Bug In Firefox When You Press Restart To Update

[bruceb]

This started a few update cycles back. When you update Firefox it asks you to Restart To Update Firefox ... In some cases, this needs to be 2 or 3 times before Firefox will show the newest version number. So far this has happened on my Windows 11 computer ... Please fix this .... Thank you

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Maybe? this subject https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1500167

[bigbus132]

That doesn't work for me.  I've had to restart windows altogether.  What use to happen, is windows would notify me that firefox wanted to make changes to my pc and i'd ok it.  No problem.  Now i don't get that message, but firefox restarts and same problem.  So, it updates it.  However, another problem arises and it is telling me firefox is being updated by another instance.  So, i exit that and redo check for updates and that problem has gone away.  There is a bug involved here.  Seems firefox maybe not communicating with windows somehow.  hmmmmmmmmm

[annajiat]

I just (2026-10-16) restarted Firefox nightly twice to update from 159 to 160.0a1 (2026-10-15) (64-bit) on Microsoft Windows Pro 11 24H2 [Version 10.0.26100.4770]. After one restart on the update from from the menu (three lines at upper right), it showed prompt to update again from the same menu, then I restarted second time from help -> about.

[dftf]

@bruceb : a few things:

1. if you have multiple users logged into that PC (i.e. it's a shared family PC, and someone clicks "Switch User" to let someone else log in), then Firefox may still be open under that account.  Make sure they close Firefox fully, or log off instead.

2. On older, slower PCs the restart may not allow enough time for the update to complete.  Instead of clicking restart when asked, just close all Firefox windows, wait 10-15 seconds, then bring up a new Firefox window.  It'll then complete the update the first time you open it.

Download here: https://www.firefox.com/download/all/desktop-release/ 

3. Try downloading a fresh installer of the latest Firefox, uninstall your current one, restart Windows, then re-install from the download.  When you go into the list of apps, I'd recommend you uninstall "Mozilla Maintenance Service" first, then "Mozilla Firefox", then restart.  Doing a reinstall may fix whatever causes the issue.