How to permanently disable FireFox updating...

[BrianHG]

How to permanently disable FireFox updating...
For those of you who just need it that badly, follow these instructions:

    Close Firefox before proceeding.

    Launch Windows Registry Editor.

    Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies

    Create a new key there named Mozilla. You will end up with: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Mozilla

    Under the Mozilla key, create a new key named Firefox. You will end up with: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox

    On the right, create a new 32-Bit DWORD value DisableAppUpdate

    Set its value to: 1

    Restart Firefox and you will no longer see the "a new Firefox update is available" popup.

    In Firefox navigate to about:preferences and in the General section under Firefox Updates you will see "Updates disabled by your system administrator"

Finally, some peace...

Here is a .zip of a firefox auto-update ON and OFF reg files I created (IE: they automatically perform the registry addition you see in the above quote.):
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/how-to-permanently-disable-firefox-updating/msg5113854/#msg5113854

[joeqsmith]

Mozilla Firefox/distribution/policies.json

{
 "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true
  }
}

[The Electrician]

Mozilla Firefox/distribution/policies.json

{
 "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true
  }
}

Could you explain a little more how to do this>

[nctnico]

Go into the settings menu of Firefox and set the updates to manual.

[tridac]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

[SiliconWizard]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

Use Linux.

[MrMobodies]

The last version in 2020 Firefox 80 I think had lots of popup messages (about the browser) with dimming overlays more than chrome (which hurts my eyes and p*ss me off) and I gave up on it because of the dimming overlays.

I opened a thread on the Firefox forum explaining the issue and a suggestion but it got deleted.

I still feel bitter about it. I wonder if it is someone's ego who decided they wanted it like that and don't want to hear the impact it has by constantly dimming the screen with dialogues and offer messages from Firefox.

[JeremyC]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

Use Linux.

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates... 

[Monkeh]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

Yes, they do. Same setting - it notifies you, but doesn't force you.

Perhaps you should just update and move on with your life.

[BrianHG]

After my posted reg patch:



No more update interruptions.

[BrianHG]

Here, I've attached a .zip of 2 reg files which will allow you to turn on and off firefox's updates.

Just double click on the reg file you want and click yes/yes.

If you do not trust me, you can inspect the reg files with any text editor and see it matches the reg settings I quoted in my opening post.

In the .zip, you have these 2 files:
FireFox_updates_off.reg
FireFox_updates_on.reg

[SiliconWizard]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

Use Linux.

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

There is no auto-update in Linux versions.

[mwb1100]

Mozilla Firefox/distribution/policies.json

{
 "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true
  }
}

Could you explain a little more how to do this>

See:

  - Firefox policy-templates

That page also documents the registry settings in @BrianHG's original post.  There are at least two advantages to the policies.json file:

1. it's easier to backup/restore
2. it's cross platform (of course, that doesn't matter if you're running only Windows)

[rdl]

I'm pretty sure auto updates are possible, since they're disabled.

[rdl]

It's kind of ridiculous but probably 80% or more of the updates that come through the package manger are Firefox updates. I hardly use it anymore because it won't keep running. It constantly wants to be restarted and the way I do things that gets to be annoying.

[tom66]

So... this is why we have massive bot-nets!  People willingly disabling security updates.   

[Gyro]

The last version in 2020 Firefox 80 I think had lots of popup messages (about the browser) with dimming overlays more than chrome (which hurts my eyes and p*ss me off) and I gave up on it because of the dimming overlays.

I opened a thread on the Firefox forum explaining the issue and a suggestion but it got deleted.

I still feel bitter about it. I wonder if it is someone's ego who decided they wanted it like that and don't want to hear the impact it has by constantly dimming the screen with dialogues and offer messages from Firefox.

Why don't you just switch to the Extended Support Release (ESR)? Then you only get security updates, not new features.

[nctnico]

Thanks, will give that a try. Problem is that later verisions of FF no longer have the ability to disable updates, which is why i'm still on 114.0.2. That does keep nannying with an update box,  top right, several times a day, but at least it can be ignored. Would be good to get rid of that as well...

Use Linux.

It's not OS issue. Using Linux will not resolve OP's problem... he must disable auto updates...

There is no auto-update in Linux versions.

There certainly is. At least in version 114 (downloaded from Mozilla directly) which I'm using right now. But I have Firefox installed in a place where only root can write so it can't update / overwrite itself. Maybe packaged versions from Linux distributions have the updates disabled to make sure Firefox is updated throuhg the OS native update process.

[joeqsmith]

Mozilla Firefox/distribution/policies.json

{
 "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true
  }
}

Could you explain a little more how to do this>

[BrianHG]

It's kind of ridiculous but probably 80% or more of the updates that come through the package manger are Firefox updates. I hardly use it anymore because it won't keep running. It constantly wants to be restarted and the way I do things that gets to be annoying.

Not exactly true.  I'm using an old ESR with NoScript and even the latest updates slowed down my laptops loading of firefox 4 fold.
It also eats 50% more ram when just viewing youtube videos and with my 4gb system, this means a bunch of low computer memory warnings and crashes.

Warning: The latest firefox ESR update also triggers the youtube adblocker warning.

Uninstalling and downgrading needs to now be done offline, otherwise, firefox auto-updates before your your first run, of by the second run.

[HighVoltage]

I had so many problems with the latest update and it slowed down my system so much, that I went back to an older Firefox version.

This older version runs so smooth and fast that it was a big positive surprise. I will update manually from now on.
 

[joeqsmith]

I had to roll back a few months back when YT would flash a white screen at me.   The version installed now still has a problem that it will not always allow the the bookmarks to function.

[BrianHG]

I had to roll back a few months back when YT would flash a white screen at me.   The version installed now still has a problem that it will not always allow the the bookmarks to function.

You need to go into the bookmark manager an export your bookmarks.
Then full uninstall firefox.
The go into all your 'documents and settings' folders hunting down all the Mozilla/firefox folders and delete everything. (Careful if you use Firebird, keep those folders or loose your emails.)
Then disconnect from the internet installing an old firefox. switch to manual updates, then reconnect to the internet.
Import bookmarks & re-install your adblockers/noscript.
Doing all this will reverse all the new garbage.

[BrianHG]

firefox 102.4.0esr seems not to be too bloatty and no youtube warnings.
Firefox 91.1.0esr seems to use even less resources and the webpages scroll much smoother on my older systems.

[rdl]

On a Linux system that updates Firefox with the package manager the problem comes from updating while Firefox is running. That gets it bent out of shape and it will refuse to open new pages or tabs until it's restarted. You just have to watch what you're doing. But on MX the updates are all or nothing (as far as I can tell) and I don't like to put off system updates just because Firefox is in use and some Firefox update is included. The easiest solution is to just use Firefox as little as possible.

It's different on Windows because Firefox handles its own updating and you can set it to just get the updates and defer the installing until later. On my windows computer , literally the only thing Firefox is used for is watching YouTube and I've had zero problems. But I have no account, never sign in, and block just about everything I can and still have YouTube work. I don't even allow their cookies.