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setup-browsing-profiles.md

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Separate Browsing Profiles on Linux and Firefox ESR

It's rather easy to set up totally separate browser profiles to segment bookmarks, preferences and saved sessions; as if you have completely separate browsers.

They use the same "executable," but can be run at the same time. Useful for shared computers or if you want a VPN profile, shopping or a browsing profile, independent of each other's clutter.

These steps would be similar for a Windows install, the paths would simply differ.

In my example, I created a browsing profile.

First, create the new profile

Go to about:profiles and create a new profile > a wizard will launch

Bring Over Bookmarks

If you want to copy bookmarks from another Firefox install, the path is as follows:

  • Firefox: /home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].default/bookmarkbackups

Simply drag bookmarkbackups into your new profile, at: /home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].browsing/bookmarkbackups (note the .browsing in the profile path -- that's my new profile)

Copy Extensions from One Profile to Another

Only copy the extensions from the same browser instance/directory.

Copy the following folders and their content from your .default profile:

/home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].default/extension-data
/home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].default/extensions

to:

/home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].browsing/extension-data
/home/yourusername/.mozilla/firefox/[profile id].browsing/extensions

On first load, it will take a moment for them to appear in the Add-Ons dashboard.

That's it.

Create a Desktop Shortcut and Launcher

Head to ~/.local/share/applications and create firefox-esr-browsing.desktop

Append the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Firefox Browsing Profile
GenericName=Web Browser
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
Icon=firefox-trunk
Exec=/usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr %u -P browsing
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-schem$
StartupWMClass=Firefox-esr
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false

The important part is the Exec line, which specifies the -P (profile) flag with my profile name that I want to launch when this shortcut is clicked.

You can optionally use the "Menu Editor" application, too, to create this launcher and change the icon.

Add to Your Favorties

  1. Search for Firefox in your desktop applications Search Applications

Note that I have two entries for Firefox, one is the Browsing shortcut I just created as firefox-esr-browsing.desktop

  1. Right-click on the new Firefox shortcut you created > Add to Favorites

Favorites Bar