440644 - Firefox closed but still running/active in the background, cannot start another instance

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Beno]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

I have observed this in Firefox v3.0 RC1, RC2, RC3 and now in the final release. (Did not have this issue with Firefox v2.x)

The problem occurs when my internet connection is lost while browsing.
If I close Firefox it still shows under Task Manager > Processes.

If I try to start another instance it won't show but it will show up under Task Manager > Processes.

The only way to get firefox running again is to kill firefox.exe's shown in Task Manager and running firefox again.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Type some URL to visit but kill your internet connection, so that you end up with Firefox simply trying to connect to a site.

2. You can now see Firefox trying to connect/open the web site. (Obviously it can never do this, since the internet connection is down)

3. Close Firefox.

4. Open Task Manager and under processes you can see Firefox still running. Trying to open another instance of Firefox will not work until you kill firefox.exe that is currently running. 
Actual Results:  
Firefox no longer works until it's killed from Task Manager.

Expected Results:  
If firefox is closed it should not continue running in the background.

Using Vista Ultimate 32bit.

FireFox has following plugins:
- Adblock Plus
- NoScript
- FlashGot

Comment 1

[Foo Bar]

I have the same problem, I do not need to disconnect, just closing the browser is enough. I've NoScript installed as well, maybe it's a NoScript problem?

Comment 2

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Try it in safe mode:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)

if that still presents a problem I advise you to get a stack trace:

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_with_WinDbg

Comment 3

[Beno]

I will do a test in safe mode and also a test where I don't have any plugins installed.

Will report on the outcome in the next day or two.

Comment 4

[Beno]

I have been doing further tests and I'm finding it difficult to reproduce the scenario.  It seems to happen when I least expect it hehe.

However, when it did happen I did find out a few new things.

1. Running it in safe mode did not help, firefox.exe was still running.
2. Running it in safe mode and addons disabled did not help either.
3. I noticed that my network was still up and running and I was able to use other application that require internet such as MSN.

At that time WinDbg was unable to download the symbols.  It's possibly using some internet explorer settings?

I am thinking that something goes wrong in Vista which stops me from browsing and in turn creates this Firefox problem.

I say this because once I restart the PC, I am able to browse again.

I have included a screen shot of the error that I get when firefox.exe remains running in the background and I try to start another instance of it.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9191/firefoxaz4.jpg

Comment 5

[Dark]

I confirm this bug. Also firefox 3 seems to consume too much memory. Much more then firefox 2, I think.

Comment 6

[kralco626]

I also confirm this bug.

Reproducible: every time

if you close firefox and immediately try to re-open it, it will give you that "fire fox is already running ect.ect."

some times if you just wait a few more seconds you are able to open it, but other times i have had to restart my computer.

I THINK it has gotten less often that i have had to restart, since installing the updates, but I had to do it in every update version since fire fox 3 came out. (including the newest one)

It would be awesome if someone could fix it :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. who ever came up with the idea to show those like search options when your typing into the url bar is genius, it always knows what website i want :)

Comment 7

[kralco626]

sorry, i almost forgot to mention, i'm running on windows xp, not vista like that other person, so it's not just a vista problem.

Comment 8

[Dark]

I also have to add that I'm using WIN XP + SP 2 and I got rid of the problem by updating java and disabling all addons, except AdBlockPlus. That was in FF version 3.0.1. Up to latest version 3.0.3 this problem didn't occur to me again.

Comment 9

[chuck.sheehan]

I had this issue on Linux, Centos 4 custom Gnome desktop, and Windows XP home. Both pretty much fully patched. Both were fine on FF 2. FF 3 stayed running in the background after the window was closed. On Linux it happened over three quarters of the time. On XP it happened every time. The messages were quite similar, that Firefox was already running and needed to be closed. On Linux I uninstalled and reinstalled FF without fixing it.

Linux:resolved
Change the link that Gnome uses for /usr/bin/htmlview to run the firefox binary directly. Done. The above script has comments that it is deprecated ...

Windows: apparently resolved
Start it in safe mode once. I do not see how this can work, but the problem appears to have gone away now.

Good luck.

Comment 10

[Dmitriy]

The same is if you are using some free proxy-servers (they often die).
(I have WinXP SP2 FF3)

Comment 11

[openSUSE]

I have the same problem on vista 32bit home edition.  BUT, I am unable to kill the instance in task master.  I have not tried safe mode but will.  No proxy server, dns via netsys router and road runner.

Available for testing.

Question:  Why is this bug status "UNCONFIRMED" with so many reports?

Comment 12

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

>Question:  Why is this bug status "UNCONFIRMED" with so many reports?

1. Because there is no clear steps to reproduce (that anyone can reproduce with their own machine).

2. There is a bug about reducing shutdown work so that firefox could be reopened immediately after being closed, as is the "can't reopen immediately" problem is just that the previous firefox is still in the process of shutting down.

I'm clearing the blocking? flag, unconfirmed bugs should first be confirmed by devs before requesting blocking.

Comment 13

[Nochum Sossonko [:Natch]]

Also please see this article about this very problem http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox+will+not+start

Comment 14

[SAFEWINDOW]

Same problem. Intermittent though. Leads me to think it could be a security issue, ie browser hijack? Has nothing to do with losing connection. Also have problems with Java binaries and sometimes youtube says java script is not enabled when it is.

Comment 15

[artfuldodga]

i too have this issue, i've tried reproducing on Vista and Windows 7, and the problem does occur, not on every site though

happens to me most often on refreshing Twitter, the page seems to get stuck reloading and never completes, doesn't disturb the rest of my browsing session and can even close out the tab that did not load completely and try again only from that point on getting the same result on that site, loads, but not entirely 

exit browser but browser remains running, it does not happen all the time you kind of need to remain committed to refreshing a page until you get a sort of 'stall' 

i run NoScript and Adblock but i've tried clean installs and still able to reproduce easy enough

Comment 16

[David Pennington]

I'd like to confirm that I've been having this issue for months, since FF3 (perhaps even before).  It happens mainly on Vista 32bit (regularly) and also had the occurrences on XP.  Most of the time I cannot kill the process in Vista task manager although XP seems to let me kill it.  I have to be honest and say that even though I am a proud Firefox user and promoter the fact that this bug hasn't been fixed yet is appalling.  It's been going on for over 12 months at least and is the single biggest turn off for me on the browser.  I will not be installing FF on my new Windows 7 install unless something is done and looking by this ticket the issue is being ignored because it would have been merged with a confirmed ticket which is being fixed.

Comment 17

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.9 or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

Comment 18

[Beno]

Thank you for remind me, I had forgotten about it.
I stopped having this issue sometime ago.

Comment 19

[Frank]

This bug occurs again at my system (Fedora 24, Gnome 3.20.2, FF 49). After closing Firefox, the activity-dot of the dock disappears, but the process is still running for some 10-20 seconds (got many open tabs). Please let the activity-dot be displayed until all processes are complete. Maybe this is due to the new multi process architecture.