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Where are auto downloaded Firefox updates stored?

  • 4 replies
  • 48 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Darr247

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I got a notice today that Firefox had automatically downloaded an update (to 3.6.9). I have not told it to install yet, because I want to save the file to apply to 3 other computers without downloading it 4 times. (we have 2 desktops and 2 laptops running windows; I already know where the package manager cache is for the linux partitions.)

I've looked in %temp% (recursively), %userprofile%\application data\, %userprofile%\local settings\application data\,%allusersprofile%\application data, %allusersprofile%\local settings\application data,%programfiles%\common files\ , also checked application data and local settings\application data in Administrator, LocalService and NetworkService user subdirs... but there's no firefox subdir in any of those, either... and I looked in %programfiles%\Firefox\, of course... oh, and also in the Tools->Downloads folder... no luck.

Clicking the Details link on the notification dialog doesn't tell me where the downloaded file is.

I'd really rather not waste my bandwidth downloading the same multi-MB update 4 times. I've turned off the auto-update now, but where is the auto-downloaded file stored, and why do you make it so hard to find???

I can hardly believe nobody's asked this before, but I searched for it a half dozen different ways before I gave up and posted this.

Thanks.

I got a notice today that Firefox had automatically downloaded an update (to 3.6.9). I have not told it to install yet, because I want to save the file to apply to 3 other computers without downloading it 4 times. (we have 2 desktops and 2 laptops running windows; I already know where the package manager cache is for the linux partitions.) I've looked in %temp% (recursively), %userprofile%\application data\, %userprofile%\local settings\application data\,%allusersprofile%\application data, %allusersprofile%\local settings\application data,%programfiles%\common files\ , also checked application data and local settings\application data in Administrator, LocalService and NetworkService user subdirs... but there's no firefox subdir in any of those, either... and I looked in %programfiles%\Firefox\, of course... oh, and also in the Tools->Downloads folder... no luck. Clicking the Details link on the notification dialog doesn't tell me where the downloaded file is. I'd really rather not waste my bandwidth downloading the same multi-MB update 4 times. I've turned off the auto-update now, but where is the auto-downloaded file stored, and why do you make it so hard to find??? I can hardly believe nobody's asked this before, but I searched for it a half dozen different ways before I gave up and posted this. Thanks.

Chosen solution

You should find the files here if they aren't in the updates\0 folder in the Firefox program folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(Application Data is hidden)

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It's been over a half hour and I still have not received the confirmation email for this post (I have got email from others at that same address, in the meantime). Got some way to resend it?

Thanks.

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Received: from mxout-generic.mozilla.org (webapp01.sj.mozilla.com [63.245.208.146])

       by inbound1.hw.buf.ny.localnet.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8B02217545C
       for <my@email.com>; Wed,  8 Sep 2010 17:37:46 

Received: from rabbit-sumo (unused-10-2-11-201.mozilla.org [127.0.0.1])

       by mxout-generic.mozilla.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o88GxwAY005727
       for <my@email.com>; Wed, 8 Sep 2010 16:59:58 

Looks like rabbit-sumo finally let go of it right after I made that last post, gave up waiting and left.

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Chosen Solution

You should find the files here if they aren't in the updates\0 folder in the Firefox program folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(Application Data is hidden)

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OK... thanks again, cor-el.


%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Firefox\updates\0\

is where the ~2MB update patch was located, but you got me close enough.

Google 'sysprep' and employ the "ProfilesDir=path" in an answer file. I started shortening it to C:\Docs about 8 years before 7 beta's C:\Users came out. "Documents and Settings" was nearly as bad as using symbolic links... MS should have a commercial with Mike Myers' Dr.Evil saying, "Windows 7 was MY idea" for that one. IMHO.