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app.update.url seems to have no effect

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Newer version of Firefox have removed the ability to disable automatically checking for updates. In an effort to stop this from happening I tried changing the value of app.update.url from:

https://aus5.mozilla.org/update/6/%PRODUCT%/%VERSION%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%SYSTEM_CAPABILITIES%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/update.xml

To a blank string. I even tried 127.0.0.1 but also had no effect. The only thing that worked was blocking traffic to aus5.mozilla.org which seems a bit extreme. What's going on here?

Newer version of Firefox have removed the ability to disable automatically checking for updates. In an effort to stop this from happening I tried changing the value of app.update.url from: https://aus5.mozilla.org/update/6/%PRODUCT%/%VERSION%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%SYSTEM_CAPABILITIES%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/update.xml To a blank string. I even tried 127.0.0.1 but also had no effect. The only thing that worked was blocking traffic to aus5.mozilla.org which seems a bit extreme. What's going on here?

Modified by billynoah

All Replies (3)

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Hi billynoah, as part of its increased Enterprise support, the option to block Firefox from checking for updates is now made available via an external Policy file.

For details, see:

Users who have tested this approach report it is a complete block: Firefox cannot discover updates even if you click the button in the About Firefox dialog. You can monitor the following page for new releases:

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/releases/

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Thanks - although your response is helpful, it does not answer my question about what's going on with the app.update.url setting, and what effect it has if any. Do you have any insight about that?

Modified by billynoah

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No idea about what normally happens when you modify the app.update.url setting.