Hello!
Quick question: How do i completely separate (also with distinct names) Firefox instances?
What i mean by that:
On my old Intel Mac, i’ve made 4 copies of Firefox, one for work, safe browsing, and apps. I’ve renamed each with FF-name so i can quickly open them with spotlight. Each has it’s own profile.
For that i “only” need to edit the Info.plist and all worked.
However since then i migrated to Apple Silicon and MacOs Ventura, which seems to interfere with my approach.
Do you guys have an alternative idea or better approach? Maybe docker containers or anything?
My main intent is that i have them as separate applications, so i can open them with spotlight and also do not accidentally share the wrong instance in a conference call.
firefox --Profile /path/to/separate/folderThis is the answer. I use firefox profiles a lot. They do not only give you the separation of the profiles, but also makes it easier to manage. Want a profile for work? Make one, sign up for firefox sync with your work e-mail, now log in also on your work phone, and your profile is there too. Do the same thing for your personal profile/e-mail/phone.
Also, you can manage your profiles at
about:profiles.Unfortunately that is not what I am looking for. I am already using named profiles. Like i stated in my original post as well as my answers below, this only works from Inside Firefox, however from the operating system pov it is still treated as the same application. Which means:
a) When i share the work profile, i also share all other profiles, as they are all Firefox b) When I quick access firefox via spotlight, i end up at the nearest, random profile / instance of firefox. c) There is no way to differentiate the profiles on an application level. d) I can not assign the instances to different desktops, as they are all Firefox.
I think it should also be possible to use named profiles
Would FF Profiles work? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
Thanks for the reply!
Unfortunately I already use different profiles, however that alone is not sufficient, as it’s still the same application.
For example if I quickly want to switch to a specific instance, I will always end up at the nearest one, as they are all “Firefox”. And if I share, I’ll share all instances and not just the one for work related topics, for the same reason - it’s still the same application.
This doesn’t answer your question, since it already seems answered, but an additional step that may be helpful is to use a completely separate firefox derivative browser for one of those tasks.
I personally use Firefox for most of my daily browsing, but I have LibreWolf installed with separate configuration options (different proxy, etc). I could do the same with multiple Firefox profiles, but I prefer the separate icon as a reminder that my workflow is different in this particular browser.
That’s prolly the dirtiest solution
I thought about this solution, as it is the “cleanest”, however I need on total 4 firefox derivatives. Unfortunately, when looking deeply into the options, i haven’t found 4 that are similarly trustworthy, well maintained etc. Also i have my firefox config fully figured out, it works and is as private as i want them, without some maintainer forcing their opinion on my use cases. Plain firefox is the easiest to configure, as it’s like a blank start. However i might be wrong here and am open to suggestions :D
Other options: Firefox Beta, Firefox Developer Edition, and Firefox Nightly. Beta and Developer are very stable, and honestly Nightly is pretty stable as well (but it updates a lot). Possibly you could replace it with Librewolf.
That sounds like an interesting idea, I’ll test that out, thanks!
