Problem "Ghost is already running" Windows 10

Developer help
1

My local version of Ghost is already active.

I generally solve by restarting the PC, but not now.

I rebooted the pc 2 times, still can’t start local Ghost, it is already active.

There are no node processes, neither from the Task Manger nor from the Resource Monitor.

> ghost start

Ghost is already running! For more information, run: 

 ghost ls

> ghost ls
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────────┬──────┬─────────────────┐
│ Name          │ Location              │ Version │ Status                │ URL                    │ Port │ Process Manager │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼──────┼─────────────────┤
│ ghost-local   │ ~\ghost               │ 3.40.5  │ running (development) │ http://localhost:2368/ │ 2368 │ local     

> ghost stop
× Stopping Ghost: ghost-local
A CliError occurred.

Message: An unexpected error occurred while stopping Ghost.

Debug Information:
    OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, v10.0.19042
    Node Version: v14.15.1
    Ghost Version: 3.40.5
    Ghost-CLI Version: 1.15.3
    Environment: development
    Command: 'ghost stop'

Additional log info available in: C:\Users\username\.ghost\logs\ghost-cli-debug-2021-01-14T22_51_21_355Z.log

Try running ghost doctor to check your system for known issues.

You can always refer to https://ghost.org/docs/api/ghost-cli/ for troubleshooting.

> ghost doctor
Found a development config but not a production config, running in development mode instead
√ Checking system Node.js version    
√ Checking current folder permissions
Instance is currently running
i Validating config [skipped]
√ Checking memory availability
√ Checking binary dependencies
√ Checking free space

> ../../debug.log

Debug Information:
    OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, v10.0.19042
    Node Version: v14.15.1
    Ghost Version: 3.40.5
    Ghost-CLI Version: 1.15.3
    Environment: development
    Command: 'ghost stop'
Message: An unexpected error occurred while stopping Ghost.
Stack: Error: An unexpected error occurred while stopping Ghost.
    at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\ghost-cli\lib\utils\local-process.js:124:39
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5)
    at async Instance.stop (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\ghost-cli\lib\instance.js:303:9)

Original Error Message:
Message: 
    Error: Killing process 3088 failed: Command failed with exit code 255: taskkill /f /t /pid 3088
        at Array.map (<anonymous>)
        at fkill (C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/ghost-cli/node_modules/fkill/index.js:128:9)
        at async Instance.stop (C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/ghost-cli/lib/instance.js:303:9)
Stack: AggregateError: 
    Error: Killing process 3088 failed: Command failed with exit code 255: taskkill /f /t /pid 3088
        at Array.map (<anonymous>)
        at fkill (C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/ghost-cli/node_modules/fkill/index.js:128:9)
        at async Instance.stop (C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/ghost-cli/lib/instance.js:303:9)
    at fkill (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\ghost-cli\node_modules\fkill\index.js:128:9)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5)
    at async Instance.stop (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\ghost-cli\lib\instance.js:303:9)
2

For Windows 10, this happened to me. Run cmd in admin mode, cd to the directory (probably unnecessary), then run

> ghost stop -all
> ghost start

fixed the problem for me