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Sunday, March 2, 2008

"Thunderbird is already running, but not responding.

"Thunderbird is already running, but not responding. To open a new window you must close the existing thunderbird process, or restart your system"

This is a stupid message i know. I searched through Google and Mozilla forums and didn't really find any straight forward answers so I am hoping to give you that here.
Most people will suggest that Thunderbird wasn't closed properly and has left a lock file behind that causes this error but i never found any "lock" file (sometimes called "parent.lock" and has restarted my computer improperly with Thunderbird on many times but never the less here we go!

This scenario solution is based on people who have their profile folder for Thunderbird moved to a non-default location (to back up there mail or avoid defrag or whatever) or has moved the folders of the default folder. If not try this solution anyway.


  1. Open C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Thunderbird\profiles.ini
  2. Change the value after "Path=" to "Path= C:\CURRENT FOLDER LOCATION" (no")
  3. Save file
  4. Open Thunderbird or restart and then open Thunderbird.
So as you can see the solution really works for correcting the location of your profile location. You may have to do this for other users on your computer if you moved their profile location as well.

Hope I have made someone's troubles go away ;D



EDIT: WINDOWS 7'S FOLDER IS LOCATED AT:

B:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Labels: , ,

24 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 12, 2008 at 9:26 PM

    Thanks! You fixed my troubles!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 25, 2008 at 8:12 AM

    Brilliant! Very clear instructions, and it actually worked.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 17, 2008 at 10:42 PM

    I was having this problem, so I searched Google and found your blog post. It works perfectly; much better than the help on Mozilla's site. Thanks a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 19, 2008 at 5:46 AM

    Thanks a lot mr Soft.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 21, 2008 at 5:03 AM

    Thanks! I didn't use your method but you got me to where the issue was. I just changed the path= to my profile name since I was trying to load an old email backup and it worked! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 26, 2009 at 12:27 PM

    Absolutey spot on! Many thanks for clear instructions.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousMay 28, 2009 at 7:45 AM

    Excellent help. Thanks! We had a corrupted mail file, so I dragged a copy of the file from my computer to my wife's where the problem lay. Thunderbird didn't recognize the new file copied from my computer because of its different "gobbldygook" file name a5oqrt40.default - something like that.

    Followed your advice, edited the profile.ini, changed the old gobbledygook name to the new one, and problem sorted. THANK YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousDecember 11, 2009 at 10:25 AM

    I read in another forum to open under Start the "run" and type "thunderbird -p" in order to manage the profiles.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2010 at 10:43 AM

    Really thanks for your post...

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2010 at 11:25 AM

    hi guys .. im using thunderbird 3 .. lately when i receive an incoming mail (appearing at lower right) my thunderbird suddenly stops responding (not respoding msg).. tried uninstall and reinstall same thing .. using home vista premium 32 bit .. ang i can't find this in vista "thunderbird\ profiles.ini" .. or is it hidden? .. pls help me my work is at stake T_T thnx

    ReplyDelete
  11. PatrickFebruary 12, 2010 at 1:36 PM

    Yes it could be hidden.

    In Windows 7 the profile is stored elsewhere as it does not use the Documents and Settings folder no more.

    C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

    ReplyDelete
  12. SaraApril 5, 2010 at 7:16 AM

    Thank You! This was the solution that I needed!

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousApril 13, 2010 at 12:44 AM

    I have read several serious forums talking about this problem, but the only answer I have found there was to reinstall Thunderbird...

    Thank you, you saved me with this !

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJune 2, 2010 at 5:32 PM

    you rock. nuff said.

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousDecember 19, 2010 at 8:59 AM

    Thanks for taking the time to post this! I have no idea how long it would have taken me to figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousFebruary 14, 2011 at 7:34 PM

    I don't understand all the quote marks. If my profile is located in C:\Thunderbird Profile, should the line look like this?

    Path= C:\CURRENT FOLDER LOCATION (no)

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousFebruary 14, 2011 at 7:35 PM

    Let's try that again. I don't understand all the quote marks. If my profile is located in C:\Thunderbird Profile, should the line look like this?

    Path= C:\Thunderbird Profile (no)

    ReplyDelete
  18. PatrickFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:13 AM

    Path= C:\Thunderbird Profile

    (no") just means do NOT write the ". Many people get confused if the " content " means add the " but the "s are actually used as a way for me to tell you exactly where the text to type starts and ends. First " is begin and second " is end.

    Hope that helps!

    Patrick G L
    Webmaster

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousMay 23, 2011 at 9:42 AM

    I'm using Tbird 3.1 on Win7. Got that message after crash from power outage. I was able to get it (eventually) restarted using "Thunderbird (Safe Mode)". It loaded up properly, exited from there and was able to restart regular Tbrid

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousJuly 27, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    thanx

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2011 at 2:36 AM

    This did not work for me.(win 7 64)
    Now when I open up Thunderbird my account and emails are all gone and it asks for details for a new account. doh.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Gwen HarrisOctober 13, 2011 at 4:28 PM

    This happened to me when I set up a new install of thunderbird on a new computer and copied my xxxxx.default file in the profiles. I just had to change the xxxxx.default file shown in the Path of the new ini file to the name of the file I had copied over. Thank you to the person who started this thread.

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousMay 13, 2012 at 7:40 PM

    Great! It solved my troubles. Thanks from Brazil.

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousMarch 10, 2013 at 12:08 PM

    I tryed to follow the instructions but it did not allow to alter the path, asking for the saving of a new file with other name.
    I searched the folder gqk7p45h.default on my settings and found all files (actuals and archives) that I can not access.
    Fear to miss up something, can you give me a suggestion?
    Mário, Lisbon

    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]
    Name=default
    IsRelative=1
    Path=Profiles/gqk7p45h.default

    ReplyDelete

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