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Every day or so, Firefox tells me:

Update Available

A security and stability update for Firefox is available:

Firefox 5.0 Beta

It is strongly recommended that you apply this update for Firefox as soon as possible.

The only choices are "Ask Later" and "Update Firefox".

I don't think 5.0b is actually a stability update for 4.0.x. I probably got roped into this because I was testing FF4 betas, but now I'm on 4.0.x and perfectly happy. How do I get it to stop asking me?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Switch your Firefox to the "release" channel:

  • Type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
  • Confirm the question that you will be careful
  • enter app.update.channel in the search field right below the address bar
  • reset the value of app.update.channel to "release"

See more information here.

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  • I have the same problem as the OP. However, I've already switched my update channel and I still get the "Ask Later" / "Update Firefox" prompt every couple hours. Once FF has already downloaded the update, is there a way to delete it and remove this prompt?
    – BigChief
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 3:13
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    AFAIR Firefox saves downloaded installers at %LocalAppData%\Mozilla\Firefox. You might even close Firefox and delete/rename this folder. It just contains volatile data like caches. NOTE: Do NOT delete %AppData%\Mozilla as this would erase your Firefox profile including bookmarks etc. On Windows XP you can find the same folder at "%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Mozilla".
    – SkyBeam
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 5:22
  • @BigChief: check the page SkyBeam linked to in his answer, Firefox is now ignoring app.update.channel and you have to edit a particular JS file in the Firefox installation.
    – Chris Charabaruk
    Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 18:44
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The other answers address the details of the question (OP needed to change "channel" to stop getting Beta upgrades).

To answer the question in the title "How to get Firefox to stop asking me to upgrade?", I think the procedure is:

  • Go to the Options menu and select "Options"
  • Switch to the Advanced options, and then to the Update tab within Advanced options
  • Select "Never check for updates (not recommended: security risk)"
  • Press OK

A similar question is "How to get Firefox to stop asking me to upgrade so frequently?". For example, at the moment I don't want to upgrade to Firefox 15, so I keep choosing "Ask Later" when it asks me to.

I want it to stop asking every day (every 86,400 seconds), but I don't want to completely forget about it. To change it to every week (every 604,800 seconds):

  • Type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
  • Confirm the question that you will be careful
  • Enter app.update.interval in the search field right below the address bar
  • Set the value of app.update.interval to "604800"

The setting is remembered when you close the webpage

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  • Also if you want to use a specific version of Firefox I found that it was necessary to disable my internet connection after initial install so I could change this setting prior to the update automatically happening.
    – MetaGuru
    Commented Sep 26, 2012 at 15:01
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You need to edit the defaults\prefs\channel-prefs.js file in your Firefox installation (not profile). Firefox now ignores the app.update.channel preference with the rapid release system, and that one file is what Firefox now checks to determine which update channel to use.

The details are available on Mozillazine. Credit to SkyBeam's answer for showing me the way.

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No, 5.0 is a nightly build. Every night they update the nightly build, and you are being asked to update to get the latest version. You should probably move back to the FF 4 series if you don't want to bothered.

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  • I thought I am on the "4 series". The About-box (and Finder info) says "4.0.1". Do I need to uninstall and reinstall to get a 4.0.x that doesn't think it's a testing build?
    – Ken
    Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 15:04
  • You might want to switch channels, and go standard. This might involve a re-install, I dont know anything about FF on macs.
    – soandos
    Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 15:06
  • That sounds promising. What does "switch channels" mean?
    – Ken
    Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 15:20
  • There is a final release, a beta, and an nightly build. You are on the bata channel, and you want to go to the final release. Just download it I think (here)
    – soandos
    Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 15:29

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