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Firefox 29 . Will auto update work ok without reporting missing files ?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by John99

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I am getting ready to switch from IE to Chrome or Firefox. I have read numerous complaints about the Auto Update feature on Firefox. Below is a copy of one of them. How common is this problem?

I am getting ready to switch from IE to Chrome or Firefox. I have read numerous complaints about the Auto Update feature on Firefox. Below is a copy of one of them. How common is this problem?

Modified by John99

All Replies (3)

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Firefox has almost 1/2 billion users. Chances are there are many people will post about a problem even if it only affects a small minority or is fixed.

Possibly you are asking about the Rapid Release Cycle. I think most would agree it initially caused problems mainly with incompatible addons. That problem is largely resolved now. Corporate users deploying Firefox may also have had issues but now have the option of using a different release channel of Firefox.

Your article was apparently not attached, maybe you could provide a link to it. I would point out that discussion of Development issues is normally considered off topic on this forum. I will edit the title from

  • Is there a problem with missing files with FF auto updates?

to

  • Firefox 29 . Will auto update work ok without reporting missing files  ?

That way the question is current and we actually expect developers to be around this week answering questions about Firefox 29.

Modified by John99

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John99,

Thanks for the quick reply, I may have sent the question after registering without adding the post. Here it is, I have seen a few similar, but it may not be very common:

"This morning I believe Mozilla automatically updated to version 29.0.1. After the update, all my personal settings were missing. To recover the missing bookmarks I went to user/(my directory)/appdata/roaming/mozilla/firefox/profiles/07nf5zji.default. The folder held no profiles before the update that occurred this morning. In fact, all files before the update were deleted under the Mozilla directory and were either left "empty" or were replaced with files of today's date."

Modified by ZZZRSC

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The post you refer to appears to be one on this forum /questions/989840

The person reporting the problem did not come back with further info. That was a month ago and it was likely the person was using the Nightly pre release test versions which are not always stable, and it is recommended should be used only for testing and not with original working profiles.

The Firefox Releases are very stable and I doubt many people have problems with profiles being lost. It is probably good practice to backup profiles as with other personal information that you have on a computer. Note with Firefox 29 there is a new sync feature designed to backup profiles to a Mozilla Server and sync between other devices.