[tor-bugs] #31506 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Write up comprehensive advice to "Tor unexpectedly exited", and link to it from inside Tor Browser

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#31506: Write up comprehensive advice to "Tor unexpectedly exited", and link to it
from inside Tor Browser
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     Reporter:  arma                      |      Owner:  tbb-team
         Type:  defect                    |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium                    |  Milestone:
    Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal                    |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                            |  Parent ID:
       Points:                            |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                            |
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 We've been getting a steady stream of people who fail to run Tor Browser,
 who get the "Tor unexpectedly exited" error and they have no ideas what to
 do.

 The internets are full of weird advices about what to do in this situation
 back in 2014, few of which apply now, so people hunting in google are
 unlikely to solve this on their own.

 I think the advice differs depending on the OS -- on Windows, the first
 step is about disabling antivirus and firewall; on OS X, the advice
 is...about finding the old tor process and killing it? Or something else?

 We should write up a comprehensive "what the error means, what to do, in
 what order" explanation, and stick it on support.torproject.org so people
 can find it and so we can point people to it. And then we should link to
 it from inside Tor Browser, when the thing goes wrong, so there is a
 canonical place for users to read what they should do.

 (And longer term, we should improve the automated handling of this error
 inside Tor Browser, but that can come later.)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31506>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online