A Firefox profile is a completely separate browser setup. It has its own bookmarks, saved passwords, history, open tabs, extensions, and settings. Unlike a private window, a profile stays separate permanently, which is useful for work, personal browsing, testing, or troubleshooting.
Does this affect you?
Use this for Firefox on Windows or Mac when you want separate Firefox environments that do not share bookmarks, extensions, cookies, or logins.
Create a new profile
Firefox includes a built-in profile manager page.
- Click the address bar.
- Type about:profiles and press Enter.
- Click Create a New Profile.
- Click Next in the wizard.
- Name the profile, such as Work, Personal, or Testing.
- Leave the storage location at the default unless you have a specific reason to change it.
- Click Finish.
- Back on about:profiles, click Launch profile in new browser beside the new profile.
The new window opens as a blank Firefox setup with no bookmarks, extensions, or saved logins until you add them.
Switch between existing profiles
You can keep multiple profiles available and even open more than one at the same time.
- Open about:profiles.
- Find the current profile, which is marked as in use.
- Click Launch profile in new browser beside another profile.
- Use Set as default profile if you want Firefox to open that profile automatically next time.
More control
Remove a profile
On about:profiles, choose Remove Profile for the profile you no longer need. Firefox asks whether to delete the profile files or keep them on disk.
Sync profiles separately
Each profile can use its own Firefox Account, the same Firefox Account, or no account. Sign in inside each profile based on whether you want it to share bookmarks and logins.
Open the profile folder
On about:profiles, click Open Folder beside a profile to view its files. This helps with manual backup or troubleshooting.
Profiles versus container tabs
Use a full profile when you want an entirely separate Firefox setup. Use container tabs when you only need separate cookies for a few sites inside one setup.
Sources
- Mozilla Support – Use multiple Firefox profiles (2025)
- Mozilla Support – Firefox profile folder (2025)
- Mozilla Support – Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles (2025)