Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. ...

[OldGuy]

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

Come on fix this!

Instead of a stupid message give us a dialog to restart! Like Opera
does!

[David E. Ross]

Are you sure the message is not from your operating system?

--
David E. Ross

The Crimea is Putin's Sudetenland.
The Ukraine will be Putin's Czechoslovakia.
See <http://www.rossde.com/editorials/edtl_PutinUkraine.html>.

[Trane Francks]

On 9/12/14 5:29 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
> On 9/11/2014 11:57 AM, OldGuy wrote:
>> "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new
>> window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or
>> restart your system."
>>
>> Come on fix this!
>>
>> Instead of a stupid message give us a dialog to restart! Like Opera
>> does!
>>
>>
>
> Are you sure the message is not from your operating system?
>

That's definitely a Windows OS message. Rebooting the system or killing
the existing Thunderbird process via Task Manager is the solution.

--
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Trane Francks tr...@tranefrancks.com Tokyo, Japan
// Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

[Peter Holsberg]

>_______________________________________________
>support-thunderbird mailing list
>support-t...@lists.mozilla.org
>https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-thunderbird
>To unsubscribe, send an email to
>support-thund...@lists.mozilla.org?subject=unsubscribe

under what conditions, does opera allow you to restart when there is no opera window visible?

[Bob Henson]

As a workaround (it won't ever be fixed - it's been like that for years)
try using ALT-F then X to close. or simplest of all use the Exit Button
Thunderbird extension and use that button to close it (and the Exit Button
Firefox if you use Firefox). Closing either with the little cross in the
top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
problem does not worry them one iota.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

Monday is a terrible way to spend 1/7th of your life.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/12/2014 12:10 AM, David Hume <David...@hushmail.com> wrote:

> Trane Francks <tr...@tranefrancks.com> writes:
>> That's definitely a Windows OS message. Rebooting the system or killing the
>> existing Thunderbird process via Task Manager is the solution.

> It isn't an OS message because there is no reason why an OS should not
> run two instances of an application. The message is coming from
> Thunderbird because it is checking whether the profile is in use.

Wrong... it happens here occasionally too (on windows 7)... happens with
Libreoffice too occasionally... you have to kill the rogue/ghost process
in Task Manager, then it opens just fine.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Closing either with the little cross in the
> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
> problem does not worry them one iota.

Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
box) does indeed quit the program.

[Bob Henson]

You'd better tell Mozilla then - they think otherwise.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

The light at the end of the tunnel is probably the headlights of an
oncoming train!

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/12/2014 2:01 PM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tanstaafl wrote:
>> On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Closing either with the little cross in the
>>> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
>>> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
>>> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
>>> problem does not worry them one iota.

>> Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
>> box) does indeed quit the program.

> You'd better tell Mozilla then - they think otherwise.

Prove it...

[rebro]

What exactly?

[s|b]

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Shift+Esc), kill Thunderbird and
then start it again. It's not /that/ hard...

--
s|b

[Bob Henson]

Prove it yourself. All you need to do is to read back through the messages
in this group for many years of messages, and you'll find that answer given
over and over again when the same old question comes up as it had done time
and time again. I was here all those years, so I don't need to prove it to
myself, I read it many times. You don't believe it.. tough.

Subject dropped before Chris starts deleting messages as off-topic, which
it now is.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

If a man stands in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman
around to hear him, is he still wrong?

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/12/2014 3:31 PM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Prove it yourself. All you need to do is to read back through the messages
> in this group for many years of messages, and you'll find that answer given
> over and over again when the same old question comes up as it had done time
> and time again. I was here all those years, so I don't need to prove it to
> myself, I read it many times. You don't believe it.. tough.

As an IT guy for the last 30 years, having maintained Windows 2000, XP
and now 7 workstations in a domain environment for the last 15 years, I
have never, not once, seen anyone - from Mozilla, or anywhere else
(until now) - claim that clicking the 'Close' box in the upper right
corner of the Thunderbird (or Firefox - or any other Windows program)
doesn't actually close the program, but only closes the window.

Since I know for absolutely certain that this is a false claim, the onus
is one the one making the claim otherwise.

Again... PROVE *your claim* that 'Mozilla thinks' that clicking the
close box in Thunderbird (or Firefox) does NOT actually close/quit the
program.

[Trane Francks]

Although it is programming convention in Windows to have clicking the X
box exit the application, it's possible to change the behaviour such
that it only closes the application window, but not the application itself.

[Trane Francks]

Here we go again ....

[Trane Francks]

Seriously? IT guy should learn some basic programming.

"Closing a Window causes any windows that it owns to be closed.
Furthermore, closing a Window may cause an application to stop running
depending on how the Application.ShutdownMode property is set."

From this page:
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.window.close(v=vs.110).aspx>

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 3:56 AM, David Hume <David...@hushmail.com> wrote:
> If you have two firefox windows open, then closing a window by clicking
> the window close button does not exit firefox.

