How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox

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Similar to Google Chrome, after the recent updates, the Mozilla Firefox web browser also started to update automatically without asking the user first. Few people may like the idea of automatic updates, but few may not. Now if you want to disable automatic update in Firefox, here is how to do it. Follow below instructions on How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox.

How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox - 1

The Firefox is still one of the most popular web browser for Windows users. What I like most about this browser is its download manager, which is missing in Google Chrome for years now.

Comparatively, it also consumes lesser amount of resources than the Google Chrome. What I don’t like about this browser  is that it crashes without any warning, which I think would be a turn off moment for many.

How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox : To add to the list, there is one more thing and that is automatic updates in Firefox. The automatic updates may look like a good thing for the users when we consider security and the stability including performance improvements, but it may not go well with everyone else.

How to disable automatic updates in Mozilla Firefox : Some people like to update their software utilities manually so that they should know what will change if they  update. Sometimes, you may lose one of your favorite feature to a newer version of the browser.

There are several ways to turn off automatic updates in Firefox. Here we will list the best possible methods to turn off automatic updates in Firefox.

Before you start disabling the automatic updates, make sure that you are on your preferred version of Firefox. That is, if you have already updated to the latest version of Firefox, then you may need to uninstall and install the previous version of Firefox which you want to go back to. Check below instructions on how to disable automatic updates in mozilla firefox.

How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox : Best Methods

Method 1: From Firefox Settings

  • Launch Firefox and select the button (upper right corner).
  • Select Options from the drop down list and Go to Advanced from Options.
  • To disable automatic updates, select “check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them” or  ” Never check for updates”.

Method 2: Do it from About: Config

How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox - 2

You can access advanced settings for Mozilla Firefox from about: config.

  • Launch Firefox and in the address bar type in about: config and hit enter. If you see a warning message, just ignore it and proceed by clicking on “I’ll be careful, I Promise!”.
  • Now in the search bar, type or copy, paste “app.update.auto”
  • Now right-click on it and select Toggle. If the Value changes to False then your automatic updates are disabled. If it is true, then the automatic updates are enabled.

Method 3: Edit the Prefs.js File

Now the third method requires a little bit of work from your side and the credit for this goes to MITCH BARTLETT.

How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox - 3

  • Close Firefox if it is opened and Go to this location in your PC. %APPDATA%\Mozilla\ . Use File explorer.
  • Mac users go to ~/Library/Application Support/ and Next open the Profiles folder and then open the folder with extension .default.
  • Look for the file prefs.js and Right-click on it and open it with Notepad.
  • Look for the line “user_pref(“app.update.auto”, true);” make it false and it should look like this “user_pref(“app.update.auto”, false);”.

There you go! You have successfully disabled Automatic updates in Firefox. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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