Open new Chrome window with different profile from command line

Solution 1:

When adding new profile named Whatever, Chrome does not create profile folder with the same name. Naming convention is "Profile X", where X is integer. So, it may be the case to check the real profile folder name before executing the command.

chrome --profile-directory="Profile folder name" works fine on Ubuntu.

You may also find useful this answer and discussion https://superuser.com/a/377195/1084604

Solution 2:

Some additional context to qba-dev's answer - can be a gotcha.

At least on my system, profiles actually start with "Default", and then iterate through "Profile X".

So, for original profile

google-chrome --profile-directory="Default" --new-window

For second profile:

google-chrome --profile-directory="Profile 1" --new-window

Etc.

But also be aware the browser GUI muddies the water here in that the first profile Default is labeled "Person 1" in the profiles UI box. The second profile, "Profile 1" is labeled "work" (in my case) in the UI, etc. It is enough to create some confusion.

To further complicate... in my case in $HOME/config/google-chome there are directories: Default, 'Profile 1' and work. I believe the work directory exists from previously trying to call "work" profile from the command line

google-chrome --profile-directory="work" --new-window

Instead of this opening the existing work (Profile 1) profile, it created a third profile, identified with the 'work' directory in the configs folder, but associated to a "Person 2" profile in the UI.

The disconnect between UI & configuration labeling (and the offset in the increment count of profiles) is hopefully something that could potentially be addressed in future releases.

"Default" = "Person 1"

"Profile 1" = "work"

config dirs

"work" = "Person 2"

Chrome Version 88.0.4324.182 (Official Build) (64-bit)