True, but irrelevant to the point being discussed.

Of course the assumption (ugh) was that it was the last window being closed.

> Using the ctrl-q quit option exits both windows.

Not on any Windows machine I've ever used. Maybe you have installed
something or made some registry tweaks to accomplish this, but that
would also be irrelevant to the question of DEFAULT/STANDARD behavior.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 9:05 AM, Trane Francks <tr...@tranefrancks.com> wrote:
> Although it is programming convention in Windows to have clicking the X
> box exit the application, it's possible to change the behaviour such
> that it only closes the application window, but not the application itself.

True, but we're discussing default/standard behavior.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 9:09 AM, Trane Francks <tr...@tranefrancks.com> wrote:
> On 9/13/14 4:54 AM, Tanstaafl wrote:
>> Again... PROVE *your claim* that 'Mozilla thinks' that clicking the
>> close box in Thunderbird (or Firefox) does NOT actually close/quit the
>> program.

> Seriously? IT guy should learn some basic programming.
>
> "Closing a Window causes any windows that it owns to be closed.
> Furthermore, closing a Window may cause an application to stop running
> depending on how the Application.ShutdownMode property is set."
>
> From this page:
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.window.close(v=vs.110).aspx>

Are you seriously popinting to an MSDN article on programming to 'prove'
the claim that "'Mozilla thinks' that clicking the close box in
Thunderbird (or Firefox) does NOT actually close/quit the program."?

Trane needs to learn basic reading/comprehension/debate skills.

Of *course* you can write a custom program or custom code to do pretty
much anything you want.

SO WHAT?

We are discussing standard/default behavior here, and the fact is, the
standard default behavior for pretty much ALL windows applications,
including Firefox and Thunderbird, is that when the last window is
closed, the application exits/quits.

[David E. Ross]

Control-q is a UNIX capability to terminate a process. It is very much
like Control-C in UNIX.

[David E. Ross]

On 9/13/2014 6:05 AM, Trane Francks wrote:
> On 9/13/14 1:57 AM, Tanstaafl wrote:
>> On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Closing either with the little cross in the
>>> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
>>> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
>>> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
>>> problem does not worry them one iota.
>>
>> Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
>> box) does indeed quit the program.
>>
> Although it is programming convention in Windows to have clicking the X
> box exit the application, it's possible to change the behaviour such
> that it only closes the application window, but not the application itself.
>

One example is the AVG anti-virus program. By default, it is always
running in the background. I can get an AVG window in order to perform
specific tasks (update, start a search, change a setting). When I am
done, I click the X in the upper-right corner; and the window closes.
However, AVG continues to run in the background.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 11:00 AM, David E. Ross <nob...@nowhere.invalid> wrote:
> Control-q is a UNIX capability to terminate a process. It is very much
> like Control-C in UNIX.

Also irrelevant to the OP, since he is using Windows.... or is he...

Hmmm, I see now it wasn't him that said it, it was Trane.

Obviously, all of my comments are applicable to Windows OS - as I made
perfectly clear.

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 11:06 AM, David E. Ross <nob...@nowhere.invalid> wrote:
> One example is the AVG anti-virus program. By default, it is always
> running in the background. I can get an AVG window in order to perform
> specific tasks (update, start a search, change a setting). When I am
> done, I click the X in the upper-right corner; and the window closes.
> However, AVG continues to run in the background.

Not a valid comparison, since AV programs are always running in the
background anyway...

[Ed Mullen]

Bob Henson wrote:
> Tanstaafl wrote:
>
>> On 9/12/2014 2:01 PM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Tanstaafl wrote:
>>>> On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Closing either with the little cross in the
>>>>> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
>>>>> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
>>>>> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
>>>>> problem does not worry them one iota.
>>
>>>> Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
>>>> box) does indeed quit the program.
>>
>>> You'd better tell Mozilla then - they think otherwise.
>>
>> Prove it...
>
> Prove it yourself. All you need to do is to read back through the messages
> in this group for many years of messages, and you'll find that answer given
> over and over again when the same old question comes up as it had done time
> and time again. I was here all those years, so I don't need to prove it to
> myself, I read it many times. You don't believe it.. tough.
>
> Subject dropped before Chris starts deleting messages as off-topic, which
> it now is.
>

It has been written here BUT this is not Mozilla. It is a user forum
not staffed by Mozilla.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Why does a cowboy have two spurs? If one side of the horse goes, so does
the other.

[Chris Ilias]

On 2014-09-11 2:57 PM, OldGuy wrote:
> "Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new
> window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or
> restart your system."
>
> Come on fix this!
>
> Instead of a stupid message give us a dialog to restart! Like Opera does!

If it happens regularly, something is preventing Thunderbird from
closing properly, like an anti-virus program. Look for settings in your
AV software that might interfere with Thunderbird.

If it happened just once, rebooting your computer should fix the problem.

