Hi guys,
I am receiving the error message "another instance of foxit reader is starting" whenever I try to run the portable app.
I have already read through the existing support topic and checked to ensure that no foxit processes are running. Also elevated to check the same via task manager.
Rebooted the computer and have the same issue.
Checked using "Lock Hunter" and the folder is not locked by any other process.
Also deleted the portable folder, redownloaded latest version of foxit, reinstalled, rebooted, ran ccleaner and same issue persists.
I am not using portable apps platform. Just installed using plain ordinary installer.
OS - Windows 7 x64
Any help to get this app working would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Dan
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Short answer:
Delete \FoxitReaderPortable\Data\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-FoxitReaderPortable.
Long answer:
Thats most likely the launcher. It creates a file called "PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-FoxitReaderPortable" inside your \FoxitReaderPortable\Data folder when it starts and deletes it when it closes, If, for whatever reason(crash, file system error), it cant delete this file and sees it when you start it again, it will throw that error. Just delete the file and you should be good.
EDIT: I just tried it myself and it didnt work the way I expected it to so maybe there is something else.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Foxit Reader Portable is PAL-based, so the only time that the runtime file will remain after the app is closed, is if it doesn't close properly for some reason.
I tried it and the error message told me there had been some issues with the settings and it would clean them up now. After restarting Foxit Reader, everything was back to normal.
So my error message was different from what the original poster noted.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Ah, I see. Your issue sounds like Foxit itself crashed the settings, whereas the OP had a "normal" portable crash.
I just mimicked something I thought was the issue by starting Foxit, duplicating "PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-FoxitReaderPortable", closing Foxit and reopening Foxit so it finds a file called "PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-FoxitReaderPortable" and throws an error.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Thanks for the replies.
@Simeon : I cannot locate the file - PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-FoxitReaderPortable under \data
I deleted the FoxitReaderPortable folder and reinstalled Foxit Reader Portable and restarted the machine and yet, I cannot start the app.
Hidden files, system files are visible.
The issue seems strange.
I can work around the issue, if I start the launcher as "Administrator".
The app fails to start only when I start it without admin rights.
Thoughts?
By any chance, have you installed it in the Program Files folder for the regular, local apps?
If yes, then this could be the cause of the weird behavior described.
In your original post you wrote:
Thanks, Mik.
It's installed in D:\Portable\FoxitReader
I moved it to the root directory - D:\FoxitReader
The issue remains.
Running the app as administrator fixes it, but it was working without admin rights for years.
EDIT :
If I boot from windows 8 (dual boot), the app works.
You're having an NTFS permissions issue. You likely created the path within Windows 8 and your other OS doesn't have rights. Give Everyone full control over the directories and it'll work (right-click on the drive, select properties, select Security, give Everyone full control). Don't do this to your system drive, of course.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
No permission issue that I can notice from my end.
Access Control List should be dependent on user Security IDentifier. The fact that the issue seems to disappear only when I elevate seems weird.
Moving the files to different folder or reinstalling the app in a different folder makes no difference whatsoever within the affected operating system.
However, the app works without elevation from a freshly installed operating system(without any change to path) or when the folder is copied to a different operating system on a different computer.
Therefore, I suspect that there is something running in the operating system or its configuration which is preventing the process from starting.
Any idea why this might happen?
Please let me know if you require me to provide any additional information to resolve the issue.
Thanks.
I can't think of anything else that would cause this and can't reproduce it anywhere. There's something on that specific OS that's causing the issue. Nothing on our end has changed in the portable version in months now. Could you do me a favor and screenshot the exact error message so I can look at it?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Have you tried 'killing' the program? For instance, after closing jportable launcher to run java, it still wouldn't let me update. I had to 'kill' java. (javaw.exe). It may not be closed even if it appears to be.