liztull

Q: Firefox won't Force Quit?

I'm trying to update OS X, and haven't been able to Force Quit Firefox...It doesn't show up in the Force Quit dialog box, or in Activity Monitor. I've tried Killall in Terminal (killall -9 firefox-bin), and Terminal tells me there are no matching processes to be found. But when I try to restart my (mid-2015) Macbook to update, it tells me Firefox is preventing me from shutting down. I've tried to start Firefox from Finder and from the dock, and nothing happens, not even in Safe mode. Can someone please help?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Oct 27, 2015 7:43 AM

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Q: Firefox won't Force Quit?

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  • by TheWildRover,

    TheWildRover TheWildRover May 5, 2016 10:34 AM in response to seocam
    Level 1 (9 points)
    May 5, 2016 10:34 AM in response to seocam

    Oh blimey, I cannot believe it was that simple. I too have Rapport installed (for Santander), and just tried it with Rapport disabled, and got FF to immediately install an Add-on and restart without any problems.

     

    Hopefully that's sorted it.

     

    I'll probably just try to remember to enable Rapport and use Safari when I want to go to my banking site, then disable it afterwards.

     

    Cheers.

  • by billhorvath,

    billhorvath billhorvath May 5, 2016 1:34 PM in response to TheWildRover
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 5, 2016 1:34 PM in response to TheWildRover

    I've turned Rapport off and I'm planning on seeing how it goes over the next few days. I've filed a bug report with the Trusteer guys that include links to this conversation; we'll see what they say.

  • by Zems,

    Zems Zems May 6, 2016 12:19 AM in response to seocam
    Level 1 (29 points)
    May 6, 2016 12:19 AM in response to seocam

    Thanks for that. Firefox was freezing overtime I updated it and I ended up with two icons in the dock which wouldn’t force quit. Stopping Rapport has sorted the problem.

  • by gnomen,

    gnomen gnomen May 6, 2016 1:26 AM in response to Zems
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 6, 2016 1:26 AM in response to Zems

    Doesn't look like Rapport is causing my instance of the problem, however.  I have checked in Preferences and everywhere else I can think of and cannot see that it is installed.   I know I did use it a couple of years ago, but discontinued it when I switched to using another browser for banking.

     

    I wonder if there is something similar to Rapport causing the problem?  I do use Adblock Plus and Evernote Clipper, but have run Firefox with both of these disabled and they do not appear to be the problem.

     

    Grateful for any further suggestions.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 6, 2016 2:06 AM in response to liztull
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 6, 2016 2:06 AM in response to liztull

    Hold the on/off switch and hold till the mac switches off. Then start normally.

  • by Zems,

    Zems Zems May 6, 2016 8:56 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (29 points)
    May 6, 2016 8:56 AM in response to Lexiepex

    That's what I do. Thanks.

  • by Rescue_2003,

    Rescue_2003 Rescue_2003 May 8, 2016 11:19 AM in response to TheWildRover
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 8, 2016 11:19 AM in response to TheWildRover

    I have been using Firefox, and reliably updating it at each opportunity, on both my 27-inch iMac, and my MacBook Pro, and on my daughter's MacBook Air, all running the latest OSX versions.  Somewhere around version 26 of Firefox, the Firefox update would download normally, and when I selected it to install, Firefox would seem to restart itself after installing the update.

     

    I would then have two Firefox icons in the Dock.  I could use Firefox, it seemed, until I wanted to quit it.  It would then not quit.  At least one of the Firefox icons in the dock would be persistent, and never disappear from the Dock.  Despite reporting as "application unresponsive" and having "Force Quit" as a selection for that persistent icon, it was impossible to quit Firefox, and make the icon disappear from the Dock.

     

    When in that state, I also could not select my Mac to restart or shutdown; Firefox was apparently preventing either action.  A check with Activity Monitor revealed no running process that appeared to be associated with Firefox.  Forcing the Dock to quit and restart did not help to either reveal a Firefox process, or make the persistent icon go away.

     

    At first, I had to follow all Firefox updates with holding down the start button until system shut down, but this is hard on a file system.  Eventually, I tried logging in as another user on another account, and then selecting restart or shutdown from that other account.  This would work to restart or shutdown the Mac after specifying an Administrator account and password for authentication.  After a reboot, Firefox would work fine on all accounts until the next Firefox upgrade got installed.

