Firefox running in the background

I've noticed that Firefox often hangs and keeps running in the background even after I closed the browsing windows, which is quite annoying.
I'd like to use a VPN but it's kind of pointless given such an error; I'd switch it off thinking Firefox is down but it's running.
I've had problems with constant error messages and slow performance.
I'm sure there are ways to work around this, such as shutting down the process in task manager each time or changing this and that setting, but can we expect a version that does not contain this error in the first place?
That would be so much easier.

I have noticed that sometimes I suspect, but it has been either explainable, or on other persons machines where I have not been able to troubleshoot
Before starting any further troubleshooting I suggest you try updating to the current version of Firefox
* [[Update Firefox to the latest version]]
As a first troubleshooting step then try Firefox in its safe mode. That is a temporary and reversible troubleshooting stage with some features shut down
* [[Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode]]
You mention error messages please paste them into your next reply, (or attach as a screenshot) and say what you were doing at that time.
As an Aside
I would also point out there is a reported but unfixed bug (or was last week) on what was the Aurora channel and is now called Developer Edition, that some times causes this, but even worse as it crashes and locks profiles.
Unusual that, common bugs breaking through form Nightly to Aurora.

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Firefox runs in the background. No window. Tried re-install, new version etc. Still runs in the background. No display. I can quit, that's all...

MacOS X 10.5.8. I launch Firefox.No window opens. I thought my firewall was blocking it so it wouldn't show a window when online.I fixed this.Still no Firefox's display. I upgraded to Firefox 5. Same issue there. Ready to move to Chrome, fed up now. Can't find what's wrong nor where the key to solve this is hidden (code somewhere..). Thank you for any help//

this link you offered says: "can't find page"
Ninite, as it started "run", then got an error: An error occurred. The certificate authority is invalid or incorrect [0x80072f0d] ; ; 216
any other ideas ?
Any chance other browsers don't let me download Mozilla ? had if for years, went to update it, then uninstalled it, now neither Google Chrome or Internet Explorer will let me download it. Or maybe it is just my laptop, running on Windows 7 ? ? ? ? ? ?

I get a message that "firefox is running another in the background and should be shut down before another can run OR restart your computer" I get this even when there is not another firefox running in the background. Any suggestions to fis this issue?

No more details other than above . I have uninstalled and re-installed FIREFOX several times and still get this issue. Also, very slow in connecting to websites.

See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+is+already+running+but+is+not+responding

When I click on a new link, it opens a whole new firefox instead of using my default which is running in the background

I have firefox as my default browser. Anytime I click on an email or search for something, instead of opening my default browser, firefox loads a new firefox page. It is a blank page just as if I had never had one. It has nothing on it except how you would start out before you set up your tabs and history etc. My default firefox is still there running in the background but I must click on it and manually put in the link I was trying to open.
Any suggestions.

Some added toolbar and anti-virus add-ons are known to cause
Firefox issues. '''Disable All of them.'''
Start '''[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode Firefox in Safe Mode]''' {web Link} by holding down the '''<Shift ''(Mac Options)'' >''' key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?

My firefox is running in the background, unvisible. It will not allow me to uninstall/ reinstall because it says it is running. I cannot create a new profile because it says that firefox is running? How do I fix this??

I have tried restarting my computer, tried uninstalling, tried reinstalling but it always tells me that Firefox is open and running. When I select the task manager, there is no "firefox" under process. I have tried checking to make sure that the "read only" box is not checked under the profile properties. it seems like my only option now is to create a new profile. However, the profile manager won't even come up because it says firefox is running in the background. So frustrating!

Do a clean (re)install and delete the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).
Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.
* Firefox 8.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
Uninstall your current Firefox version if possible.
*Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall the current version or you lose your bookmarks and other data in the profile folder.
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
*It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.
You can force Firefox to create a new default profile if you remove the profiles.ini file.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/profiles.ini_file
You can find that file here:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\
The "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K and the "AppData" folder in Vista/Windows 7 are hidden folders.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

The hotkey for Private Browsing ( CTRL Shift P ) interferes with another program I have running in the background. Is there a way to disable or change the Firefox Hotkey?

Question:
The hotkey for Private Browsing (<CTRL><Shift> <P>) interferes with another program I have running in the background. Is there a way to disable or change the Firefox Hotkey?

You can try this extension:
*Customizable Shortcuts: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/customizable-shortcuts/

The new version of firefox does not shut down when I close the browser it continues running in the background. In addition it opens Adobe Reader for a brief time and then that closes. Everything worked fine before this new version.

Firefox automatically loaded a new version recently. The new version does not shut down when I close the browser it continues running in the background. In addition it opens Adobe Reader for a brief time and then that closes. Everything worked fine before this new version.

See "Hang at exit":
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+hangs

I lost all my unpinned 30 tabs and could not restore it, when Adobe update opened a link by firefox, which was not running in the background.

I lost all my unpinned 30 tabs and could not restore it, when Adobe update opened a link by firefox, which was not running in the background.
I guess what I have experienced might be a special case of 'Restore previous sessions'. The actual situation was that after I rebooted my laptop, Adobe update jumped out indicating an update being finished successfully. After I clicked on the 'close' button of the Adobe window, it automatically started firefox and linked to its website. But I did not find the 'Restore previous sessions' page this time. Then I restarted firefox, this time there was a start page with 'Restore previous sessions'. However, sadly enough, it is only restored my pinned pages plus the Adobe website. Actually, I am using 'bookmark all tabs' from time to time to secure opened tabs, but this time I did not expect such an incident. I would suggest to improve the 'Restore previous sessions' with multiple time tags and appear in all cases including my reported case here, after updating firefox, crashes etc. I like firefox in most occasions, therefore believe and hope it becomes better and more robust. Thank you very much!

