Profile Root Directory does not exist
In the about:profiles page I can see that the Root Directory for my current profile is: /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/no9r1iq5.default-release-1681391696978 When I click the Open Directory button it does nothing. When I manually navigate to /home/username/.mozilla/firefox I can see that there is no folder there called no9r1iq5.default-release-1681391696978
The Local Directory is show as: /home/username/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/cache/mozilla/firefox/no9r1iq5.default-release-1681391696978 This exits and opens with the Open Directory button.
If I search for no9r1iq5.default-release-1681391696978 in the file manager, I see that there are two folders with this name, on at the Local Directory path shown above and the other at: /home/username/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox My assumption is that this is actually the Local Folder (it contains files with today's date)
My question is, why does about:profiles show the wrong path for the Local Directory or why is the actual Local Directory in the wrong place (it appears that the path shown in about:profiles is the normal default location)?
I tried creating a new profile and it was created in exactly the same way: the Local directory path is: /home/username/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox but about:profiles says it is: /home/username/.mozilla/firefox
I would rather have my profile in the normal default location but I want to ensure that I don't leave pointers to the wrong location that could cause problems.
I am running Firefox 121.0 (64-bit) from flathub on Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm).
Any help appreciated.
Chosen solution
It probably has something to do with the way the flatpak sandbox works, the snap package manages to show the correct Root path in about:profiles. Regardless, you can bind mount your profile folder so it appears in the expected place for flatpak profiles:
mount --bind /home/<user>/.mozilla/firefox/<profile> /home/<user>/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/<profile>Read this answer in context 👍 1
All Replies (4)
Sorry, I've just spotted a couple of typos in my post above:
The Local Directory show in about:profiles exists and opens normally with the Open Directory button.
If I search for no9r1iq5.default-release-1681391696978 in the file manager, I see that there are two folders with this name, one at the Local Directory path shown above and the other at: /home/username/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox My assumption is that this is actually the Root Folder (it contains files with today's date)
My question is, why does about:profiles show the wrong path for the Root Directory or why is the actual Root Directory in the wrong place (it appears that the path shown in about:profiles is the normal default location)?
I tried creating a new profile and it was created in exactly the same way: the Root directory path is: /home/username/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox but about:profiles says it is: /home/username/.mozilla/firefox
sorry about that, I think I'm a bit too tired for this!
Note: you can find "Edit this question" under the "Question Tools" menu in the sidebar (you may have to scroll to the top). For a reply, "Edit this post" is in the three-dot menu next to a reply.
Could be that the Firefox version you use, created its profile in another location similar to what Snap versions do.
You can try Firefox from the official Mozilla server if you currently use a version from the repositories of your Linux distribution to see if it behaves differently.
Chosen Solution
It probably has something to do with the way the flatpak sandbox works, the snap package manages to show the correct Root path in about:profiles. Regardless, you can bind mount your profile folder so it appears in the expected place for flatpak profiles:
mount --bind /home/<user>/.mozilla/firefox/<profile> /home/<user>/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/<profile>
Thank you everyone, that's all really helpful. I'm now sure that the issues is caused by the way flatpak sandboxes the app files. The suggestion to bind mount the folders is really neat. It should solve the problem of about:profiles having the wrong path.