to get to the profile switching page.

Another method is to use command-line options to launch profiles. You can create shortcuts on the desktop or in the start menu that look like either of the following: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P "profile_name" "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -profile "profile_path"

(where "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" can be replaced if your Firefox was installed to a different folder)

Unfortunately I personally do not know of any quicker way than these. But other people have also been requesting a simpler profile-switching method, see https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/shortcut-for-different-profiles/idi-p/707

According to this page this is 'in development'. If you wanted you could Add kudos to the original post as Firefox developers use this site to track interest in feature suggestions.

Modified by TechHorse

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