With Firefox you can come across a number of issues over time, most of them require different types of troubleshooting steps, and you still won’t know if the problem is going to get fixed. Ultimately we all end up doing the same thing: uninstall and reinstall the browser, but this also means that all the data (e.g., history, stored passwords, autofill forms, cookies, etc.) will be gone as well.

Today the Mozilla team is going to change that in the latest beta release of Firefox with a new feature called “Reset Firefox”, which essentially allows you to start again fresh without losing any data.

The way that Firefox reset works is by creating a new profile, continue by transferring all of your most important information from the previous profile and deleting the old profile:

  • Cookies
  • Saved Form History
  • Browsing History
  • Bookmarks and Bookmarks Backups
  • Saved Passwords

The information that Firefox migrates to the new profile is safe, usually it isn’t the root of the problem. As you noticed in the list, extensions, preferences, or even about:config modifications will not be restored. After resetting the web browser manually add the extensions and tweaks one-by-one and test, because one of them could be the cause of the problem.

There are two ways to access the Reset Firefox feature: The first is by simply typing in the address bar about:support and pressing Enter, or second by clicking the orange Firefox button in the top-left corner of the browser, then selecting Help and clicking on Troubleshooting Information. In the case you won’t remember all the extensions names to install later or the about:config changes that you had previously, click the “Copy to Clipboard” button on the left to back them up.

Once you click the “Reset Firefox” button, it will just take a moment and you will have a brand new and clean web browser.

Watch the video to see the feature in action:

For now this new feature can be found in the latest Beta and Aurora channels of Mozilla’s open source web browser. The company also noted that the beta build seems to be the one tested to works best with the new feature. It will be some time before everyone can use the reset feature in a stable version, however if you’re curious about it, head over to the Mozilla’s support page to read more about it, or download the latest beta from http://Mozilla/beta and try it yourself!

Source Lifehacker