MacOS – How to install one extension for all Firefox profiles

firefoxmacos

I run many firefox profiles simultaneously. Since moving to the mac, I've lost the British English dictionary. I can install it as an extension on each profile, but I'd like to install it once across all profiles.

I've tried firefox -install-global-extension "/path/to/extension.xpi" but that appears to have no effect whatsoever. I've tried copying the installed extension into various folders in /Library and ~/Library but nothing has worked.

How do I install a Firefox extension once so it is active for all profiles on the computer (or this user account, either is good)?

Best Answer

You need to put the global extensions (.xpi files) into the /Applications/Firefox.app/MacOS/extensions folder (when you select Firefox.app, right-click and "Show package contents").

If Firefox doesn't recognize the xpi, try to install it for your profile, then move it from ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>.default/extensions to the path mentioned above.

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MacOS – How to install firefox using the terminal app

I am assuming that you already have a connection via Terminal to the school server.

You need to download the .dmg first. Goto the directory in which you want to download the dmg file (command cd \PATH\TO\DIR)

Then enter this into the terminal:

curl http://mozilla.mirrors.tds.net/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest/mac/en-US/Firefox%2025.0.1.dmg -o firefox25.dmg

This is the latest Firefox Release for OS X.

Then mount the dmg:

hdiutil attach firefox25.dmg

Goto the mounted dmg (probably under Volumes):

cd /Volumes/Firefox

There you can find the Firefox.app which you can now copy to your Applications folder:

cp Firefox.app /Applications/Firefox.app

To unmount the dmg:

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Firefox

MacOS – Run multiple instances of the same version of Firefox with different profiles simultaneously

Your question is asking for something technically possible, in that it may be possble to "split" data in your profile, and distribute it among other profiles, but it sounds incredibly difficult to do considering what you would you gain doing this manually, as opposed to simply setting up new profiles and entering the data you wish into each new profile, and deleting the data from the other profile.

To accomplish everything you're asking for (except this splitting of the original profile data) is largely academic. The basic idea is have multiple profiles, and have multiple instances of Firefox each accessing a different profile. The way you do that is you first set up the multiple profiles, and you can do this by accessing the Profile Manager. Open your /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and type this at the command prompt:

 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -profilemanager &

and the window that appears, along with information at the link provided above, will get you started on creating the extra profiles. Once these profiles are created, you can start the first instance of Firefox by clicking the Start Firefox button, and you can then launch your subsequent instances of Firefox using that same command. Again, in Terminal.app type the following:

 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -profilemanager &

and you will see a second instance of Firefox appear in your dock. Choose the profile you wish for the second Firefox instance, and click Start Firefox. Repeat these steps (pressing the up arrow will display the last command) for as many instances of Firefox that you wish to run, or until you run out of memory.

Best Answer

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MacOS – How to install firefox using the terminal app

MacOS – Run multiple instances of the same version of Firefox with different profiles simultaneously

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