Minecraft launcher saying it's already running when it isn't

Question

I have no idea how to fix this. Clicking "Start anyway" crashes the launcher by the way. I have already tried reinstalling Minecraft (3 times), I've restarted my computer countless times and there is no instances of Java running in my task manager when this error occurs. I have found no answer that fixes this online.

P.S. If somehow I have been hacked and that's why my account is running somewhere else, why have they had my account running for a month? Yes, that's how long I have been trying to fix this.

Answer 1

If this were happening to me and I had already done the following things.

1. Kill all java process. Test Minecraft.
2. Reboot computer. Test Minecraft.
3. Reinstall the game. Test Minecraft.

After all that if I still had the problem I would backup and then delete ALL the Minecraft directories and reinstall a final time followed by testing Minecraft again. Now, if I still had this problem I would start to get suspicious about malware/virus/whatnot and I would use a tool to find which processes have open file handles on my Minecraft files with this tool

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

If I found processes that had open file handles on my Minecraft files I would then investigate each process and research them on the internet. At this point I would expect to find malware or the alike. Then I would begin the long process of sorting out that problem.

Answer 2

I have this exact same problem, but for me, all I have to do is wait after seeing the message. If I click start anyway and play, it lags really bad and eventually crashes, but if I don’t press anything, Minecraft eventually comes up in a new tab, and I can play just fine.

Give this a shot and determine whether or not it works for you. The source of this issue may vary from user to user.