Get rid of the "Restart Required" in Firefox

[istrasci]

Please do not block my browsing session just to force me to restart!  Let me restart when I want to.  For security reasons, I'm almost always browsing in Private Mode, and as such, logins and passwords are not saved.  So when I'm forced to restart because of an update, I have to save my current tab session, reopen them after FF has restarted, and re-login to every site I was using—many of which require 2FA, so it's extra annoying.

This is bad UX!  Put a notification, or even a whole separate tab telling me I need to restart.  But don't block out everything I was doing.  Even Windows doesn't do this...

[SCH_325]

STILL not fixed as of just now. And I have updates disabled because I got so sick of this garbage. I'm slightly relieved to know this is a Known Bug, because I was just about convinced I'd picked up some weird virus along the way. Interestingly, my laptop at home *never* has this issue; but my work computer seems to encounter it at least once a month. And as others have noted, it's enough to make we want to just never update Firefox at all - which I'm sure is not the preferred end goal here.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Is there a way to temporary bypass updates warnings for the sake of other people's privacy?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1488033

[Windows_Vista]

Or how about you guys just disable Auto Updates

Its not that hard come on use your brains, I don't ever let it install updates in the background I will never allow it to download updates automatically I will always make it check then let me install it.

Mozilla should add back the option to discard updates and bring back the ability to disable updates all together.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

DisableAppUpdate
Take a look at https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/upgrade-notification-spam/m-p/64080/highlight/true#M22529

Another subject
About Settings/General/"Update Firefox" is missing
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1498260

[Bryan]

I did not approve the update and the update notification prompt is still in the screen, however, Firefox is UNUSABLE at this point. The update setting has been set to 'check for updates but let me choose whether to install them. As in: It is my decision. There are no active enterprise policies in about:policies. I couldn't find any traces of overriding registry settings in regedit.

[Xebtria]

I actually havent had that problem now for a while, the last 2 or 3 updates it was just in the burger menu telling me it is ready, but I wasnt blocked like it used to do it. I don't know what happened, I certainly didnt change any settings or something like this, it just started acting reasonably again. godspeed to anyone who still has the problem

[avoss]

Seems the issue is back, at least on MacOS. Like @Xebtria, I had got the impression that it was gone.

[Bryan]

Had this problem 2 times this week while auto updates are disabled. I found two update tasks in Windows Scheduled Tasks. Deleted those and I'm quite confident that I finally found the cause.

Yesterday I lost a lot of work and time by this. I utterly hate the fact that this is part of the unattended update process.

[Nick2000]

@BryanPlease keep us posted.
Personally I have switched to Waterfox/LibreWolf for now, but if things get better I may switch back.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

About (among other) Never check for updates (not recommended)

Since the release of Firefox 63 https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0/releasenotes

---

The option to Never check for updates was removed from about:preferences. You can use the DisableAppUpdate enterprise policy as a substitute.

Take a look at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1509058

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

About Mozilla Maintenance Service
Take a look at https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/forced-restart/m-p/50009/highlight/true#M17857

[botulf]

Do not ever again expect me to contribute to any Mozilla product. It's a two way street. Like Thunderbird to, that seems to need funding, but if this is how Mozilla works then I am perfectly ok with it running out of funds.

Regards,
Kenneth

[komoricodrutz]

This "Feature" has been just mildly annoying since its implementation a few years ago.

Until now, that is.

I was finalising an on-line payment when a browser restart was forced on me. This caused the money to be subtracted from my account, but for the transaction to NOT be finished. Now I have to wait for a refund and to REDO the entire process.

Currently on Linux Mint 22+, so FF is updated by the package manager.

I've been using FF as my daily driver for 20+ years. I am also using other browsers in other scenarios and none has done this to me.

So, Mozilla, get your stuff together and stop implementing anti-user "features", starting with this one asap!

Also stop suggesting workarounds which might cause other security issues in turn.

Just a pop-up notification that a restart should be performed asap is more than sufficient!

[NorthernDean]

On my systems (various flavours of Ubuntu), Firefox is installed as a snap package.  It seems that the although "snap update" will appear to work at any time, it doesn't actually take effect unless Firefox is closed then re-opened.  Firefox seems to force a restart when it has been so long and so many snap updates, that it seems to think that it can't continue, has no choice, gotta have that snap update.

So, I've taken to closing Firefox periodically at a (relatively) convenient time, running my updates including snap update, then restarting Firefox, and I no longer seem to suffer from forced restarts.

[komoricodrutz]

This starts becoming more and more frustrating. Had another occurrence yesterday. I was working on an automation in Home Assistant and when I was about to save it, it forced another restart on me, causing me to lose all unsaved progress.

I am starting to wonder if Mozilla is purposefully trying to alienate its users even more.

This "feature" needs to go away YESTERDAY!