this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
41 points (88.7% liked)

Firefox

17828 readers
16 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
k_o_t@lemmy.ml
41
Is there a way to disable the "Restart to Keep Using Firefox" page? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 5 months ago by lilja@lemmy.ml to c/firefox@lemmy.ml
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I find it incredibly disruptive every time this page comes up and it's never completely capable of restoring my tabs. Is there any way to disable it so that it will instead update when I choose to restart Firefox?

all 37 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pyrarrows@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

When this happens, Firefox has been updated in the background & the non-updated parts that're loaded into memory attempted to load one of the updated parts & found that they were no longer compatible, causing this message to appear.

At this point you HAVE to restart Firefox in order to be able to use it, no way around it. Soooo very fun on Mac & Linux since both can update in the background. It's also possible to have this happen on Windows, but it's far more rare as it seems to require having multiple different instances running at once.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

On Linux at least, if you install through the package manager, it'll only update when you update the rest of your packages. And you can be completely in control of when that happens.

On my work Mac, I just update manually. The menu icon tells me when a new version is available, so I update within a day or two of that popping up.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

On Linux at least, if you install through the package manager, it'll only update when you update the rest of your packages. And you can be completely in control of when that happens.

Except on Ubuntu. Also, fuck snaps

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ew, those get installed via the regular package manager?

Don't use Ubuntu then...

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ubuntu installs the snap version by default whether you're using the GUI software manager or apt.

I use Mint instead nowadays

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Damn, computers have gotten really far if nowadays we're happily throwing away the performance of dockerizing ˜everything on entirely normal application installs. Sigh.

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Probably doesn't happen as much on Windows because Windows has issues replacing files that are open.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Common windows W 😎

^/s

[–] Nacktmull@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I have been using Firefox as my only browser for many, many years now and I have never seen that message before.

[–] vox@sopuli.xyz 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

it only appears on linux if you update your browser while it's running.
iirc existing tabs usually just keep working but you cannot reload or open new ones until a full browser restart.

[–] funkyfarmington@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Updating anything with stuff running is a bad idea. Yeah, yeah, I know all about the cases where this works, but I've spent too much time fixing it when it doesn't.

[–] jwt@programming.dev 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Good luck trying to update systemd

[–] cyrus@sopuli.xyz 1 points 5 months ago

atomic updates 🧠

[–] 01101000_01101001@mander.xyz 1 points 5 months ago

Same, but I've only recently started seeing it

[–] oddsys@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Are you on Ubuntu/using a snap installed Firefox?

[–] lilja@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I'm on macOS.

[–] oddsys@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I am sorry

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 2 points 5 months ago

Do not worry, for they have fallen like many of our siblings; yet they are in a better place than some, like windows users.

[–] crozilla@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Weird. I’ve never seen that on my Macs. I always have to click on “About Firefox” to check for and download any updates so it only updates when I do that.

[–] Dendr0@fedia.io 5 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Hamburger menu -> Settings -> General -> "Firefox Updates" -> "check for updates but let you choose to install them"

As for losing open tabs, there're a few different extensions that'll allow you to bookmark all open tabs and throw 'em in a folder. Easy enough to do that before updating, then just delete the folder that's created via the bookmarks manager once you've updated/reopened tabs.

[–] eighty@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

be warned, it'll give you unearned optimism about how responsible you are to revisit the tabs you saved but will never see the light of day again.

Source: someone who's disappointed in themselves

[–] variants@possumpat.io 1 points 5 months ago

I got bookmarks going back a decade, sometimes I try to visit a random one and find that it no longer exists and I don't remember what it was or why I saved it

[–] lilja@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

When you mentioned it I remembered that of course there is a setting for this.. but when I went to check it just says "Updates disabled by your organisation" In this case it's a work laptop that has a bunch of "security" things installed on it which prevent me from doing things like ...installing applications I need to do my job. Not sure how Firefox is able to update when it's been explicitly disabled, but I will at least change this setting on my personal computer.

[–] MrOtherGuy@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

In that case the issue is likely that files on disk are being modified by whatever mechanism your IT uses to push updates to devices. If the program files are modified while Firefox is running then you will unavoidably get this prompt.

I suppose the best you can do is to ask your IT folks to not update programs that are currently running.

[–] prembil@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

Never seen anyone using the phrase Hamburger menu. I'll be using it now onwards. Thank you random lemmy user!

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

A different angle of attack might be ... why isn't it capable of restoring your tabs and is that fixable?

Particularly relevant since this seems to be IT enforced updates.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

But it restores tabs? In fact I think nowadays that's the default behavior unless you turn it off.

[–] angrymouse@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Well, for me it usually only appear after my tabs already crashed

[–] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I've never had any issues with tabs not restoring (I have 6729 tabs currently open, on the newest FF release, updated many times). What do you mean by "never completely capable of restoring my tabs"?

[–] variants@possumpat.io 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How do you tab through so many tabs

[–] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

With the little upside down arrow thing, you can search through open tabs. No need to scroll through them. I think that answers what you were asking.

[–] firewood010@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

Thanks for answering How, now the real question is Why.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

When I finally got tired of them crashing my browser at random times I took the time to stop them.
You can change the addresses that is uses to check for updates in the about:config. To be sure though I put all of those addresses and IP's in the hosts file to make sure there could be no contact. Now my firefox updates when I update my machine. Some of them may not be mozilla specific but all of them are blocked by me.

I got this list by using a squid proxy on a VM to log all addresses firefox connected to and watching the logs as firefox ran with no sites loaded over a two week period.

You can use the list below to search for keys in the about:config to change. Or you can just put these in your hosts file.

This is my list

127.0.0.1 safebrowsing.googleapis.com

127.0.0.1 push.services.mozilla.com

127.0.0.1 incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org

127.0.0.1 detectportal.firefox.com

127.0.0.1 img-getpocket.cdn.mozilla.net

127.0.0.1 region1.google-analytics.com

127.0.0.1 contile.services.mozilla.com

127.0.0.1 mozilla.cloudflare-dns.com

127.0.0.1 contile.services.mozilla.com

127.0.0.1 versioncheck-bg.addons.mozilla.org

127.0.0.1 content-signature-2.cdn.mozilla.net

127.0.0.1 helper1.dap.cloudflareresearch.com

127.0.0.1 dap-02.api.divviup.org

127.0.0.1 shavar.services.mozilla.com

127.0.0.1 aus5.mozilla.org

127.0.0.1 versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org

127.0.0.1 firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com

[–] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 2 points 5 months ago

I think detectportal.firefox.com is used to detect if the current Wi-Fi connection requires the user to log in on a portal page, like the public Wi-Fi at airports or cafés. It redirects you to the log in page. Why would you block that?

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 0 points 5 months ago

Couldn't you just close Firefox overnight and then set updates to happen at 3am?

[–] RenardDesMers@lemmy.ml -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I have the same issue but I feel the main problem is not this page but the fact that the tabs are lost. I've been using FF for so long and I keep losing tabs on updates. It's really frustrating.