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computer says firefox is open but cant be found so I have to close computer and start over. computer says firefox is open but not responding

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by John99

ronczekalski
ronczekalski
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computer on,icons showing,open firefox and I get a firefox is open but not responding.Computer tells me to close computer programs and restart. when I go to close, no programs are open. I hit cancel on shutting down and go back to firefox icon and It opens.

computer on,icons showing,open firefox and I get a firefox is open but not responding.Computer tells me to close computer programs and restart. when I go to close, no programs are open. I hit cancel on shutting down and go back to firefox icon and It opens.

All Replies (2)

Microrobot
Microrobot
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Hello,

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not run Firefox's uninstaller or use a third party remover as part of this process, because that could permanently delete your Firefox data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device!

Please report back to see if this helped you!

Thank you.

John99
John99
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Hi ronczekalski,
Sorry you are having problems with Firefox.

Please do not yet try reinstalling Firefox it may well prove to be unnecessary, and if the problem is as I think it will not resolve the issue (unless you clear all your settings and data in the reinstall).

Thank you for providing your troubleshooting information.

Currently Firefox sometimes has an issue with not closing down properly if you have set Firefox to clear History at closedown (and it appears you have done). This is a known problem mainly seen in Firefox 29 and people are working on trying to fix that, although the Fix is unlikely to be before Fx30.

The workaround is to not set Firefox to clear History when it shuts down, instead set it to remember History.

  • Use New Button -> Preferences -> |Privacy| History Firefox will: [Remember History v]
  • Note you should be able to use a private browsing window if that helps..
    You may need to close that window before exiting from Firefox
    Private Browsing - Use Firefox without saving history

Please post back to say how you get on.