398630 - KB article: Profile in use

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Articles, task)

Description

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Source data: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use

This is assigned to [e-mail]

Comment 1

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

-->Major
<http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+will+not+start> links to this article, and it's in the staging area.

Comment 2

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Okay, that's three comments from users complaining that the 'will not start' article takes them to a page, they don't have access to.
Assigning to me. Can't wait for contributors on this one.

Comment 3

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Ready for review. Jason, you want to review it?

Comment 4

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

-It would be good to have the exact text as well as some screenshots of the error.
-Does Firefox 2 come up with the profile manager in this situation any more?
-I don't know if it's necessary to explain how the lock file works
-"Go through your task or process list and stop each instance of the Mozilla application, or restart your computer." unless you intend on giving instructions on how to kill the processes, just tell the user to restart the computer.
-"open the profile folder" Need instructions
-"Check the profile folder name and location" section - generally, users who are using non-default profile locations know about it. I don't think we need to direct them to "restore the profile folder to its original name and location", just tell them that it can happen if wherever they're storing the folder isn't accessible.
-"Check access rights" - can you not look at the properties of the profile folder to see if you have rights to it?
-There are too many commas in the article. Please eliminate three.

Possibly more things once those are fixed.

Comment 5

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Okay, there's a second draft for you.
I can't reproduce the problem, so I can't produce a screenshot, or tell you if Fx2 comes up with the profile manager.
Can you be more specific about which commas, you want removed?

Comment 6

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Can you be more specific about which commas, you want removed?

That would be one example :) Others:

It does this by putting a lock file in your profile folder, when it starts.
If the lock file already exists, when you start Firefox, Firefox exits with an error message. (the first one)

Comment 7

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

okay, done.

Comment 8

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

I've added some screenshots and the error text. I can reproduce it on Vista by creating a parent.lock *folder* in my profile folder. I can check it on Ubuntu as well, can you check Mac?

I'm pretty sure the profile manager no longer comes up at all, so you can remove that.

Can you change "How to unlock your profile" to "Firefox didn't shut down normally", and move the other two solutions up a level?

Can you merge the Indications section into the intro?

Still there from before:
-I don't know if it's necessary to explain how the lock file works. I suggest something like "Firefox will only use one profile at a time. In some situations, Firefox will think that a profile is in use when it isn't."

Comment 9

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

Linux has the same message. Additionally, according to my observations and the source[1], only .parentlock is used. If Mac also has the same message, we should name the article after the message (the symptom) rather than the cause.

[1] http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/profile/dirserviceprovider/src/nsProfileLock.cpp#425

Comment 11

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

I've renamed the page. I still can't reproduce on Mac, but I assume the error message is the same.

I'd like to keep the explanation in the intro.

Comment 12

[Jason Barnabe (np)]

The access rights stuff was a little screwy with the different OSes having different steps, so I just split it out into OS-specific sections. I also added the obvious "restart and try again" solution.

I think this the article is good now from a technical point of view. Do we need someone to look at it for stylistic purposes?

Comment 13

[chris hofmann]

I think all the platforms are going to use the same UI for this out of this file

http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8.0/source/toolkit/locales/en-US/chrome/mozapps/profile/profileSelection.properties#4

I think I'm logged in but for some reason tikiwiki won't let me view http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+is+already+running+but+is+not+responding

Comment 14

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Moved to KB at 2:58pm EST on Saturday October 13th, 2007. Let's see how long it takes Google to index it. :-)

I've been taking care style compliance this whole time.