Updates disabled by your administrator
When I go to About Firefox, I see the message "Updates disabled by your administrator". My system administrator has *not* disabled updates for Firefox. I have searched for the last few weeks for help (both Google and Bing searches). I have tried everything to get Firefox to be able to update itself to no avail. I uninstalled Firefox on Friday and then removed all the left-over folders, rebooted and reinstalled. It helped until I logged in this morning. Now it is back to not being able to update. What could be causing this? Using Windows 10, but this was an issue on this machine before upgrading.
All Replies (7)
Hi RudyRedSox, could you check in the following folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref
You may find one or more .js files here. To view their contents, you can right-click > Edit each file -- please don't double-click as that usually will execute the file in the Windows script interpreter.
If you see any lines similar to the following then your Firefox has been set to load a configuration override file (Autoconfig file) at startup:
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
Usually that would only be pushed out by your IT, but some overrides are installed by malware to maintain control of your Firefox settings.
The details of what is forced can be found in the file specified on that line, which should be at the main level of the folder, for example:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\mozilla.cfg
Hi jscher2000,
Thanks for your response. I found the information that you outlined, and it was set up to prevent auto-updates. I changed the values from 'false' to 'true' and it looked good for a while, but then spontaneously reverted back to preventing auto updates. Where else can I look to find the culprit?
Normally you would not have those files unless they were pushed by your IT department in an office environment, or added by malware. Are there any other lines in the file which could suggest the source or purpose of it?
Try a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.
- Download the Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.
- Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
- (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
- (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
- It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you uninstall and (re)install or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
cor-el said
Try a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.
- Download the Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
- Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
- (32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
- (64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you uninstall and (re)install or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
- It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
This is exactly what I did on Friday. It was good for a while, but it reverted to "Updates disabled..." by itself.
jscher2000 said
Normally you would not have those files unless they were pushed by your IT department in an office environment, or added by malware. Are there any other lines in the file which could suggest the source or purpose of it?
defaults\pref folder contains 3 files:
all.js: pref("app.update.enabled", false);
channel-prefs.js: /* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
* License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
pref("app.update.channel", "release");
local-settings.js: pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
AND mozilla.cfg: // lockPref("app.update.auto", false); lockPref("app.update.enabled", false);
I suppose my network admin could be mistaken, but I don't think so.
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked