Profile in use: Difference between revisions
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When Mozilla Suite | When Firefox, Thunderbird, or Mozilla Suite is in use, it locks the active [[Profile folder|profile]] to keep other programs from altering the contents or causing conflicts. This lock is normally transparent to the user, but sometimes the profile remains locked when it's not expected. Thus, if you launch the application and the [[Profile Manager]] says that your profile is already "in use", it's telling you that the profile is locked. | ||
==How to unlock your profile== | |||
* The application may not have shut down completely the last time it was used. Check for any open windows. Go through your list of [[Kill application|running processes]] to see if the application is still running in the background. If it is, ending that process should unlock the profile. | * The application may not have shut down completely the last time it was used. Check for any open windows. Go through your list of [[Kill application|running processes]] to see if the application is still running in the background. If it is, ending that process should unlock the profile. | ||
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* This problem can also occur if you don't have the rights to edit the files in the profile (or create the lock file in the first place). Please note that this can happen if you try to use a profile from a filesystem mounted with read-only (e.g. a remote Windows share which doesn't have "allow network users to change my files" checked). This can be pretty tricky to diagnose because there is no lock file in the profile, yet the same message appears (profile in use). Incidentally, Linux users may have ~/.thunderbird and/or ~/.mozilla-thunderbird in their home directories if they have had more than one version of Thunderbird installed. | * This problem can also occur if you don't have the rights to edit the files in the profile (or create the lock file in the first place). Please note that this can happen if you try to use a profile from a filesystem mounted with read-only (e.g. a remote Windows share which doesn't have "allow network users to change my files" checked). This can be pretty tricky to diagnose because there is no lock file in the profile, yet the same message appears (profile in use). Incidentally, Linux users may have ~/.thunderbird and/or ~/.mozilla-thunderbird in their home directories if they have had more than one version of Thunderbird installed. | ||
==How to return to your original profile== | |||
If you experienced this problem and created a new profile, therefore "losing" all your bookmarks and settings, you can use the [[profile manager]] to return to your original profile. If your original profile is still locked, try the solutions above. | If you experienced this problem and created a new profile, therefore "losing" all your bookmarks and settings, you can use the [[profile manager]] to return to your original profile. If your original profile is still locked, try the solutions above. | ||
===See also | ==Future versions== | ||
In Firefox 1.5, this problem will be partially remedied; when your profile is in use and Firefox starts up, a dialog will prompt you to restart Firefox instead of accidentally creating a new profile. | |||
==See also== | |||
* [[Browser will not start up]] | * [[Browser will not start up]] | ||
[[Category:About the Profile]] | [[Category:About the Profile]] | ||
Revision as of 21:24, 28 August 2005
When Firefox, Thunderbird, or Mozilla Suite is in use, it locks the active profile to keep other programs from altering the contents or causing conflicts. This lock is normally transparent to the user, but sometimes the profile remains locked when it's not expected. Thus, if you launch the application and the Profile Manager says that your profile is already "in use", it's telling you that the profile is locked.
How to unlock your profile
- The application may not have shut down completely the last time it was used. Check for any open windows. Go through your list of running processes to see if the application is still running in the background. If it is, ending that process should unlock the profile.
- The application may have shut down abnormally, leaving the lock in place. To fix this, delete the file named "parent.lock" (Windows), "lock" (Linux), or ".parentlock" (Mac OS X) in your profile folder. In OS X you need to use a free utility like Onyx or Maintain to turn on visibility for invisible files to show ".parentlock". This file contains no information, and deleting it will unlock the profile.
- Netscape 7 or another Mozilla-based program may be using the profile. Try shutting down this program to unlock the profile. Additionally, you should create separate profiles for each different application. Especially if you use both Mozilla Suite and Netscape 7, corruption can result from sharing the same profile between two different programs. (This problem is unlikely with Firefox and Thunderbird, since they do not share profiles with other applications in the way that Mozilla Suite and Netscape 7 can share profiles.)
- If you are running the application from removable media on a Windows system, open the "profiles.ini" file (located up a few levels in the folder hierarchy from your profile folder) and make sure that the drive letter and path to your profile are correct.
- This problem can also occur if you don't have the rights to edit the files in the profile (or create the lock file in the first place). Please note that this can happen if you try to use a profile from a filesystem mounted with read-only (e.g. a remote Windows share which doesn't have "allow network users to change my files" checked). This can be pretty tricky to diagnose because there is no lock file in the profile, yet the same message appears (profile in use). Incidentally, Linux users may have ~/.thunderbird and/or ~/.mozilla-thunderbird in their home directories if they have had more than one version of Thunderbird installed.
How to return to your original profile
If you experienced this problem and created a new profile, therefore "losing" all your bookmarks and settings, you can use the profile manager to return to your original profile. If your original profile is still locked, try the solutions above.
Future versions
In Firefox 1.5, this problem will be partially remedied; when your profile is in use and Firefox starts up, a dialog will prompt you to restart Firefox instead of accidentally creating a new profile.
