tor browser sandbox fails to connect to tor and loops

I get an error message: "Failed to launch Tor Browser: dial unix ~/.local/share/sandboxed-tor-browser/tor/control: connect: connection refused" on launch. Clicking OK shows the configuration UI but then clicking connect gives the first error message again ("failed to launch....").

the terminal reports: [notice] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections. [warn] It looks like another Tor process is running with the same data directory. Waiting 5 seconds to see if it goes away. [err] No, it's still there. Exiting.

Trac:
Username: femm