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update notice flashes on and off too fast to read

  • 12 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Since yesterday, I've been noticing that every time I switch back to Firefox from another app, a small message appears at the top of the screen and instantly disappears before I can read it, or even see what it is. I finally made a screen recording, and by playing it back frame by frame, I was able to see that the box is a Firefox update notice – I'll attach a screenshot of the frozen frame. There's a white up arrow in a green circle beside the text: "A new Firefox update is available. Update your Firefox for the latest in speed and privacy. See what’s new." I checked for updates, and 55.0.3 is indeed waiting for me to download and install it. I don't really have a question, I guess; I just wanted to post about this in case anyone else was similarly confused.

Since yesterday, I've been noticing that every time I switch back to Firefox from another app, a small message appears at the top of the screen and instantly disappears before I can read it, or even see what it is. I finally made a screen recording, and by playing it back frame by frame, I was able to see that the box is a Firefox update notice – I'll attach a screenshot of the frozen frame. There's a white up arrow in a green circle beside the text: "A new Firefox update is available. Update your Firefox for the latest in speed and privacy. See what’s new." I checked for updates, and 55.0.3 is indeed waiting for me to download and install it. I don't really have a question, I guess; I just wanted to post about this in case anyone else was similarly confused.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

An answer has been found: Apparently the update alert is supposed to hang off the hamburger menu, but since I hide my hamburger menu, the alert had nowhere to be. More details at the bug report I filed earlier.

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All Replies (12)

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You sent the wrong screen shot.

It's possible that's a fake ad, and it was removed. Send the shot when you can.

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No, the message is there – it's just hard to see. It's the blurry gray box that's partially overlaid over the webpage title, navigation bar and bookmarks toolbar.

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I see it now.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

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FredMcD said

Is the problem still there?

Embarrassingly, I can't answer that question. After I created the original post, I updated to 55.0.3, thinking I'd see whether the problem persisted. But of course, now that I no longer have an update pending, I'm not getting the update notice anymore :-) So I guess I'll revisit this the next time an update comes out. Thanks for your help!

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That was very good work. Well done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

cor-el Why didn't the notice remain to be read?

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Just an update: Now that FF 56 is available, the disappearing alerts have returned. I've filed a bug report.

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The bug report was well written.

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Thank you, Fred. I felt like it was approaching TL;DR territory but I wanted to include all the information I had.

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It's best to put everything you can into a bug report. Hopefully, they can sort out the information they need to work for a solution.

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Chosen Solution

An answer has been found: Apparently the update alert is supposed to hang off the hamburger menu, but since I hide my hamburger menu, the alert had nowhere to be. More details at the bug report I filed earlier.

Modified by practik

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That was very good work. Well done.