<p>When trying to connect to an <code>ORACLE</code> user via TOAD (Quest Software) or any other means (<code>Oracle Enterprise Manager</code>) I get this error:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><code>ORA-011033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress</code></p>
</blockquote>

[{'answer_id': 53684, 'author': 'rohancragg', 'author_id': 5351, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5351', 'pm_score': 8, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>After some googling, I found the advice to do the following, and it worked:</p>\n\n<pre><code>SQL&gt; startup mount\n\nORACLE Instance started\n\nSQL&gt; recover database \n\nMedia recovery complete\n\nSQL&gt; alter database open;\n\nDatabase altered\n</code></pre>\n'}, {'answer_id': 142790, 'author': 'JoshL', 'author_id': 20625, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/20625', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>This error can also occur in the normal situation when a database is starting or stopping. Normally on startup you can wait until the startup completes, then connect as usual. If the error persists, the <em>service</em> (on a Windows box) may be started without the <em>database</em> being started. This may be due to startup issues, or because the service is not configured to automatically start the database. In this case you will have to connect as sysdba and physically start the database using the "startup" command.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 21298642, 'author': 'z atef', 'author_id': 2052097, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2052097', 'pm_score': 5, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Here is my solution to this issue:</p>\n\n<pre><code>SQL&gt; Startup mount\nORA-01081: cannot start already-running ORACLE - shut it down first\nSQL&gt; shutdown abort\nORACLE instance shut down.\nSQL&gt;\nSQL&gt; startup mount\nORACLE instance started.\n\nTotal System Global Area 1904054272 bytes\nFixed Size                  2404024 bytes\nVariable Size             570425672 bytes\nDatabase Buffers         1325400064 bytes\nRedo Buffers                5824512 bytes\nDatabase mounted.\nSQL&gt; Show parameter control_files\n\nNAME                                 TYPE        VALUE\n------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------\ncontrol_files                        string      C:\\APP\\USER\\ORADATA\\ORACLEDB\\C\n                                                 ONTROL01.CTL, C:\\APP\\USER\\FAST\n                                                 _RECOVERY_AREA\\ORACLEDB\\CONTRO\n                                                 L02.CTL\nSQL&gt; select a.member,a.group#,b.status from v$logfile a ,v$log b where a.group#=\nb.group# and b.status=\'CURRENT\'\n  2\nSQL&gt; select a.member,a.group#,b.status from v$logfile a ,v$log b where a.group#=\nb.group# and b.status=\'CURRENT\';\n\nMEMBER\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n    GROUP# STATUS\n---------- ----------------\nC:\\APP\\USER\\ORADATA\\ORACLEDB\\REDO03.LOG\n         3 CURRENT\n\n\nSQL&gt; shutdown abort\nORACLE instance shut down.\nSQL&gt; startup mount\nORACLE instance started.\n\nTotal System Global Area 1904054272 bytes\nFixed Size                  2404024 bytes\nVariable Size             570425672 bytes\nDatabase Buffers         1325400064 bytes\nRedo Buffers                5824512 bytes\nDatabase mounted.\nSQL&gt; recover database using backup controlfile until cancel;\nORA-00279: change 4234808 generated at 01/21/2014 18:31:05 needed for thread 1\nORA-00289: suggestion :\nC:\\APP\\USER\\FAST_RECOVERY_AREA\\ORACLEDB\\ARCHIVELOG\\2014_01_22\\O1_MF_1_108_%U_.AR\n\nC\nORA-00280: change 4234808 for thread 1 is in sequence #108\n\n\nSpecify log: {&lt;RET&gt;=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}\nC:\\APP\\USER\\ORADATA\\ORACLEDB\\REDO03.LOG\nLog applied.\nMedia recovery complete.\nSQL&gt; alter database open resetlogs;\n\nDatabase altered.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>And it worked:</p>\n\n<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/TXcoQ.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 35026997, 'author': 'gadildafissh', 'author_id': 811058, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/811058', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I used a combination of the answers from rohancragg, Mukul Goel, and NullSoulException from above. However I had an additional error: </p>\n\n<p>ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file string - see DBWR trace file</p>\n\n<p>To which I found the answer here: <a href="http://nimishgarg.blogspot.com/2014/01/ora-01157-cannot-identifylock-data-file.html" rel="nofollow">http://nimishgarg.blogspot.com/2014/01/ora-01157-cannot-identifylock-data-file.html</a></p>\n\n<p>Incase the above post gets deleted I am including the commands here as well.