Profile restoring: why does 'help' say to replace contents of profile folder (many steps) rather than to replace the profile folder with the backupand rename it
The help pages indicate that when replacing a profile with a backed-up profile it's essential that the profile name remain unchanged. Fine. But why suggest that the method to do this is to replace the CONTENTS of the profile folder rather than to replace the entire profile folder (contents and all) and rename it? The former (because it involves multiple files and subfolders) seems more error-prone to me. Am I missing something?
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Thersites said
But why suggest that the method to do this is to replace the CONTENTS of the profile folder rather than to replace the entire profile folder (contents and all) and rename it? The former (because it involves multiple files and subfolders) seems more error-prone to me. Am I missing something?
I agree that it could be error-prone. There's like 3 to 4 times as many files and folders in the main Profile folder as there were 14 years ago when the current Profiles & profiles.ini scheme came about in Firefox 0.9 .
With regards to the unnamed support article, my guess is that it was just the what that the author (and other contributors) of that support page decided to recommend whenever that article was first written. There have been a few support articles over the years that I have found "fault with" so I edited them; some edits made it thru the approval process and my edits went live, while others were denied, and one or two involved further discussion and were eventually edited to a consensus of opinion.
Renaming the "old Profile" does work, so does editing the profiles.ini file to use the original "old Profile" name, but if an error is inadvertently made in the "old name" or the formatting of profiles.ini (what I call the "gatekeeper of Profiles") is changed (incorrectly) the user ends up with a broken Firefox installation which would complain about the "Profile missing". I have done both and on occasion I screwed something up with either the Profile name it not being recognized or I messed up the formatting of the profiles.ini file which is very unforgiving - it has to be correct or it just doesn't work or it launches the wrong Profile which is higher in the list in profiles.ini.
Where is a file (or folder) or two is "lost" Firefox still should launch; most files are (like) "self-healing - if (or more) one is missing when Firefox is launched, Firefox will automatically create a new file, albeit the "data" is lost, but Firefox will still launch.
Sometimes I even dispense with going thru the Profile Manager by launching the Profile via Command Line, with the Profile located on any fixed drive which is active all the time; removable drives that don't run on OS boot-up can be tricky to deal with, as I discovered. I make up my own Profile names, which can be 63 alpha / numeric characters in length, and I once named a Profile "anything-including-late-for-dinner" as a lark which was accepted in the profiles.ini with no problems.
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I would say yes, since missed this : Flash 28.0 r0 Separate Security Issue, please update your Flash Player Version: 30.0.0.113 Current Version https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Step 1: Select Operating System Step 2: Select A Version (Firefox, . . . .) Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only>
I could paste about 8 inches of your Video Card Driver Information which is really bad, everything is disabled or not supported or not working for your : adapterDescription: NVIDIA NVS 3100M driverDate: 7-8-2013 I came out with this page for new Drivers 2016 http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/110262/en-us But you can redo the search : http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
After tried and true experiments would say that the best results are from following the directions like you would furniture from IKEA. Go ahead and shove a backup copy of it in whole if so wish to do so. Personally never had it work for me but, it might.
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
Chosen Solution
Thersites said
But why suggest that the method to do this is to replace the CONTENTS of the profile folder rather than to replace the entire profile folder (contents and all) and rename it? The former (because it involves multiple files and subfolders) seems more error-prone to me. Am I missing something?
I agree that it could be error-prone. There's like 3 to 4 times as many files and folders in the main Profile folder as there were 14 years ago when the current Profiles & profiles.ini scheme came about in Firefox 0.9 .
With regards to the unnamed support article, my guess is that it was just the what that the author (and other contributors) of that support page decided to recommend whenever that article was first written. There have been a few support articles over the years that I have found "fault with" so I edited them; some edits made it thru the approval process and my edits went live, while others were denied, and one or two involved further discussion and were eventually edited to a consensus of opinion.
Renaming the "old Profile" does work, so does editing the profiles.ini file to use the original "old Profile" name, but if an error is inadvertently made in the "old name" or the formatting of profiles.ini (what I call the "gatekeeper of Profiles") is changed (incorrectly) the user ends up with a broken Firefox installation which would complain about the "Profile missing". I have done both and on occasion I screwed something up with either the Profile name it not being recognized or I messed up the formatting of the profiles.ini file which is very unforgiving - it has to be correct or it just doesn't work or it launches the wrong Profile which is higher in the list in profiles.ini.
Where is a file (or folder) or two is "lost" Firefox still should launch; most files are (like) "self-healing - if (or more) one is missing when Firefox is launched, Firefox will automatically create a new file, albeit the "data" is lost, but Firefox will still launch.
Sometimes I even dispense with going thru the Profile Manager by launching the Profile via Command Line, with the Profile located on any fixed drive which is active all the time; removable drives that don't run on OS boot-up can be tricky to deal with, as I discovered. I make up my own Profile names, which can be 63 alpha / numeric characters in length, and I once named a Profile "anything-including-late-for-dinner" as a lark which was accepted in the profiles.ini with no problems.