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Firefox will not close on Mac laptop

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 22 views
  • Last reply by jan3

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I had a problem and started some mysterious process of Cleaning the Profile if I remember (hours ago). It placed a folder Old Firefox Data on screen then churned away for such a long time that I interrupted it, then downloaded a new copy of FF, tried to run it but get the message "profile missing etc".

No menu appears, and I am stuck. When I try to close/delete FF into Trash, it refuses because it is Open. No profile appears when I search the Library including hidden items. None of the solutions like pasting a Kill command into the Terminal seen elsewhere works.

I had a problem and started some mysterious process of Cleaning the Profile if I remember (hours ago). It placed a folder Old Firefox Data on screen then churned away for such a long time that I interrupted it, then downloaded a new copy of FF, tried to run it but get the message "profile missing etc". No menu appears, and I am stuck. When I try to close/delete FF into Trash, it refuses because it is Open. No profile appears when I search the Library including hidden items. None of the solutions like pasting a Kill command into the Terminal seen elsewhere works.

Chosen solution

Thanks Jaya.

I gave up last night, but had a last go just now before consigning Mac and Firefox to the depths of hell.

"Force Quit" did not work, so I tried copying what looked like a Profile folder in 'Old Firefox Data' on the desktop into the Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles folder.

There was another Profile folder there which I renamed 'Old etc', then I started Firefox ... and it worked!!!

So I don't know if your later suggestions would have worked, but many thanks for them.

Regards George

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use "Force Quit" to close the firefox.

Create a new profile and delete the old profile.

Type the following in terminal "/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p"


Profile Backup and Restore

Modified by iamjayakumars

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Chosen Solution

Thanks Jaya.

I gave up last night, but had a last go just now before consigning Mac and Firefox to the depths of hell.

"Force Quit" did not work, so I tried copying what looked like a Profile folder in 'Old Firefox Data' on the desktop into the Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles folder.

There was another Profile folder there which I renamed 'Old etc', then I started Firefox ... and it worked!!!

So I don't know if your later suggestions would have worked, but many thanks for them.

Regards George