Firefox - Changing Hidden Mozilla Folder Name

[Questions1010]

Firefox is linked and stores user settings to a hidden folder called ".mozilla"
When trying to run two versions of Firefox, both versions are linked to the same ".mozilla" folder which causes issues.

My question is, is it possible to change the name of this ".mozilla" folder and re-link Firefox to that new folders path?
Meaning each version of Firefox will be linked to a different folder to store user settings, addons, etc.

I have read many articles regarding this issue but can't seem to find anything about what I am looking to achieve.
I remember a while ago coming across a great website that explained how to go about handling this folder, but I cannot seem to find it anymore.

Thank you for any help offered.

[Sir Charles]

If what you want is running instances of the same browser each with it's own set of settings, bookmarks, addons, etc, you can achieve that by creating different user profiles.
See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pr ... g+profiles

[karlchen]

Hi, Questions1010.

No need to relink any Firefox executable in order to instruct Firefox to use a different directory instead of .mozilla. Check out the firefox commandline options. The solution is there.
Did exactly this while running the normal release version which comes from the official software repos and the the genuine Mozilla Firefox ESR in parallel on my Mint systems. The normal release kept its ~/.mozilla directory; the ESR version used ~/.moziesr instead.

Regards,
Karl

[caf4926]

I use a few different FF users under one session login
When I move from one to the other, I rename say my personal .mozilla as .mozilla_me
And then rename my wife currently renamed .mozilla_wife to .mozilla
Bit fiddly, but I seldom have to do it. And it works flawlessly.

[all41]

Linux and the Mint forums are terrific because it's a day to day learning adventure.
Thank you Marziano and karlchen for this enlightenment, also thanks to op @Questions1010 for posing this question.
I regret those wasted years without Linux.

[Flemur]

They use the same ~/.mozilla directory, but different profiles under that directory:

Code: Select all

$ ls ~/.mozilla/firefox
Crash Reports  Pending Pings  profile.default  profile.noblock	profiles.ini

Start firefox

Code: Select all

firefox -P profile.default -new-instance 

or

Code: Select all

firefox -P profile.noblock -new-instance

[Questions1010]

Hey thank you guys so much for all the responses.
Took me a little while to get things to work properly but I think I got it.
Unfortunately it was not without some casualties, I ended up deleting one of my .mozilla folders by accident which contained all my settings

I held off mentioning that I did mess around with profiles in the past while trying to get things to work with my setup, but was not successful at the time. However with some of the things mentioned here I was able to put together the pieces to form a solution for my situation.

I cannot explain every little detail at the moment, but I figured I would share a couple of things.

I was originally doing the same thing @caf4926 mentioned, renaming the folders, but this can get tedious if you have to do this often.
For my setup the use of one .mozilla folder did not work correctly, I still had to use two different folders.
Here are some tips....
1.) In the "Profile Manager", when you go to create a new profile you can link different folders to specific profiles.
2.) In the "Profile Manager" uncheck the box where it says something like "load selected profile by default"
3.) Create program launchers that contain the command "firefox -P <enter your profile name here>"
4.) When deleting a profile and a warning dialog box pops up asking "are you sure you want to delete folder and all its contents" don't just say to yourself "that shouldn't affect me" and quickly press the "ok" button, actually think about it for a second
I blame all these damn popups that every site uses nowadays to advertise/sell me something, I just automatically close things without even thinking

Anyways, thank you guys again for your help, hopefully my tips above will be able to help someone in the future.