     

    It seems that a Firefox upgrade fails to properly terminate the old Firefox version, and it gets into a state where it is not running (no process visible using Activity Monitor) and running (icon visible in Dock) at the same time.  if a restart or shutdown is ordered with a persistent Firefox icon present, it may then render that user account useless, as no new process can be started (Shutdown/restart pending), nor can the restart or shutdown request be aborted.

     

    I would appreciate a fix for this someday.  If it would help to see this behaviour on a video, then I can try to record what happens on my next Firefox update.

  • by gnomen,

    gnomen gnomen May 9, 2016 12:27 AM in response to Rescue_2003
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 9, 2016 12:27 AM in response to Rescue_2003

    @, what you describe is what I experienced and, I think, others posting on this thread.  Most recent thought is that Trusteer banking security add on is a possible cause of the problem.

     

    I used to have Trusteer on my system but removed it some time ago.  So I thought it could not be the problem in my case.  However, yesterday I did some research and found that I could download an 'uninstall' program from the Trusteer website.  I did that, ran the uninstall, then proceeded with the latest Firefox update 46.0.1.  Success!  No problems restarting Firefox, quitting and loading, no double icons, no need to Force Quit, etc.

     

    So it seems, even if Trusteer is not shown as a Firefox add on, it may be causing the problem if you have ever had it on your system.

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 9, 2016 1:07 AM in response to gnomen
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 9, 2016 1:07 AM in response to gnomen

    Trusteer is a Windows app and the mac version is just s**t, like antivirus apps. The Trusteer uninstaller does leave several files behind. So it may also cause issues.

  • by gnomen,

    gnomen gnomen May 9, 2016 1:15 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 9, 2016 1:15 AM in response to Lexiepex

    Interesting.  Do you recommend not installing Trusteer on the Mac, then?

     

    My bank (RBS) is pretty insistent about it.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 9, 2016 1:27 AM in response to gnomen
    Level 6 (10,536 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 9, 2016 1:27 AM in response to gnomen

    Yes, do not install Trusteer, what it tries to do in Windows is a certain security enhancement. But it has nothing to do with banking security.

    In Mac it is antiproductive and can cause issues as has been said. The salesforce of Trusteer is rather persistant, bankmanagers are not mac knowledgeable. There are a lot of threads in this forum and elsewhere, where this is discussed. Don't fall for it.

    Lex

  • by AndyPeardrop,

    AndyPeardrop AndyPeardrop May 29, 2016 3:43 AM in response to Lexiepex
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 29, 2016 3:43 AM in response to Lexiepex

    I have Trusteer installed and plan to now uninstall it, as it is causing the "Firefox won't quit" problem. But worried by Lexiepex comment "it does leave several files behind". If I use the Rapport Uninstaller from their website, how can I identify and clean up any files it leaves behind please?

  • by Plisko,

    Plisko Plisko Jun 20, 2016 1:55 PM in response to liztull
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Audio
    Jun 20, 2016 1:55 PM in response to liztull

    This is happening to me with several apps (mostly games) and not just during a crash.  It happens when I do a normal save and quit on The Sims 3, The Sims 4, Farming simulator 2015 and Minecraft just out of the one's I have tested so far.  The icons stay in the dock like the app is still running, it says they are unresponsive but it won't force quit, there are no processes running in the activity monitor and restart is impossible because the OS thinks the apps are stopping it from shutting down.  They are basically phantom dock icons that the OS can't do anything about.  If I restart the game, it comes back just fine but the icons stay when I quit again.   I am forced to do a hard restart just so I can shut down.  Yes, this happened IMMEDIATELY after upgrading to El Capitan.  I assume it is a bug.

     

    I am so sick of upgrades I could puke.  All upgrades do these days is break, or take away, stuff I use regularly. . . re-arrange things so I need to retrain myself back to my normal productivity. .  and add on a bunch of fluff stuff I hardly care about.  Every time I hear there is a new OS upgrade I get a headache.    I don't want cute emogees or finger scribbling on my emails or a "clean interface" or a computer that works with my watch.  I just want to get the basic things done without interruption.  I want consistency. . . like apps that quit properly.  Maybe some of the guys redesigning iTunes for the 100th time can be moved to the division that makes apps quit properly!!   So frustrating.

  • by grufnmuf,

    grufnmuf grufnmuf Oct 7, 2016 10:01 AM in response to Rescue_2003
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 7, 2016 10:01 AM in response to Rescue_2003

    same issue.. none of the "fixes" work.. don't have those programs to remove.. just FF refusing to quit and stopping the mac from restarting by preventing the shutdown

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