Problem with Lion auto-restore of Firefox on restart

[gsahli]

My cousin has a 2011 mini 2.4GHz, Core2Duo, OS X 10.7.4, using Firefox 14 or 15.
When double-clicking Firefox, he gets the following message:

Close Firefox.
A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.


As far as we can tell, Firefox isn't actually running. - looked in Activity Monitor.
We've unchecked Restore Windows and applications in the logout dialog, and turned off the same in the System Prefs>General pref pane.
We've gone to login items and made sure Firefox isn't set to open from there.
We've looked for the saved state folder for Firefox in ~/Library/Saved Application States and don't see one.
We also used Tinker Tool to make Firefox Not auto restore.
We booted from the Restore partition and repaired the HD and repaired permissions.
Also deleted from ~/Library/Preferences:
org.mozilla.firefox.plist and
org.mozilla.firefox.plist.lockfile

Any suggestions?

[onceagain]

Create a new user account.

If it does the same thing under that one, then you know the issue lies outside the home directory.

If you can't duplicate the problem with the new user account, then you know the problem lies inside the home directory.

Report back (:

[gsahli]

Thanks for reminding me! Yes, It Doesn't happen in the new user account (ie, Firefox is able to start), so it is definitely in the home folder.

[onceagain]

Quote: Originally Posted by gsahli Thanks for reminding me! Yes, It Doesn't happen in the new user account (ie, Firefox is able to start), so it is definitely in the home folder.

OK, so you probably trashed your Firefox profile.

The next step is to create/select a different profile in the "problem" user account.

On the menu bar, click on the Firefox menu and select Quit Firefox.
Navigate to /Applications/Utilities. Open the Terminal application.
In the Terminal application, enter the following:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p

Read more about it here:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/...refox-profiles

Do that and report back (:

[gsahli]

Quote: Originally Posted by onceagain On the menu bar, click on the Firefox menu and select Quit Firefox.

That couldn't happen because Firefox wasn't actually running. There is apparently a lockfile in the profile that was telling OS X or Finder or Firefox that Firefox is already running.

Quote: Originally Posted by onceagain In the Terminal application, enter the following: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p

This did nothing, too. Got same message about Firefox already running. (even though it wasn't!)

Your ideas on "profile" led me toward a fix:
Restarted in Safe Mode. Ran Firefox from there. It asked me to choose or create a profile. Deleted old profiles and created new one. Firefox started up.
Went back to normal startup. Firefox works now.

Thanks.

[onceagain]

Quote: Originally Posted by gsahli Your ideas on "profile" led me toward a fix: Restarted in Safe Mode. Ran Firefox from there. It asked me to choose or create a profile. Deleted old profiles and created new one. Firefox started up. Went back to normal startup. Firefox works now.

There you go.

So, it was a profile issue of some kind. It happens.

Glad you're up and running (: