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Every day or so, Firefox tells me:

Update Available

A security and stability update for Firefox is available:

Firefox 5.0 Beta

It is strongly recommended that you apply this update for Firefox as soon as possible.

The only choices are "Ask Later" and "Update Firefox".

I don't think 5.0b is actually a stability update for 4.0.x. I probably got roped into this because I was testing FF4 betas, but now I'm on 4.0.x and perfectly happy. How do I get it to stop asking me?

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3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

Switch your Firefox to the "release" channel:

  • Type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
  • Confirm the question that you will be careful
  • enter app.update.channel in the search field right below the address bar
  • reset the value of app.update.channel to "release"

See more information here.

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I have the same problem as the OP. However, I've already switched my update channel and I still get the "Ask Later" / "Update Firefox" prompt every couple hours. Once FF has already downloaded the update, is there a way to delete it and remove this prompt? – BigChief Jun 16 '11 at 3:13
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AFAIR Firefox saves downloaded installers at %LocalAppData%\Mozilla\Firefox. You might even close Firefox and delete/rename this folder. It just contains volatile data like caches. NOTE: Do NOT delete %AppData%\Mozilla as this would erase your Firefox profile including bookmarks etc. On Windows XP you can find the same folder at "%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Mozilla". – SkyBeam Jun 16 '11 at 5:22
@BigChief: check the page SkyBeam linked to in his answer, Firefox is now ignoring app.update.channel and you have to edit a particular JS file in the Firefox installation. – Chris Charabaruk Aug 10 '11 at 18:44
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up vote 3 down vote

You need to edit the defaults\prefs\channel-prefs.js file in your Firefox installation (not profile). Firefox now ignores the app.update.channel preference with the rapid release system, and that one file is what Firefox now checks to determine which update channel to use.

The details are available on Mozillazine. Credit to SkyBeam's answer for showing me the way.

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This appears to have done it. Thanks! – BigChief Aug 14 '11 at 20:15
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up vote 0 down vote

No, 5.0 is a nightly build. Every night they update the nightly build, and you are being asked to update to get the latest version. You should probably move back to the FF 4 series if you don't want to bothered.

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I thought I am on the "4 series". The About-box (and Finder info) says "4.0.1". Do I need to uninstall and reinstall to get a 4.0.x that doesn't think it's a testing build? – Ken Jun 2 '11 at 15:04
You might want to switch channels, and go standard. This might involve a re-install, I dont know anything about FF on macs. – soandos Jun 2 '11 at 15:06
That sounds promising. What does "switch channels" mean? – Ken Jun 2 '11 at 15:20
There is a final release, a beta, and an nightly build. You are on the bata channel, and you want to go to the final release. Just download it I think (here) – soandos Jun 2 '11 at 15:29
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