---
title: "Help · Profile Porter"
description: "Fixes for the common problems: links that skip Profile Porter, a link in the wrong profile, Full Disk Access, Safari profiles, shortcuts and licenses."
url: "https://profileporter.com/help/"
---

Support

# Help

Fixes for the things that most often go wrong. Settings means Profile Porter's own settings (its icon in the menu bar, or the tray on Windows, then **Settings…**). Where a Mac and a Windows PC differ, both are given.

On this page

1. [Links skip Profile Porter](https://profileporter.com/help/#default)
2. [A link opened in the wrong profile](https://profileporter.com/help/#wrong-profile)
3. [Full Disk Access](https://profileporter.com/help/#full-disk-access)
4. [Safari opens the wrong profile](https://profileporter.com/help/#safari)
5. [A profile is missing](https://profileporter.com/help/#profiles)
6. [A shortcut doesn't work](https://profileporter.com/help/#shortcuts)
7. [Licenses and computers](https://profileporter.com/help/#license)
8. [Still stuck?](https://profileporter.com/help/#contact)

## Links skip Profile Porter

Links from Slack, Mail and other apps only reach Profile Porter when it's your default browser. Open Profile Porter's **Settings › Links › Default browser** and click **Set as default**; macOS asks you to confirm. You can also set it in System Settings › Desktop & Dock › Default web browser.

On Windows, click **Set as default…** in **Settings › Links**, or right-click the tray icon and choose **Make it the default browser…**. Windows opens **Settings › Apps › Default apps** at Profile Porter: click **Set default**.

Links you click inside a browser don't go through the default browser at all, so they open in the profile you clicked them in.

## A link opened in the wrong profile

Profile Porter picks the profile where you use that site: how often and how recently you visit it there, and which profiles are signed in to it. When two profiles are about even, it asks instead of guessing. If it got one wrong:

- **Right after it opens:** the notice that says where the link went has **Undo** (or press ⌘Z, Ctrl+Z on Windows); where it can't close the tab it says **Other Profile** instead.
- **Later, in Chrome on a Mac:** press **⌃⌥Z** to move the tab in front to another profile. The first time, macOS asks to let Profile Porter control Chrome.
- **For good:** when the picker asks, tick **Always use this profile**. Your rules are in **Settings › Sites**, where you can remove them.

Each profile you pick by hand counts for that site, and each Undo counts against, so it gets better as you use it. Settings › Sites shows what it has learned, with a button to forget it.

## Full Disk Access (Mac)

Your browsers keep their history and cookies in folders macOS protects, so Profile Porter needs Full Disk Access to read them. Without it, picks for those profiles are guesses, and the panel says so.

1. Open **Settings › General › Full Disk Access › Open Privacy Settings**.
2. Turn on **Profile Porter** in the list. If it isn't there, click **+** and choose it in Applications.
3. Quit Profile Porter from its menu bar icon and open it again.

What it reads, and what it never reads, is on the [privacy page](https://profileporter.com/privacy/). None of it leaves your Mac.

Windows doesn't ask for this: Profile Porter reads those folders as they are. Chrome on Windows keeps its cookies to itself while it runs, so the sites you're signed in to are read while it's closed, and kept until the next time.

Links from Slack in particular? See [Slack links open in the wrong Chrome profile](https://profileporter.com/how-to/slack-links-wrong-chrome-profile/).

## Safari opens the wrong profile

Safari can't be told which profile to open a link in, so Profile Porter opens a new window of that profile for you, the way you would from the File menu. macOS lists this under Accessibility: turn it on in **Settings › Links › Safari › Open links in a Safari profile**. Without it, links open in the Safari profile you used last.

## A profile is missing

- **A new profile** shows up within a minute of the browser saving it. Browse in it once if it's brand new.
- **Firefox containers** show up only with the **Open external links in a container** add-on installed in Firefox, since that's how a link can open in one.
- **A profile whose history the browser stopped saving** (after a sync or settings change) gets a note in the panel. Picks for it use its open tabs until the browser saves history again.

## A shortcut doesn't work

The panel opens with **⌃⌥Space**, ⌃⌥Z moves a Chrome tab to another profile, and ⌃⌥V opens a copied link. On Windows the panel opens with **Ctrl+Alt+Space** and Ctrl+Alt+V opens a copied link. If another app already uses one of these, Settings says so next to it. On a Mac with more than one keyboard language, macOS itself uses ⌃⌥Space to switch between them. Pick another one in **Settings › General** (the panel) or **Settings › Links** (copied links and moving a tab).

## Licenses and computers

One license works on up to 3 computers, Mac or Windows. To move it, open **Settings › License** on the old one and click **Deactivate** next to **Move to another Mac** (on Windows, **Move to another PC**), then enter the key on the new one. The key is in the email you got when you bought it; if you can't find it, email us from the address you bought with.

## Still stuck?

Email [support@profileporter.com](mailto:support@profileporter.com), or use **Settings › License › Contact support**. Tell us which browser and what you clicked. If Profile Porter quit unexpectedly, attach ~/Library/Logs/Profile Porter/crash.log (on Windows, %LOCALAPPDATA%\\ProfilePorter\\crash.log): it has no links or history in it.