Thunderbird error message, thunderbird already running.
W10 Pro 21H2, running on Lenovo M720s, home system. TB user for over 5 years. Last 1 year running TB with my profile on NAS. Infrequently TB fails to start, error message 'thunderbird already running'. I don't see TB running in task manager. I've searched Mozilla forum and understand this error is caused by mishandling of parent.lock file, located in my TB profile. However, I can't find any detailed explanation of what is causing the error, or how to fix it. I would appreciate if you could answer following questions.
1. Within my profile folder on NAS, the parent.lock file is present regardless of when TB fails to open OR TB opens correctly and is closed. The parent.lock file is always present. I read in the forum TB should delete parent.lock when closing, but that doesn't happen. How exactly is parent.lock file handled by TB on open and close?
2. When TB doesn't open, the suggestion is to delete parent.lock file and restart TB. I've not been able to ever delete this file using explorer. How can I safely/easily delete parent.lock?
3. I noticed today, when TB doesn't open, go to parent.lock, check file properties (right click), then sequentially open each tab within properties (changing nothing), then close properties, I can then delete the file using explorer. I've changed nothing the properties folder. Do you know what file property has changed by opening property tab, that allows the file to be deleted? BTW, under security tab Everyone has Full Control, but can't delete the file.
Thanks.
All Replies (4)
What will be causing the error is the latency of using a NAS instead of a local drive. The NAS will be holding the file open for Thunderbird.
Just one possibility is you turned off the computer before your exceedingly slow network (compared to an internal drive) actually completed it's profile update writes and released and deleted the file.
Matt,
Thanks for your reply.
I agree NAS latency is greater than a local drive. When I've seen the error, I've not powered down the PC before closing TB. I use the TB 'quit' command, instead of simply closing the TB window, hoping this would provide extra time for TB to close parent.lock, but this does not eliminate the problem.
Are you saying parent.lock file is normally deleted by TB, when TB closes? What I see in my NAS profile, parent.lock file is present, regardless of whether TB starts without error, or displays the error (application already open). So, I don't understand how TB processes the parent.lock file.
Tim.
stoverpublic55 said
So, I don't understand how TB processes the parent.lock file.
Despite all the stuff on blogs etc, I doubt anyone in the Thunderbird community does.
The source code that locks the profile and uses it is Mozilla platform code and is the same as used in Firefox. At compile time Thunderbird includes a huge amount of the Mozilla platform (Firefox) which is why it can open a browser window. https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/profile/nsProfileLock.cpp
Looking at the code, which I do very poorly, I looks like the file is never deleted between sessions. The header file https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/profile/nsProfileLock.h suggests that Thunderbird just gives up and declares the profile locked is the operating system returns a FILE ACCESS DENIED
Sorry to say, but I think the issue is on the NAS. While it looks like this might be beyond the scope of this forum. What error exactly does Windows explorer emit?
Modified by Matt
Matt, Thanks for your reply.
Currently my TB is working without error, profile located on NAS. As you say, the parent.lock file is not deleted. Tried experiment. With TB closed, I was able to use W10 Explorer to delete profile.lock. No complaint from OS. When the TB error occurs, can't delete this file.
Here is the sequence when error occurs, launch TB, error message displayed 'Thunderbird already running. Close Thunderbird?' If select close, message reappears. No instance of TB running in taskmanager. If I then try to delete parent.lock, OS error message 'can't delete, file in use'. If I then right click on parent.lock, properties and cycle through the property tabs, then close properties, I can delete the file. I guess a file property was changed by cycling through the tabs.
I wonder if TB updates a parent.lock file property when it correctly closes. When the file property is not updated, the error occurs next time TB launches? I guess this could be a bug in NTGR ReadNAS OS.
Tim.