Hi,
Please see the following support request: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2628065
I think the best option would be to leave feedback here to let the relevant development team know about the problem you have had: https://input.mozilla.org/en-GB/feedback
Also you could try the [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/ Session Manager] add-on which gives more control over how sessions are restored.
I hope that helps

After installing zone Alarm extreme 10, firefox.exe 32 stays running in the background after closing, making it not possible to open it again.

After installing the latest Zone Alarm Extreme v10, on windows 7 x64, when I close firefox, the window closes but firefox.exe 32 remains running in the background, which makes that when I want to open firefox again, after about a minute I get the error that an instance of firefox is still running. I go to task manager and end task of firefox.exe 32 and then open firefox again.
This is now happening regularly.

This seemed to come out of the blue, very much as described by anima42. I also am a Ubuntu 10.04 user. I have pondered on the first reply above, and though I don't, and didn't, use Tabberwocky, I was using Tab Mix Plus. Having removed this, the problem seems to have gone away. Another possible clue as to what went wrong: I use a constant Firefox profile located in my home directory. I dabbled with Ubuntu 11.04 a week or so ago, which runs (I think) a more updated Firefox. This Firefox was operating on my default profile, as you would. It may have broken something so it now doesn't play nicely with the 10.04 setup. Just surmising.

Just updated to 8 & now I can't open any web pages & firefox is still running in the background after browser was closed. I uninstalled and reinstalled as well as disabled add-ons and plugins nothing has changed, can I downgrade back to on older version?

Just updated to 8 & now I can not open any web pages as well as firefox will not close out, it still running in the background after browser was closed. I uninstalled and reinstalled as well as disabled add-ons and plugins nothing has changed, can I downgrade back to on older version?

See "Hang at exit":
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
See "Firefox hangs when you quit it":
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+hangs
A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Server+not+found
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firewalls

Firefox is running in the background, but the process can't be ended using the task manager?

The program wouldn't open because it was apparently still running in the background, so I restarted a few times which didn't help. Then I tried using the task manager to end the process but that didn't work either. Then opened the command prompt and used taskkill, then pskill (using the PID number) but neither worked. The problem wasn't with how I was using these commands as they could close any other program I had running, just not firefox.exe*32. Any ideas?

Try:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open

Firefox keeps running in the background, and cannot clear Cache after turning off Firefox

After shutting down Firefox, it keeps running in the background. This creates a Problem when trying to clear the Cache, etc.
Why does it keep running?

Look into CCleaner and Advanced System Care and file a support question because if Firefox is not in task manager it is NOT RUNNING! By the way you mentioned you don't like that Firefox 7.0 because it doesn't have a tool bar with Mail and Facebook try this:
*Make mail etc. bookmarks
*Open the list of bookmarks
*Right click one
*Click "Properties"
*Enter mail or facebook etc. in "Keywords"
*Next time you want to open it just type mail or facebook etc. into the address bar
*Hit enter or click the green arrow however you normally load a webpage when you type it in
*This will open the web page without having to enter the URL

When i close firefox it keeps running in the background and i have to got in taskmaster to close it so i can open it again

when i close Firefox it keeps running in the background and i have to got in taskmaster to close it so i can open it again I am running windows 7 64 bit

Firefox Hang at Exit
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Firefox%20hangs#w_hang-at-exit
See the Bulleted points in this section
Check and tell if its working.

I keep having to restart my computer. It say firefox is running in the background but I cannot load another page

I keep getting the message that Firefox is running in the background and I cannot load another page. I have to restart my computer to get Firefox back to operating normally. I have everything closed down as far as I can tell. But when I click on the Icon it will not start another page. It just keeps telling me to shut down all browser windows and that Firefox is running in the background. I even go to ctrl/alt/delete and look at the tasks running. Nothing! It is happening a lot more often now and I hate to use Internet Explorer. I have depended a lot more on Mozilla in the past few years now and I like it. This is driving me nuts. Please help. Thank You

Did you check the Processes tab in the Task Manager?
See "Hang at exit":
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
* [[Firefox hangs]]

Firefox constantly runs in the background even when closed

Hi
I have Firefox 3.6.8 running on Windows Vista.
I have found that Firefox constantly runs in the background even when i have just booted up the computer or when i have closed it.
Firefox seems to constantly run with 5000-20000 K bytes in the memory.
When i have Firefox running to look at webpages, there are two processes running. When i close Firefox there is one process running. If i end the process using the task manager, it only takes seconds before it starts to run again.
I know this isnt normal because i keep a good eye on the processes running on my computer. So unless the latest version of Firefox requires this process running all the time, it looks like i have a probably.
Ive scanned my computer with zonealarm, avast, superantispyware and spybot to scan my computer for viruses. One of the pieces of software found a virus and it deleted it successfully.
Im not too sure if this is a virus that is hiding in my system or whether its part of the latest version of Firefox.
Firefox isnt showing the usual signs of a virus. As in it doesnt try to redirect me to random websites and it doesnt try to get me to download something.
I hope someone can help me please.
Rob

After talking to someone very helpful on the live chat support.
It appears like i have a virus that is very good at hiding from detection from anti-virus/spyware software.
No idea what intentions the virus has as its not showing any sort of virus like behaviour.
I called the old installation a different name and closed the Firefox process. A few seconds later, instead of a Firefox process starting again a different executable started.

Firefox running in the background

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