Why can’t the devs have it update in the background or on next startup? I was in the middle of my work when I got this. Now I need to close everything and go through all the logins and 2FA again. 😡
Chrome is much better at this, hands down. It has never interrupted me the way Firefox does during updates.
I’ve never ever seen this screen before, there must be a setting for it.
I see it under linux after updating Firefox through the package manager. Maybe OP’s distro auto updates packages?
it usually happens on linux (and maybe macos??)
if you update firefox using your system package manager it will ask for a restart
For anyone who is still confused about what causes this: Firefox launches copies of itself when creating new website instances (usually when loading a website that has not already been loaded). Because of this, if it is updated in the background (through any means; I usually see this after a manual system update), Firefox has to restart when you try and load a new site because it cannot create any compatible copies of itself, since the old version is the one that is still running and the copies would use the new (updated) version.
The solution is to only update when Firefox is closed, or restart it when it asks.
The solution is not a solution but is good enough.
IME it happens when I open a new tab.
Yep; sometimes I will be able to do a search and then when I try to click on a result it has me restart.
If you don’t want this you can change things.
When you first install Firefox, uncheck install updates as a service. Personally, I don’t like applications running services in the background all the time. When I close something I expect it to be gone, and I don’t want it running until I tell it to.
Second, go into settings and change your update settings to “Check for updates but let you choose to install them”. Firefox will pop up with a discrete notification telling you when an update is available, asking you to download, then another dismissable notification telling you to restart to update.
Stupid people don’t read anything when they install, then they complain they didn’t ask for this…
I use it on both Windows and Mac, I’ve never seen this o.o
I’ve seen it multiple times over the years. Don’t know what could be causing this.
In my experience - having 2 different instances (e.g. if you want 2 icons on the taskbar) and one having updated.
This happens when FF updates out of band. Ie package manager.
Your windows updates are probably set to also get applications when it updates. Turn that off and see what happens (next month).
Probably already been said, but I’m wondering why you haven’t just checked the box in Settings for automatic updates that says “When Firefox is not running”, because I’ve never encountered this problem with that turned on.
I wasn’t aware there was such a setting. Thanks
no problem
At least I see it coming as I manually do updates on my Linux machine, so I know when I’ve updated Firefox.
The one that gets me is some websites don’t throw that message, they just fail to load. Youtube is bad at that.
I’ve literally never seen this in decades of using Firefox. It always downloads in the background then I get an icon on the taskbar telling me to restart to finish the update.
I’ve been using Firefox on all my machines for (many) years now and literally not once have I ever seen this. Maybe you unintentionally have some option set to install updates more quickly/directly?
Yeah, caught out the first.time. Now I never OK the update until I am about to close.down, which is a bulahit workaround but there it is. Why can’t it be downloaded with a pop uo notification saying install the update now or wait until you reboot?
I’ve been using Firefox since 1.0PR and I’ve never seen this message before. For me, Firefox has always quietly downloaded the update in the background and then installed it the next time I used it.
I’m curious to know just exactly what it is you’re doing to make this message come up.
I saw this yesterday on Linux after a typical update command and it surprised me. Restarting FF reopened all my tabs without issue and it wasn’t really an inconvenience to me.
Maybe don’t update your system when you’re using firefox?
My pet peeve is when it updates and instead of letting me go on my way, it opens the stupid “Firefox has updated” tab.
Nobody asked, just duck off, shut up.
The site that launches after updates is for telemetry - the request gives them information on the updater (IP, geo location, OS, localization, fonts, fingerprinting, etc).
I feel like I only see this on Linux installs and never on windows.
I have never seen it on Linux.
Not on the Linux systems I’m familiar with. The only way to trigger anything similar is to execute a package update while running FF, at which point new tabs will show a message to restart, but you can keep on using the open ones indefinitely.
That’s a Linux (and similar) issue. When Linux updates via it’s package managers it will update Firefox in the background even though it’s open. Firefox then forces you to close it rather than open other tabs to prevent problems.
But you don’t have to install Firefox via the package managers or flathub. You can build it yourself or install a binary manually and I believe it well self update as it does on other platforms. I haven’t done it for a while though.
Otherwise manually control Linux updates so it doesn’t mess with Firefox when you’re in the middle of something important.
Edit: the exception on Windows would be if some other software is handling firefox’s updates or there is a group policy / system management of Firefox. I’ve never had this issue on windows on my own PCs
Edit: btw I have had worse happen on windows with chrome on a work pc. An update was forced on my and chrome close itself without warning and reopened with the update. Pissed me off no end.
