22

Guess what, "default" is not my default profile. That would be "default-release".

Can I delete "default"? What's the reason for the double profile?

Peter Mortensen
  • 12,090
  • 23
  • 70
  • 90
Wes
  • 916
  • 1
  • 9
  • 17

1 Answers1

9

I found the answer at Is the 'default-release' profile a bug or the new profile name for Firefox 67 upwards and still being phased in?.

Summary of that page

Firefox can't share profiles between separate installs since v67.

The two profiles, .default and .default-release, are used by installs from different update channels - like release, beta, nightly, developer-edition, etc. So for a non-tech user, .default-release is the "normal" default, since it is dedicated to the "normal" Release channel.

Older version of Firefox used .default in place of .default-release, so if you have both it's probably because you have first installed Firefox before v67. The old .default profile was converted and copied to .default-release when you updated to Firefox 67.

Peter Mortensen
  • 12,090
  • 23
  • 70
  • 90
juanriccio
  • 147
  • 1
  • 10
  • 7
    Nope. Installed v89. It also has two profiles. – Smart Manoj Jun 17 '21 at 12:25
  • 9
    i just did a fresh install of ubuntu 20.04 and it installed firefox 92.0 with these two profiles. – Grifball Sep 12 '21 at 20:49
  • 1
    I have a macOS system that was new in January of this year, and it too has the two profiles. I also have an older machine that's been around since long before Firefox 67 and it only has one profile (default). This machine has never had different installs, at least not by my intention. – Jason R. Coombs Sep 13 '22 at 14:47
  • I agree with the Firefox software release channels 'release' 'beta' 'nightly' 'developer-edition'. I installed the developer edition, and suddenly that profile started showing up in my main Firefox installation. This means they're still sharing profiles.--or, it means the developer-edition is not technically a separate installation. – Ryan Jul 26 '23 at 02:12