Firefox profiles: Private, focused spaces for all the ways you browse

[PurpleDime]

@xe3

Does this all sound accurate? If so I’ll try to replicate following those steps.

You’re very close, but I need to clarify a couple of things.

@xe3

1. You have 2 profiles (let’s call them old-1 and old-2)
2. You enabled the new profile UI via about:config in the old-1 profile

Correct.

@xe3

You then created a new profile (let’s call it new-1) from the new UI in your old-1

I did not create a new profile. When I relaunched FF, I was presented with the new profile UI had I had 2 options.

1. Original profile
2. Create New profile.

I clicked on “original profile” which opened my default profile which you called Old-1.

What I don’t understand is why Firefox didn’t present me with my 2 profiles when I relaunched. What FF presents as “original profile” appears to be my default profile, Old-1, but it doesn’t have its names, which tell me that something is wrong.

Anyone who use FF has a default profile. I suspect that someone who uses FF without a FF account will be presented with the same 2 options between “original profile” and “create new profile”. And if they choose the first option, FF will show them all the customized settings they already had before.

@xe3

4. When you look at the new profile UI you see only the new-1 and old-1 (maybe renamed to ‘original profile’) but not old-2

I see all the settings of my default profile (Old-1): bookmarks, extensions, containers… However, if I click:

profile picture (old-1) > profiles (new UI) > Manage Profiles > Nothing happens

I believe this is because I disabled the new UI. If I enable and perform the same task:

profile picture (old-1) > profiles (new UI) > Manage Profiles

I am presented with the same screen I get when I launch FF:

Note that the new UI is currently disabled, but as previously said, it doesn’t seem to have disappeared.

@xe3

When you look at the old profile UI you see only the old profiles but not the new-1

When I type about:profiles on FF (old profile UI), I see my 2 FF profiles Old-1 and Old-2.

I don’t see New-1, but I don’t think New-1 is a thing.

New-1 (original profile) is the original profile you had before the new UI. In my case, it’s Old-1. FF should have conflated Old-1 and New-1. They should have the same name. But they don’t.

I wonder if it’s because by default, profiles are not linked to a FF account.

My profiles Old-1 and Old-2 are linked to FF accounts, and they have distinct profile pictures.

@xe3

6. When you switch to old-2 the new UI isn’t visible (this is expected I think, since you never enabled the new UI in this profile)

That is correct. To me, this is weird, because it’s literally the same browser. It’s a second profile in the same browser. I had to wait a long time to see the new group tabs feature in FF. I waited months after it was officially released, despite always being on the latest version of FF.

And similarly, I first got the feature on one profile, and had to wait longer to see it appear in the other profile. The only difference is that the feature appeared in my 2nd profile first.

@xe3

7. Then you disabled the new UI (without first deleting the new profile you created) in old-1 but it didn’t go away.

I disabled the new UI and indeed it didn’t go away. I didn’t create a new profile though. There was nothing to delete. As I said earlier, what you call New-1, is what FF calls “original profile” in its new UI. It appears to be Old-1 in every single way, except it doesn’t have the same name, which is weird.

PS: I haven’t read your DM yet, but will do that now.