Every so often, you might need to find your Firefox profile folder to do some tweaking or maintenance of your own.  In the past, this has lead to diving through your operating system’s folders and after twenty clicks, finding the information you need.  Since Firefox 3.6 there is a much easier way to open your profile folder, with no additional extensions installed.

To open your Firefox profile folder, go to Help in the menu bar:

Next, click on Troubleshooting Information.  This will take you to the about:support information page.  If you can remember, you can also visit this page by typing about:support into the Firefox address bar too.

Under Application Basics, click on the button that reads, "Open Containing Folder" next to Profile Directory, and there you go. Your Firefox profile directory should be opened up.  Going to the profile location by following the folder path to it via your computer still works, but this is a much easier way to get the job done.

Hope this comes in handy next time you want to backup, tweak or change something in your Firefox profile folder.

Here are some of the important files you might seen in your profile folder and what they are used for.

• search.sqlite and the searchplugins folder – The first file, search.sqlite stores the order that your search engines (for the search box) are sorted. Inside of the searchplugins folder you can find all the extra search engines you have installed.
• mimeTypes.rdf – your preferences with respect to what Firefox does when it comes across known file types.
• formhistory.sqlite - this is where information that you have searched for or entered into forms on web sites (think autocomplete) is stored.
• places.sqlite – this is the file that contains your bookmarks and previously visited web sites.
• cert8.db – all your security certificate settings and any SSL certificates you have imported are stored here.
• permissions.sqlite – the file here stores site specific preferences, such as if you allow it to install add-ons, show images, display popups or any special orders you have allowed for that domain.
• key3.db and signons3.txt – these are the files that store your password information you have saved.
• persdict.dat – this file will hold your words you have personally put into Firefox’s built in spellchecker.
• cookies.sqlite – your web site cookies are stored here.

Now, I do know there are more files – however, these are the files that are most important for you to know about, just in case something bad might happen.  Hopefully, this additional documentation will come in handy when troubleshooting your own Firefox issues or problems.

Open the Firefox profile manager: firefox -p

Start Firefox with a specific profile: firefox -p “user name”

Open a Specific URL: firefox -url http://www.firefoxfacts.com

Open a URL in a New Window: firefox -new-window http://www.firefoxfacts.com

Open a URL in a New Tab: firefox http://www.firefoxfacts.com

Search Your Default Search Box Search Engine: firefox -search yourtermhere

For more that you can try I would suggest checking out the command line article over at MozillaZine.org or at Mozilla.org. Some still work, and some might not – but these are the best of the ones I found. If you have any suggestions for alternatives you know feel free to drop in a comment here and let us all know about your favorite.

Check out the other posts in this series:

• Launch Tabs from Run Box
• More Command Line Firefox Tips
• Learn to Write a Batch File with Firefox

One person made this job a little easier with the Edit Config Files extension for Firefox. Once installed it gives you quick and easy access to such things as the about:config screen and your UserChrome.css file as well. Here is a full list of the options from the extension.

UserChrome.css, UserContent.css, prefs.js, user.js, Open Profile Folder, and about:config. Quick and easy access to all the tweakers’ tools. Now I wouldn’t suggest messing around with these unless you know what your doing – but if you do this extensions can be a real time saver because you no longer have to go on a hunt for how to open each of these options up.

Windows 95 (without Desktop Update)
C:WindowsMozilla

Windows 95 (with Desktop Update)/98/Me
C:WindowsApplication DataMozilla

C:WindowsProfiles<Windows login/user name>Application DataMozilla

Windows NT 4.x
C:WinntProfiles<Windows login/user name>Application DataMozilla

Windows 2000 and XP
C:Documents and Settings<Windows login/user name>Application DataMozilla

Windows Vista
C:Users<Windows login/user name>AppDataRoamingMozilla

Unix
~/.mozilla/

Mac OS X
~/Library/Mozilla/

~/Library/Application Support/

Looking for an easier way to access your profile folder?  You can do so right from the menu bar, if you know where to look for it.  Make sure you check out this tutorial for an even easier way to find your profile folder:

Find Your Firefox Profile Folder, The Easy Way!

Hope that helps you locate your Firefox profile folder.  If there is a location I missed, be sure to let me know and I will get it added.

Firefox is a truly amazing browser and I think my favorite part about it is that the extensions make it remarkably useful. They add features that I wouldn’t expect a Web browser to do, such as serve as an FTP client. While I think extensions are great, I also find myself installing some that I just don’t need. It is almost like an addiction, and with a new year right around the corner I thought it was a good time to trim some of the “fat” (a.k.a. extensions) off of my Firefox profile by re-evaluating my need for the extensions.

They cover just about everything. From cleaning up your toolbar to clearing the mess from your profile, you have no excuse not to do a little house cleaning before the new year rolls around.