Many of the problems with Firefox are caused by dirty upgrades (upgrading from an older version and keeping the old profile data). It's very common that the replies in the tech support forum include the question: "Did you try it with a new profile?" This is not a bad question, since it helps to isolate the cause of problems if you try to reproduce them with a fresh profile. However, many users don't even know what a profile is, let alone how to create one.
Because of this, I just wrote a new tutorial on how to manage and create new profiles in Firefox. Hopefully, it will be easier for people to see how to create a profile after reading this text.
Posted by djst at November 10, 2004 11:32 PMThanks for creating a clear concise document. My handwritten steps in bugs always felt a little awkward and the Mozillazine KB is too wordy and tries cover every combination of Mozilla products/installation method/OS.
-kbrosnan
Posted by: kbrosnan at November 11, 2004 1:56 AMThis is really cool. How about copying settings (such as saved passwords, etc.) from the old profile to the new one?
(This is also a good thing to know for Thunderbird, where you have adaptive spam filtering, and want to keep the "trained" rules).
That's supertasty. I will link to it as long as I have fingers.
Hey, you've noticed this site chugs like hell with Firefox 1.0 (Smooth Scrolling on) because of the background I guess? Now you do. I wonder what's causing it, is it just bad Mozilla behaviour or bad code from you? :o
Posted by: Branstrom at November 11, 2004 3:01 AMNow you know, I mean.
Btw, the %AppData%-link doesn't take me anywhere, isn't it supposed to?
Posted by: Branstrom at November 11, 2004 3:17 AMNice catch Branstorm! The %AppData% is supposed to link to an anchor in the document. I forgot that part.
And this is why I blog about the help content, to get feedback. :)
Posted by: David Tenser at November 11, 2004 3:23 AMNice. Thanks for doing this.
As another issue related, something really needs to be done about bug #214675 - Remove Profile Manager UI
( https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=214675 )
Theoretically the bug is valid and shoul happen, but since firefox is not perfect (nor windows multiuser capabilities) and one often gets a corrupted profile for numerous reasons I don't think this should be removed. What is your take on this?
I as an Extension Developer get problems related to Profile corruption from users all the time (80% of all feedback, I can only assume you david get more. I can't imagine having to explain how to do it from the command line to my Mom.
If you agree david, purhaps you could comment on the bug with your "user feedback" experience?
Would hate to see this be gone for Firefox 1.0.
Cheers
-Jed
A few comments for this useful initiative
1) Locate your profile folder > Locate your default profile folder
2) The windows screenshot no. 2 shows "evreeosr.My New Test Profile", and my linux box shows "jki5hld2.2004-11-07-1.0". Are you sure the path usually not ends like "xxxxxxxx.profilefoldername" instead of "profilefoldername.xxx".
3) I would love a separate tutorial for each OS.
4) It's very nice to have a tutorial with screenshots and not just words.
Posted by: John Thomsen at November 11, 2004 2:45 PMJohn,
1) Agreed.
2) You're right. I will fix that.
3) I don't think it's needed, since the approach and GUI is so similar.
4) Isn't it? :)
Thanks for the feeeback.
Posted by: David Tenser at November 11, 2004 4:00 PMDavid,
2) 3 characters > 8 characters
3) Second thought: You are right.
Thanks for listening.
Posted by: John Thomsen at November 11, 2004 5:45 PMLast time I checked, 3 < 8. ;)
If you mean that I should use eight x instead of three, it's already done.
Posted by: David Tenser at November 11, 2004 6:21 PMSorry for being a bit short.
Please read "A > B" as "I suggest A should be substituted with B".
The old page was something like:
"where xxx is a random string of 3 characters."
- that was initially fine.
The new page is now:
"where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 3 characters."
- this should be
"where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters."
- IMHO.
Posted by: John Thomsen at November 11, 2004 9:47 PMAh, I now I understand! Thanks, I shall fix that too.
Posted by: David Tenser at November 11, 2004 11:25 PMfirefox.exe -profilemanager
just doesn't work for me. It just opens a new window of Firefox.
Posted by: Jan at November 13, 2004 9:27 PMI have a nice tutorial here:
The Adblock Project :: View topic - How to really do a clean upgrade
http://aasted.org/adblock/viewtopic.php?t=719
Is there a way to create a new profile and save your old settings?
Posted by: hybucket at November 17, 2004 1:43 PM