Visual Studio Code: Another instance of Code is running but not responding

Question

Can't run Visual Studio Code (Windows). This happend a few times now.

I suddenly can't save files while coding and VS Code hanging. When stopping the task by Task Manager

and start VS Code again I get the message:

Another instance of Code is running but not responding. Please close all other instances and try again.

But there is no VS Code Window open. Instead the Task Manager shows more running instances:

Restarting windows helps but is really annoying. Has anyone else this problem and/or an idea to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I tried everything: restarting Windows, uninstalling and reinstalling VSC, nothing helped. There should be something in the "memory of the last session". And I found it:

Finally, I renamed / deleted the following file to make it not available:

• Folder %AppData%\Code
• File storage.json

Now I was able to restart VSC, forcing a clean startup. The file was recreated. Now I could search which content of this file was the reason.

Answer 2

Solution

Restart OS fixed the issue for me.