</p>\n\n<pre><code>C:\\&gt;sqlplus sys/sys as sysdba\nSQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Tue Apr 30 19:07:16 2013\nCopyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.\nConnected to an idle instance.\n\nSQL&gt; startup\nORACLE instance started.\nTotal System Global Area  778387456 bytes\nFixed Size                  1384856 bytes\nVariable Size             520097384 bytes\nDatabase Buffers          251658240 bytes\nRedo Buffers                5246976 bytes\nDatabase mounted.\nORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 11 – see DBWR trace file\nORA-01110: data file 16: \'E:\\oracle\\app\\nimish.garg\\oradata\\orcl\\test_ts.dbf\'\n\nSQL&gt; select NAME from v$datafile where file#=16;\nNAME\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nE:\\ORACLE\\APP\\NIMISH.GARG\\ORADATA\\ORCL\\TEST_TS.DBF\n\nSQL&gt; alter database datafile 16 OFFLINE DROP;\nDatabase altered.\n\nSQL&gt; alter database open;\nDatabase altered.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Thanks everyone you saved my day!</p>\n\n<p>Fissh</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 43871217, 'author': 'Witold Kaczurba', 'author_id': 6931119, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6931119', 'pm_score': 5, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I had a similar problem when I had installed the 12c database as per <a href="http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/db/12c/r1/Windows_DB_Install_OBE/Installing_Oracle_Db12c_Windows.html" rel="noreferrer">Oracle\'s tutorial</a> . The instruction instructs reader to create a PLUGGABLE DATABASE (pdb). </p>\n\n<h2>The problem</h2>\n\n<p><code>sqlplus hr/hr@pdborcl</code> would result in <strong><code>ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress</code></strong>.</p>\n\n<h2>The solution</h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li><ol>\n<li><p><strong>Login as <code>SYSDBA</code> to the dabase</strong> :  </p>\n\n<pre><code>sqlplus SYS/Oracle_1@pdborcl AS SYSDBA\n</code></pre></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><ol start="2">\n<li><p><strong>Alter database</strong>: </p>\n\n<pre><code>alter pluggable database pdborcl open read write;\n</code></pre></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><ol start="3">\n<li><p><strong>Login again</strong>: </p>\n\n<pre><code>sqlplus hr/hr@pdborcl\n</code></pre></li>\n</ol></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><em>That worked for me</em></p>\n\n<p>Some documentation <a href="https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQLRF/statements_2008.htm#SQLRF55667" rel="noreferrer">here</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 45348175, 'author': 'Alan Hollis', 'author_id': 346271, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/346271', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>The issue can also be due to lack of hard drive space. The installation will succeed but on startup, oracle won't be able to create the required files and will fail with the same above error message.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 54326242, 'author': 'Goku', 'author_id': 10631120, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/10631120', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I hope this will help somebody, I solved the problem like this</p>\n\n<p>There was a problem because the database was not open.\nCommand startup opens the database.</p>\n\n<p>This you can solve with command <code>alter database open</code> \nin some case with  <code>alter database open resetlogs</code></p>\n\n<pre><code>$ sqlplus / sysdba\n\nSQL&gt; startup\nORACLE instance started.\n\nTotal System Global Area 1073741824 bytes\nFixed Size          8628936 bytes\nVariable Size         624952632 bytes\nDatabase Buffers      436207616 bytes\nRedo Buffers            3952640 bytes\nDatabase mounted.\nDatabase opened.\n\nSQL&gt; conn user/pass123\nConnected.\n</code></pre>\n'}, {'answer_id': 54340339, 'author': 'Hari', 'author_id': 1619241, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/1619241', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I faced the same problem. I restarted the oracle service for that DB instance and the error is gone.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 64407006, 'author': 'Ian Nato', 'author_id': 5841507, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5841507', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>What worked for me is that i hadn't set the local_listener, to see if the local listener is set login to <code>sqlplus / as sysdba</code>, make sure the database is open and run the following command\n<code>show parameter local_listener</code>, if the value is empty,  then you will have to set the local_listener with the following SQL command <code>ALTER SYSTEM SET LOCAL_LISTENER='&lt;LISTENER_NAME_GOES_HERE&gt;'</code></p>\n"}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/53676', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/5351/']