Corrupted profile access on Linux
Hello. I am running Linux Mint 19 Tara, and have been running Firefox without incident up until today. Every time I try to launch Firefox, I am greeted with a dialog box: "Profile Missing: ! Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible."
This pretty swiftly led me to the following help page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
Which recommended that I delete and re-create the profiles.ini file in ~/.mozilla/firefox, and it would be automatically re-created upon launch. The behavior does not change, error still occurs.
Here are some basic commands I ran through after this (tvaz is my username):
tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ firefox Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory. tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ sudo firefox Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($HOME is /home/tvaz which is owned by tvaz.) tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ firefox -safe-mode Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory. tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ firefox -no-remote -safe-mode Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory. tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ firefox -ProfileManager Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
- !!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $ firefox -noremote -ProfileManager
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
- !!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
tvaz@tvaz-linux ~ $
Each time that the "Error: Access was denied" message came up again, I want to note that I got the same dialog box again saying that the profile was missing.
At this point I tried making sure that the permissions were set correctly on my .mozilla directory with a chown, but the permissions appeared to be set correctly to my user. I tried deleting the .mozilla directory, removing and reinstalling the firefox package, and doing a full purge as detailed in the first answer on this question: https://askubuntu.com/questions/16758/removing-firefox-in-ubuntu-with-all-add-ons-like-it-never-existed
Upon reinstall the issue continues to persist. I am typing this from Chrome. Any ideas?
Thanks, tvaz
All Replies (2)
I apologize for the broken code block, the formatting here was a little confusing for me.
~ $ firefox
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
~ $ sudo firefox
Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($HOME is /home/tvaz which is owned by tvaz.)
~ $ firefox -safe-mode
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
~ $ firefox -no-remote -safe-mode
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
~ $ firefox -ProfileManager
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
!!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
~ $ firefox -noremote -ProfileManager Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.
!!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
Hi I really do not know what you need, not a Linux person :
PROFILES
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them
fyi for the future :
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/import-bookmarks-html-file
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
You can check if you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop in case the Refresh feature in Firefox has been used and a new profile has been created.
You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
- logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
- if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
- cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
- persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.
- Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
- Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
____________________________________________________________
SESSIONS
You can check the sessionstore-backups folder in the profile folder for an upgade.jsonlz4 file.
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.
Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory: Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
You will normally find these files in the sessionstore-backups folder:
previous.jsonlz4 (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 from previous session that was loaded successfully) recovery.jsonlz4 (latest version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime) recovery.baklz4 (previous version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime) upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)
You can copy a file from the sessionstore-backups folder to the main profile and rename the file to sessionstore.jsonlz4 to replace the current sessionstore.jsonlz4 file (make sure to backup the current sessionstore.jsonlz4).
See also:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html
So getting the full stuff and hope something is useful
SAFE MODE
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:
- all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
- default theme is used (no persona)
- userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder)
- default toolbar layout is used (file: localstore-safe.rdf)
- Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (prefs: javascript.options.*jit)
- hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Performance > Uncheck to view)
- plugins are not affected
- preferences are not affected
TEST''''is issue still there ?
VIDEO AUDIO
- https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/3014746 - Youtube
- https://www.youtube.com/html5/ - Can you support HTML5
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-common-audio-and-video-issues
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/html5-audio-and-video-firefox
REFRESH INSTRUCTIONS Hi, please try a Refresh but Note that this does more than uninstalling and re-installing does. Normal uninstalling does not remove some preferences which may have become corrupt. Please Refresh but do this 1st:
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
then
TEST....... If no issues then Extensions which need to be added back in 1 at a time and tested ..... Or it is your Profile : Make a new one and test ...:
If is your Profile :
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox