When Firefox is in use, it locks the active profile to keep other programs from altering the contents or causing conflicts. This lock is normally transparent to the user, but sometimes the profile could remain locked unexpectedly,
Thus, if you launch the application and the Profile Manager says that your profile is already "in use", it's telling you that the profile is locked. That is
why you can't access your bookmarks either, as they are closely associated with profiles.

To find out how you can unlock a profile, read on,
o The application may not have shut down completely the last time it was used. Check for any open windows, Go through your list of running processes; press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] to see if the application is running in the background. If it is, ending it should unlock the profile.

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o The application may have shut down abnormally, leaving the lock in place. To fix this, delete the file named "parenUock" (Windows) in your profile folder.

o Netscape 7 or another Mozillabased program such as Thunderbird may be using the profile. Try shutting down these programs. Additionally, you should create separate profiles for each application. If you use both Mozilla Suite and Netscape 7, corruption can result from sharing the same profile between two different programs.

o If you are running the application from removable media such as a USB Flash drive or a portable hard drive, open the "profiles.ini" file and make sure the drive letter and path to your profile are correct.

o A locked profile could also result if you try to use a profile from a file system mounted with read-only attributes, such as a CD-ROM drive