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

Cannot remove cert8 from file as cannot "complete action as file is open in firefox" error message

more options

For some reason when trying to get onto some https file the error message @secure connection failed ' is displayed. When trying to delete cert8 file it states that the file is open in firefox and cannot complete action...... it states it is shared by other programs??? Help

For some reason when trying to get onto some https file the error message @secure connection failed ' is displayed. When trying to delete cert8 file it states that the file is open in firefox and cannot complete action...... it states it is shared by other programs??? Help

All Replies (2)

more options

How many sites are affected? Usually deleting cert8.db wouldn't be the first thing to try. If you do want to try that, make sure Firefox has fully exited and there are not Firefox windows open and no Firefox processes running.

If you get the error page with the heading "Your connection is not secure" with an "Advanced" button to get more technical information: Please click that button and copy/paste the details there and especially the SEC_ERROR... code, into a reply.

This article addresses the most common code: How to troubleshoot security error codes on secure websites.

more options

If you get the more general message, secure connection failed, try again a few times. One user reported that for quite a while after starting Firefox, they get that error, and they have to exit out and restart Firefox to browse normally. No reason was uncovered for that yet.