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

Firefox won't start, it thinks it's already running but isn't

more options

When I try to start Firefox I get a message saying it's already running but not responding and telling me :"To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." Since it's not running and task manager does not show a running process I obviously can't do that. I have restarted my system several times, all with the same result. I have even tried uninstalling Firefox, downloading it from scratch and installing it again - but the result is still the same.

When I try to start Firefox I get a message saying it's already running but not responding and telling me :"To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." Since it's not running and task manager does not show a running process I obviously can't do that. I have restarted my system several times, all with the same result. I have even tried uninstalling Firefox, downloading it from scratch and installing it again - but the result is still the same.

Chosen solution

Yes. If there isn't a default profile then you need to create a new profile or delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new default profile as you appear to still have that file currently to get that error.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

more options
more options

Hi,

I have followed the instructions and the folder Russell/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles is completely empty so there's no default profile for me to edit, but I still get the same error message each time I try to start Firefox. Do I need to somehow create a default profile?

more options

Chosen Solution

Yes. If there isn't a default profile then you need to create a new profile or delete the profiles.ini file to make Firefox create a new default profile as you appear to still have that file currently to get that error.

more options

Thank you so much. I deleted the profiles.ini file and it fixed the problem!