This article was written for Firefox, but is also applies to
Thunderbird:
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-already-running-not-responding>

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[Ed Mullen]

Perfectly valid comment to the original statement. David was replying
to Trane's comment (which you should not have snipped):

"Although it is programming convention in Windows to have clicking the X
box exit the application, it's possible to change the behaviour such
that it only closes the application window, but not the application itself."

[Peter Holsberg]

David E. Ross wrote on 9/13/2014 11:06 AM:
> On 9/13/2014 6:05 AM, Trane Francks wrote:
>> On 9/13/14 1:57 AM, Tanstaafl wrote:
>>> On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Closing either with the little cross in the
>>>> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
>>>> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
>>>> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
>>>> problem does not worry them one iota.
>>>
>>> Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
>>> box) does indeed quit the program.
>>>
>> Although it is programming convention in Windows to have clicking the X
>> box exit the application, it's possible to change the behaviour such
>> that it only closes the application window, but not the application itself.
>>
>
> One example is the AVG anti-virus program. By default, it is always
> running in the background. I can get an AVG window in order to perform
> specific tasks (update, start a search, change a setting). When I am
> done, I click the X in the upper-right corner; and the window closes.
> However, AVG continues to run in the background.
>

Chrome behaves similarly.

[Trane Francks]

Okay, fair enough. Somewhere along the line, I may have missed that.

[Trane Francks]

On 9/14/14 1:59 AM, David Hume wrote:

> "David E. Ross" <nob...@nowhere.invalid> writes:
>
>> On 9/13/2014 6:49 AM, Tanstaafl wrote:
>>> On 9/13/2014 3:56 AM, David Hume <David...@hushmail.com> wrote:
>>>> If you have two firefox windows open, then closing a window by clicking
>>>> the window close button does not exit firefox.
>>>
>>> True, but irrelevant to the point being discussed.
>>>
>>> Of course the assumption (ugh) was that it was the last window being closed.
>>>
>>>> Using the ctrl-q quit option exits both windows.
>>>
>>> Not on any Windows machine I've ever used. Maybe you have installed
>>> something or made some registry tweaks to accomplish this, but that
>>> would also be irrelevant to the question of DEFAULT/STANDARD behavior.
>>>
>>
>> Control-q is a UNIX capability to terminate a process. It is very much
>> like Control-C in UNIX.
>

> I just tried it out on windows firefox. It's not called ctrl-q there,
> but File Exit does the same thing. If there are two windows open it
> closes both, whereas clicking the X closes only one window.
>
> I've been caught out by this a few times because the "show all history"
> option creates a new window called "library" which I often fail to
> notice, so thinking I have closed firefox by clicking X but I have not.
>
> Google-chrome has the same behaviour, at least on linux, but you have to
> use ctrl-shift-q to exit all windows.
>
On Windows, Mozilla products generally behave such that the last
application window being closed invokes Application.Shutdown.
Occasionally, as the OP experienced, the last window itself can be
closed, but the main application process shutdown hangs and leaves the
app running as a kind of ghost in the background with
Application.Shutdown never getting invoked. That's where Task Manager or
a reboot come into play.

[Caver1]

On 09/12/2014 02:01 PM, Bob Henson wrote:
> Tanstaafl wrote:
>
>> On 9/12/2014 4:10 AM, Bob Henson <rh54...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Closing either with the little cross in the
>>> top right-hand corner will cause your problem - Mozilla will tell you that
>>> the cross only closes the window not the program. They are correct, and the
>>> fact that it is the only program in Christendom where it causes this
>>> problem does not worry them one iota.
>>
>> Only true on a Mac. On Windows, clicking the 'little cross' (the close
>> box) does indeed quit the program.
>
> You'd better tell Mozilla then - they think otherwise.
>

Not always. Some have had the problem of the process not shutting down
using the x to close both in Windows and Linux. Sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't.

--
Caver1

[Tanstaafl]

On 9/13/2014 8:25 PM, Caver1 <Cav...@inthemud.org> wrote:
> Not always. Some have had the problem of the process not shutting down
> using the x to close both in Windows and Linux. Sometimes it works
> sometimes it doesn't.

Exactly. It is a known *problem*.

That is completely different from what the behavior should be - and is,
most of the time.

The one thing I've noticed over the years is that some programs -
Thunderbird especially - can get 'confused', resulting in the problem
under discussion (where closing the program doesn't fully quit the
application) if the user is impatient, and clicks all over the place,
not giving the program time to react. This problem is much more likely
to occur when there is one or more IMAP accounts that have a lot (ie,
20,000+) of messages in certain folders, and the user clicks very fast
on different things (folders, emails, etc)...

The bottom line is, on windows, by default, and in 99% of cases (unless
you have intentionally changed the behavior, or the application in
question is 'confused'), when you click the 'Close' button on the *last*
open window for most Windows programs, the program will completely
quit/close. The only exceptions to this are programs designed to run all
the time in the background (like Antivirus programs, etc), or programs
that have been modified in some other way to behave differently ...

Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about.