"Firefox is already running but is not responding" error message - How to fix it

All of your personal settings, bookmarks, and other information are kept in your Firefox profile. To start, Firefox needs an unlocked profile and if it is not the case, it displays the "Firefox is already running, but is not responding" message. This article explains how to prevent this message from showing at startup.

Note: If this is a recurring problem, see Firefox hangs when you quit it for possible causes and solutions.

Table of Contents

• End Firefox processes
• Remove the profile lock file
• Initialize the connection to a file share
• Check access rights
• Restore data from a locked profile

End Firefox processes

If Firefox did not shut down normally when you last used it, Firefox might still be running in the background, even though it is not visible. Restart your computer to see if the problem goes away.

Instead of restarting your computer, you can also close Firefox in linux ubuntu, as follows:

1. Click on system and choose administration.
2. In administration, click on system monitor. Here you will find firefox-bin one or more times.
3. Highlight the listing and click the "end process" for each one.

Instead of restarting your computer, you can also use the Windows Task Manager to close the existing Firefox process:

1. Right-click on an empty spot in the Windows task bar and select Task Manager (or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc).

Initialize the connection to a file share

If you store the profile on a file share, try accessing the file share beforehand using Windows Explorer.

Check access rights

Firefox must also have the right to create files in the profile folder. This can happen if you try to use a profile from a file system mounted with read-only (e.g. a remote Windows share which doesn't have "Allow network users to change my files" checked).

To check if the profile folder has the proper permissions:

1. Go to your Firefox profile folder - see Finding your profile without opening Firefox.
2. Go up one folder.
3. Right-click on your profile folder, and select Properties.
4. Click on the General tab.
5. Make sure Read-only is not checked marked.
   
   
   

1. Go to your Firefox profile folder - see Finding your profile without opening Firefox.
2. Go up one folder.
3. Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on your profile folder, and select Get Info.
4. Make sure Ownership & Permissions is set to Read & Write.

1. Go to your Firefox profile folder - see Finding your profile without opening Firefox.
2. Go up one folder.
3. Right-click on your profile folder, and select Properties.
4. Click on the Permissions tab.
5. Make sure Folder access is set to Create and delete files.

Restore data from a locked profile

If you are unable to unlock the profile using the above methods, use the Profile Manager to create a new profile and migrate your data from the locked profile to the new profile. For information on how to do this, see Recovering important data from an old profile.

Based on information from Profile in use (mozillaZine KB)

Share this article: You can use the link http://mzl.la/KEkJ6Z to easily share this article with others. It will display instructions automatically customized for their operating system and language.