Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Updating Firefox on may Macbook Air OS X 10.8.5 download hangs and is generally unsuccessfull. I worked around it on previous update but it's cumbersome.

  • 5 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by tlyell

more options

My laptop is set up to notify my when updates are available. That's fine but when I attempt to do so it hangs on the download. I've gone to the support page and followed the instructions for updating (after going through the hanging endless download) which suggests that I then install a fresh version of Firefox is unsuccessful. When I do that I get message that says that there is already version installed or running?? Circular effort.

Another issue: I don't quite get why there is an icon that looks like Firefox drive on the desktop which when clicked opens up a window with firefox icon and an apps icon?

My laptop is set up to notify my when updates are available. That's fine but when I attempt to do so it hangs on the download. I've gone to the support page and followed the instructions for updating (after going through the hanging endless download) which suggests that I then install a fresh version of Firefox is unsuccessful. When I do that I get message that says that there is already version installed or running?? Circular effort. Another issue: I don't quite get why there is an icon that looks like Firefox drive on the desktop which when clicked opens up a window with firefox icon and an apps icon?

Chosen solution

If there are problems with updating or with the permissions then best is to download the full version and trash the currently installed version to do a clean install of the new version.

Download a new copy of the Firefox application and save the disk image file to the desktop

Your personal data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data when you uninstall and (re)install Firefox.

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (5)

more options

Try uninstalling and then installing some times the computer stores the old data files of software like firefox in your case to ease the access of these softwares in random access memory.

more options

i had to do that the previous update but that's pretty cumbersome. i am not very savy and that shouldn't be necessary should it. my husband had to do it for me and he isnt a Mac guy.

more options

Chosen Solution

If there are problems with updating or with the permissions then best is to download the full version and trash the currently installed version to do a clean install of the new version.

Download a new copy of the Firefox application and save the disk image file to the desktop

Your personal data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data when you uninstall and (re)install Firefox.

more options

the uninstall and fresh install worked.d But if that is required for every update I'm not thrilled. thank you very much though.

more options

that worked but that is not exactly seamless. Thank you for your help.