This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Problem with non response and restoring firefox

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

dougpren
dougpren
more options

After having firefox open for some time it stops responding. I then close firefox. When I try to re-open I get an error message: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window" When I click the close firefox option, another error message pops up "your firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible" When I click to close this box I can then re-open firefox.

This error is occuring on both my PC and my laptop. It's a bit of a pain as I can lose unsaved work during the closedown.

Any idea what is going wrong?

After having firefox open for some time it stops responding. I then close firefox. When I try to re-open I get an error message: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. The old Firefox process must be closed to open a new window" When I click the close firefox option, another error message pops up "your firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible" When I click to close this box I can then re-open firefox. This error is occuring on both my PC and my laptop. It's a bit of a pain as I can lose unsaved work during the closedown. Any idea what is going wrong?

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
more options

HI dougpren, In the past this has been a result of a corrupt profile.ini file or Firefox did not close down properly. (look for .lock file in your profile folder)

First try these troubleshooting steps:

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

  • "3-bar" menu button > Exit (Power button)
  • Windows: File > Exit
  • Mac: Firefox > Quit Firefox
  • Linux: File > Quit

See also:

This is usually caused by a problem with the profiles.ini file. Make sure that you do not have (security) software that is protecting .ini files like profiles.ini against changes. You need to locate the profiles.ini file and delete this file or use the Profile Manager to create a new profile.

You can use one of these to make Firefox create a new default profile or recover an existing profile:

  • Delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new (default) profile
  • Use the Profile Manager to create a new profile
    If you still have an existing profile then click "Choose Folder" in the Profile Manager and browse to the location of a lost profile to recover this profile
    https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles

You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

  • Windows: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
    *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/
  • Linux: ~/.mozilla/firefox/

If clearing the profiles.ini file isn't working then also check the location of the cache files.

  • Windows: *C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
  • Mac: ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/
  • Linux:~/.cache/mozilla/firefox/