Have just spent the last hour guiding someone through creating a new profile in Firefox, while still salvaging as much as possible from the old profile. Thought may well be valuable to set up this tutorial to guide others :)
Before you start, best to copy out the instructions into notepad, as Firefox needs to be completely shut down to create a new profile.
Now before we begin setting up a new profile, there are a couple of things we want to export from the original profile (note, if old profile is non-functional, you may need to use the Firefox Safe Mode launcher (look in your StartMenu programs to launch) to run with as little extensions and modifications as possible.
Install in your current profile. Restart Firefox to enable plug-in. Open Firefox Tools > Options (from FF menubar). On the Security tab, you'll now have a button Import/Export Passwords - click on that and follow the prompts to export your passwords to a location you can find the later. One caveat with Password Exporter - current versions seem to mishandle some symbols (given that this add-on is really the first of its kind, I guess nothing's perfect in early development), so might be an idea to take note of any such passwords for later restoration.
Also, go to Bookmarks > Organise Bookmarks. Use the Import and Backup option to export bookmarks to same location you just exported you passwords.
Now completely close Firefox.
1) Open Run - Winkey+R - and enter Firefox.exe -p Hit Enter
2) Use the Profile Manager to set up new profile and then open up Firefox with new profile
3) Once run, again install for your new profile. Will ask to re-start...DON'T. Instead completely close Firefox. (you can double check is completely closed using the Windows Task Manager)
4) You'll need to copy your history across from old profile. The Profiles folder is actually in a hidden folder location, so you'll first need to make the location visible. Go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options. Make sure Hidden and Protected System Operating Files are both set as visible.
5) Navigate your way to Firefox profiles, in the following location:
- XP/2000 - C:\Documents and Settings\"user name"\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
- Vista/Win7 - C:\Users\"user name"\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
If you have not previously set up a profile, the original will have the ".default" prefix.
6) Open the original profile, and locate Places.sqlite. Select and Copy.
7) Open new profile folder and paste over the top.
Note that you can copy the entire contents of old folder across in the same manner, but given that you are establishing a clean profile for a reason, is best to be VERY selective about what you copy across
8) If you are comfortable editing a file in Notepad, copy from the old folder to desktop and open with Notepad. Pull out ANY references to non-installed add-ons at the very least. You can now save and paste over the top of the in your new profile (note that Firefox needs to be shut down to replace ANY file within an active profile).
9) You can now run Firefox - all your browser history should now be restored
10) Go to Tools > Options > Privacy, and this time use Password Exporter to import your saved passwords.
11) Use the Bookmarks Organiser to import your old Bookmarks - you'll have to re-sort and delete duplicate entries
From here on you can go ahead and re-add your FF plug-ins. Times like this actually provide a good opportunity to clean out the crud. Once you are sure there is nothing you need from the old profile, you can then use Firefox Profile Manger to safely delete the old profile.