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Firefox Portable Cannot find my profile if it is moved to new location

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johndoe2k4
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Firefox Portable Cannot find my profile if it is moved to new location

I am running FF portable 2.0 on my usb memory stick.

FF Portable is installed on: \PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\ and when my profile is in \PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\Data everything works great.

I tried to move my firefox profile to a different location and changed the variable LastProfileDirectory in FirefoxPortableSettings.ini to the new path but when I start FF it creates a new profile instead of using mine and writes a new LastProfileDirectory with the new profile directory . I found one method that works but is unstable.

Instead of executing PortableFirefox.exe I did \PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\apps\firefox\firefox.exe -profile y:\path-to-my-profile and it did load my profile but none of my extensions worked any more and when I try to go to the options for any one of my extensions, the Add-Ons window freezes up and I have to manually kill firefox.exe. AS soon as I copy the profile to the original location (\PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\Data) everything works great.

Is there anything that I can do ?

thanks

JD

John T. Haller
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FirefoxPortable.ini

That's the file you're concerned with. In the same directory as FirefoxPortable.exe.

No need to touch FirefoxPortableSettings.ini at all. Different file. Different purpose.

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johndoe2k4
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FF portable

hi John,

thanks for replying so quickly.

what do you mean "That's the final you're concerned with. In the same directory as FirefoxPortable.exe."

Sorry but I'm not following you

thanks,

John T. Haller
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File

Not final. It was a typo. Incidentally, how did you miss the FirefoxPortable.ini right next to the FirefoxPortable.exe launcher?

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johndoe2k4
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FF portable

my firefoxportable.ini is not in the same directory as firefoxportable.exe.

it is in \PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\Data\settings I tried placing firefoxportable.ini in the same directory as the exe and it didnt make a difference.

thanks,

Ryan McCue
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Also

Incidently, you are using the latest version of Firefox Portable, not Portable Firefox aren't you?
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johndoe2k4
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FF portable

i am using portable firefox 2.0

johndoe2k4
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FF portable

is there a way to specify a profile directory in the ini. I tried ProfileDirectory= but it seems to have ignore it

Ryan McCue
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.
  1. Firstly, is it Firefox Portable or Portable Firefox
  2. Secondly, yes and make sure FirefoxPortable.ini is in the same folder as FirefoxPortable.exe

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"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

johndoe2k4
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ff portable

hi

first of all the firefox folder is named portable firefox 2.0.

I tried placing firefoxportablesettings.ini in the same folder as FirefoxPortable.exe but it is being ignored by Firefox. I know this because when I place firefoxportablesettings.ini in the same folder as PortableFirefox.exe and start firefox a new profile is created and after I close FF and view firefoxportablesettings.ini the LastProfileDirectory variable has not changed from the path I set it to. If I edit the same ini in \PortableApps\Internet\Portable Firefox 2.0 Final\Data\settings after I close FF it changes LastProfileDirectory to the path of the new profile.

JD

Ryan McCue
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Please

be clear. First you say FirefoxPortable.exe then you say PortableFirefox.exe
Did you copy the INI correctly and only change what you needed to? All settings must be there.
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Ryan McCue
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johndoe2k4
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FF Portable

the folder is named Portable Firefox but the exe is named firefoxportable.exe

I did copy the ini correctly

Ryan McCue
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That's what

I wanted to know, thanks.

Well, I see no reason why it doesn't work. Is the INI named FirefoxPortable.ini ?
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John T. Haller
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Ok, let's clarify things

1. It's Firefox Portable. Portable Firefox is a dead name that isn't used any more, so please be sure to refer to it by the new name so we know you're not using an old launcher that's no longer supported.

2. You need to start with a fresh install of Firefox Portable and then start customizing.

3. Do NOT edit the FirefoxPortableSettings.ini file or change any files within the FirefoxPortable\Data\Settings folder. They have nothing to do with this.

4. You need to start with the example FirefoxPortable.ini file included in the FirefoxPortable\Other\FirefoxPortableSource directory and edit that to be the paths you want. All parameters in there are required. If any are missing (like if you're using an INI from an older launcher), your INI will be ignored.

5. FirefoxPortable.ini must be in the same directory as FirefoxPortable.exe. No other locations are supported.

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johndoe2k4
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FF portable

I forgot to mention one thing that is crucial. lets say my usb memory stick is G: I keep certain confidential documents on a truecrypt encrypted volume which also resides on the memory stick. When I mount this volume, it receives the drive letter Y:

I think that the problem is that you can only refer to relative paths in firefoxportable.ini and I need to somehow refer to a full path because I would really like to keep the Firefox Portable app on the unencrypted part of the usb memory stick (G:) and only have the profile only stored on the encrypted volume (Y:)

Is there a way to work around this ?

I have been trying to look into ways to use subst.exe command or mountvol.exe so that I can somehow create a symbolic link on G: to refer to Y: (something like g:\FF-Profile which refers to Y:

thanks,

JD

John T. Haller
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No

Full paths defeats the whole portable thing.

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johndoe2k4
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FF portable

Normally I'd agree with you but I think that you can agree with me that to some extent, your bookmarks are private and thats why I'd like to store the profile in an encrypted location.

Is there a way to do this ?

John T. Haller
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Nope

There is no way to do this. Drive letters change on every insert, so there's no way to predict what the drive letter would be. You can not reliably count on subst working as you may not have the right to use it on every PC. Nor can you count on getting a specific drive letter since it may already be taken.

The solution is a simple one. Put the whole app on your encrypted drive. This is what everyone does.

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cyberarty
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FirefoxPortable.ini profile path is relative

I have the same problem as FF portable. Except where in my case Firefox Portable is installed on a CD. So there is no write privaliges. Thus the user cannot store cookies. But the javascript application that I wrote needs cookies to work so as to store local settings, profiles and projects. So I need some sort of way to store the cookies on the local machine.

I tried moving the profile as explained above. But I get a message like:
"Cannot find profile 'D:\content\C:\temp_profile' do you want to create a new profile in this directory?"

So it uses the relative path and just appends "C:\temp_profile" to it. Is there a way to at least store the cookies on the local machine? Or to specify an absolute path?

Bahamut
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The launcher is coded to use

The launcher is coded to use paths relative to itself. All paths start with ${EXEDIR}\. Absolute paths can't be used without modifying the source, and as far as I know, no path above ${EXEDIR} can be used.

Vintage!

John T. Haller
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Read

Please read the support page topic on running from CD.

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rigved
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Multiple Profiles

There are days when i need some set of extensions and then some when another set is used. How can i configure FirefoxPortable to use two (or more) profile directories?

No, i dont mean two simultaneous instances of two profiles. I currently have two separate directories of FFP 'installations'.
I just wanna save space so that the two profiles can share the same 'main' program files on my thumbdrive.

I tried the command lines
FirefoxPortable.exe -profile profile2
FirefoxPortable.exe -profile \profile2
FirefoxPortable.exe -profile data\profile2
but to no avail.

Is there a solution?
(Ahem... If its in the FAQ, can someone post its link? https://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable didn't help on this)

Riggie

helasz
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full path on same drive works

I found useful the possibility of giving alternative ini file (full path and name) to some portable apps (winscppe for instance) as ASuite (app starter) offers an environmental variable $Drive (I know this does not solve the problem of truecrypted additional drive letter's issue) which can be passed also as part of the commandline argument list to a given application.
In the case of FirefoxPortable I have not succeeded with the commandline parameters.

[The point is that I am working in a number of different places, among other factors some of them do not have proxies, some of them do (and of course with different settings). If I could manage (I keep trying) to make use of different (predisposed) profiles just by starting with different commandline parameters (4 profiles -> 4 icons in the ASuite menu) that would be ideal for me. So repeated overwriting of the FirefoxPortable.ini could be voided.]

jimjams
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dunno if this can really

dunno if this can really help, but...

get truecrypt
make a virtual encrypted drive
put firefox portable on it
put the truecrypt apps and virtual disk on a usb key

now you can mount the virtual disk and run firefox from there, it is encrypted on your key and should work fine

but may be you need admin privileges to mount a virtual truecrypt volume ..

John T. Haller
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ProxySwitch

Info is linked right from the FFP support page. There's no need for sep profiles.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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