Firefox Process won't End

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 17th, 2012, 8:54 pm

Hello,

I've been having an issue recently, where when I close Firefox, the process remains active and will only end when I physically kill the process from the task manager. I've no idea why this has started to happen. I've been reading all over the internet on how to resolve this and tried everything but it just won't end on it's own. I've also tried all different kinds of spyware scanners and my own Kaspersky suite and nothing was found at all, apart from some tracking cookies but everyone gets them...

I'm at my wits end and have no idea where to go from here. I really need it to start working again so I can at least enable one of my addons to export my saved passwords, then I can uninstall and freshly install Firefox.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

JayhawksRock · Post by **JayhawksRock** » May 17th, 2012, 9:24 pm

Are you Crashing Firefox to close by using the X in upper right .. or ... are you closing it politly by using Firefox Button Exit so it can save the many databases properly?

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 17th, 2012, 9:31 pm

I've tried both with no luck on either. Also the memory usage stays the same and doesn't change at all on the task manager process.

JayhawksRock · Post by **JayhawksRock** » May 17th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Try restarting Firefox in Mozilla Safe Mode and then see how it closes Go to Help > restart with addons disabled (dont check any boxes, just continue)

When in Safe Mode...
* The status of plug-ins is not affected.
* Custom preferences are not affected.
* All extensions are disabled.
* The default theme is used, without a persona.
* userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored.
* The default toolbar layout is used.
* Hardware acceleration is disabled.

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 17th, 2012, 9:44 pm

No can do, already tried it. The process still doesn't end. Only way I can end it is by terminating it in Task Manager or rebooting.

JayhawksRock · Post by **JayhawksRock** » May 17th, 2012, 9:59 pm

OK.. well something is keeping the firefox process running. Usually its a misbehaving extension or toolbar (security type mostly) or you have a tab that auto refreshes that wont let go of its connection. Good Luck, I'm out

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 18th, 2012, 3:19 am

I already knew somethings keeping it open, that's why I'm here, looking for help...

Can anyone tell me how I can find out what's keeping it open?

makaiguy · Post by **makaiguy** » May 18th, 2012, 6:23 am

One thing I'd check when FFox doesn't release is whether there is a running process called plugin-container.exe. This is where FFox runs any plugins. It may be that you have Flash or other plugin running an ill-written script that doesn't release when finished.

dfoulkes · Post by **dfoulkes** » May 18th, 2012, 8:08 am

JayhawksRock wrote:Are you Crashing Firefox to close by using the X in upper right .. or ... are you closing it politly by using Firefox Button Exit so it can save the many databases properly?

I always thought the X represented a clean way to stop Firefox and any other application running in a computer... are you saying that it's the same as killing it in Task mgr?

dfoulkes · Post by **dfoulkes** » May 18th, 2012, 8:12 am

MikeP1990
You might want to at least create a test profile... make no changes to it... do a little browsing (including a couple of vids) and then close it... see what happens. At least this will indicated whether Firefox and/or the Plugin container is causing this.
Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Also, AV products can hang Firefox up when attempting to close it...
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 18th, 2012, 8:57 am

OK so I done as you said, created a new profile. It opened fine and closed fine, the process also ended.

So now we know it's a plugin issue but the problem I'm having is I can't "restart firefox now" as I just have to terminate the process which doesn't "restart" firefox...

All I really need is my saved passwords....

Any help appreciated.

dfoulkes · Post by **dfoulkes** » May 18th, 2012, 10:37 am

New profiles auto install "Plugins" which are diff. from "Extensions"... so, it's not a plugin.

Here's a doc. that discusses transferring files... if PW's are the only thing you really need then that's best because other files may contain the cause of your problem... there's a section in there about PW's...
Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

PS... note the Passwords section in it... you only need two files.

MikeP1990 · Post by **MikeP1990** » May 18th, 2012, 10:54 am

Yeah, I found an article on the net about backing up the passwords. key3.db and signons.sqlite.

Thanks for the help anyway!

dfoulkes · Post by **dfoulkes** » May 18th, 2012, 11:03 am

You're Welcome!

DocCovington · Post by **DocCovington** » February 28th, 2015, 7:54 am

MikeP1990 wrote:I've been having an issue recently, where when I close Firefox, the process remains active and will only end when I physically kill the process from the task manager. I've no idea why this has started to happen.

I was having the same issue up until this afternoon, when I figured out how to fix this.

First of all, the problem started with the new preview panel in NewTab. After I ruled out any extension or plugin to be responsible for the issue, I realized that FF must be caught in a loop of sorts. It had to do with loading the URL data and preview images in NewTab. When I used the program without ever opening a new tab (and thus its content), the program would close/end just fine.

So I typed about:config into the address bar and then newtab into the Search field. I switched the following entry from true to false:

Code: Select all

browser.newtab.preload

That fixed the issue. Firefox is now closing normally (and fast).

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