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Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

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  • 6 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I had downloaded a game and when it was complete I tried to open it in order to play it. After opening it, my laptop just hanged for along time on which I got impatient and decided to restart it. since then I cannot use Mozilla firefox as it doesn't open but only displays this text "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." but since that time on my desktop there was a folder that appeared by the name "old firefox data" please help

I had downloaded a game and when it was complete I tried to open it in order to play it. After opening it, my laptop just hanged for along time on which I got impatient and decided to restart it. since then I cannot use Mozilla firefox as it doesn't open but only displays this text "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." but since that time on my desktop there was a folder that appeared by the name "old firefox data" please help

Chosen solution

You need to locate the profiles.ini file and delete this file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See:


This issue can be caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file or with the permissions (owner) of involved folders.

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or recover an existing profile:

  • Delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new (default) profile
  • Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
    If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the Profile Manager and browse to the location of a lost profile to recover this profile
    https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles

You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/

You can also try to rename/delete the MozillaFirefox folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).


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hi evance, please press the windows-key+r and open: %appdata%

in there you should find a folder named "Mozilla". try renaming it to something like "Mozilla.bak" (or delete it if you don't care for your old firefox bookmarks, passwords and customisations) and then try to start firefox again....

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Chosen Solution

You need to locate the profiles.ini file and delete this file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

See:


This issue can be caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file or with the permissions (owner) of involved folders.

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or recover an existing profile:

  • Delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new (default) profile
  • Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
    If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the Profile Manager and browse to the location of a lost profile to recover this profile
    https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles

You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/

You can also try to rename/delete the MozillaFirefox folder in both above mentioned locations (main, cache).