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Make sure Chrome is closed (including the hanging chrome.exe process), then rename this folder to something such as User Data.old Inside this folder, you will find a subfolder called User Data.Open up a folder browser window (a Windows Explorer window) on your PC and navigate to the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome.
This is the most surefire way of correcting the issue as it involves working from the ground up with a new profile and reintroducing customizations (such as Bookmarks, Preferences, etc.) until you find one which is a problem (in my case, it was Cookies).
The first approach involves recreating a new User Data store for your Chrome profile. If this still doesn’t work, now that you’ve ruled out any plugin/extension issues, you’ll need to employ this final phase of the fix, which involves locating corrupt User Data and fixing it. Repeat the close/open process to see if the behavior persists.
If this doesn’t work, reenable all plugins, then navigate next to chrome:extensions and disable all extensions next. If the behavior persists, reenable the plugins one-by-one to narrow down the one which is responsible. You may have to kill chrome.exe manually once and then reopen/reclose the browser to test this.
Disable all plugins and restart the browser.
First, open Chrome and navigate to chrome:plugins. Here is the process by which I propose you approach the solution in your particular case: In light of this, there is a relatively easy way to solve either. But, of course, this is no long-term solution.įortunately I have found the long-term solution! Keep in mind it may be different in your case depending on the cause, but it appears that this problem is always a product of one of two conditions:įor sake of justification, in the case of my customers’ machines, the first one was caused by a problematic QuickTime plugin (disabling it fixed the problem), and the second one was a corrupt Cookies store–one which could not be cleared using the Clear Browsing Data dialog. Two workarounds exist: either reboot the machine or open Task Manager and kill the hanging chrome.exe process that is responsible for this problem. This happens regardless of whether the Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed checkbox is checked in Settings. A frustrating issue that I have encountered on multiple recent customers’ PCs is an inability to completely close all Google Chrome processes–and, even more frustratingly, a consequent inability to reopen Chrome once it has been closed on the machine.