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Thunderbird problems

Thunderbird is reporting that it is already running.

This error message is issued when another Thunderbird session is still running on another computer or has shut down abnormally because the computer crashed.

If no Thunderbird session is running on another computer, you need to delete the orphaned lock files in the Thunderbird profile. Under Linux

  • stop the current Firefox session
  • open a Linux console
  • change to the Thunderbird profile folder:
    cd ~/.thunderbird/<profile>
    <profile> is a random 8-digit sequence followed by .default (if several profiles have been created, you need to check in file ~/.thunderbird/profile.ini under which profile Default=1 can be found)
  • delete the two lock files in the profile folder:
    rm lock .parentlock

Under Windows the lock files parent.lock are placed in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profile>.

You should now be able to start Thunderbird without receiving an error message.