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

Firefox stuck in restart required loop after update

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by leo

more options

I was on nightly and today I guess my friendly IT admin pushed a system policy that blocked the firefox binary from updating itself. Since then, I have been stuck in this restart required loop.

No matter what version of firefox I launch, I get prompted to restart because firefox was updated in the background and it's basically stuck like that.

I have disabled the antivirus service completely, deleted my nightly installation, purged my regular installation through apt, installed nightly at a different path, deleted .mozilla etc.

I keep getting these errors when I launch firefox from any installation in a terminal:

###!!! [Child][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost ###!!! [Child][MessageChannel::SendAndWait] Error: Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370061,name=PContent::Msg_RefreshScreens) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370043,name=PContent::Msg_SetXPCOMProcessAttributes) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370034,name=PContent::Msg_UpdateSharedData) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370034,name=PContent::Msg_UpdateSharedData) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37001B,name=PContent::Msg_RegisterChrome) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370033,name=PContent::Msg_RegisterStringBundles) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37003D,name=PContent::Msg_AppInfo) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37003E,name=PContent::Msg_RemoteType) Channel error: cannot send/recv

I was on nightly and today I guess my friendly IT admin pushed a system policy that blocked the firefox binary from updating itself. Since then, I have been stuck in this restart required loop. No matter what version of firefox I launch, I get prompted to restart because firefox was updated in the background and it's basically stuck like that. I have disabled the antivirus service completely, deleted my nightly installation, purged my regular installation through apt, installed nightly at a different path, deleted .mozilla etc. I keep getting these errors when I launch firefox from any installation in a terminal: ###!!! [Child][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost ###!!! [Child][MessageChannel::SendAndWait] Error: Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370061,name=PContent::Msg_RefreshScreens) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370043,name=PContent::Msg_SetXPCOMProcessAttributes) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370034,name=PContent::Msg_UpdateSharedData) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370034,name=PContent::Msg_UpdateSharedData) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37001B,name=PContent::Msg_RegisterChrome) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x370033,name=PContent::Msg_RegisterStringBundles) Channel error: cannot send/recv [Parent 16887, Main Thread] WARNING: FileDescriptorSet destroyed with unconsumed descriptors: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/file_descriptor_set_posix.cc, line 19 ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37003D,name=PContent::Msg_AppInfo) Channel error: cannot send/recv ###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error: (msgtype=0x37003E,name=PContent::Msg_RemoteType) Channel error: cannot send/recv

Modified by leo

All Replies (3)

more options

I don't know whether this is relevant to Linux.

On Windows, there is a folder containing staged updates that you can remove in cases of an update loop. Instead of being on the main profile path, it is on a secondary path:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Mozilla\updates

On Linux and Mac, it may be in the program folder, judging from this old thread:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/993389

Can you find and remove that?

more options

Is this about Firefox on Windows, because on Linux you normally do not have security software installed that comes in the way ?

Did you try to reboot the computer ?

I assume that you can't start Firefox once as an administrator (root user) to see whether that fixes this issue ?

more options

I tried deleting the firefox folder and going to a fresh firefox nightly install but that didn't help

cor-el said

Is this about Firefox on Windows, because on Linux you normally do not have security software installed that comes in the way ? Did you try to reboot the computer ? I assume that you can't start Firefox once as an administrator (root user) to see whether that fixes this issue ?

It's on my work PC, so IT chose to install a security software