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How can I stop Firefox 4.01 from prompting me to update to beta 5.0? I want to stay with a stable release.

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  • 17 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I was a beta tester for Firefox 4, but I want to stay with stable releases that are compatible with my plugins for now. Each time I start Firefox 4.01, it pompts me to update to beta 5.0, which it refers to as an important security and stability update. I believe 4.01 is the most up-to-date general release, and I'd like Firefox to stop prompting me to update to a beta.

I was a beta tester for Firefox 4, but I want to stay with stable releases that are compatible with my plugins for now. Each time I start Firefox 4.01, it pompts me to update to beta 5.0, which it refers to as an important security and stability update. I believe 4.01 is the most up-to-date general release, and I'd like Firefox to stop prompting me to update to a beta.

Chosen solution

It is possible that you are still on the beta update channel if you ever installed a Firefox 4 beta version or a release candidate.

You can check that by looking at the pref app.update.channel on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.

If the value of that pref is beta then it is better to download and install the latest Firefox 4.0.x release.

Download a new copy of the Firefox program and save the DMG file to the desktop

  • Trash the current Firefox application to do a clean (re-)install
  • Install the new version that you have downloaded

Your profile data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data.

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Chosen Solution

It is possible that you are still on the beta update channel if you ever installed a Firefox 4 beta version or a release candidate.

You can check that by looking at the pref app.update.channel on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.

If the value of that pref is beta then it is better to download and install the latest Firefox 4.0.x release.

Download a new copy of the Firefox program and save the DMG file to the desktop

  • Trash the current Firefox application to do a clean (re-)install
  • Install the new version that you have downloaded

Your profile data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data.

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Thanks cor-el, your response was right on!

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Firefox 5 was released a couple of hours ago, it is longer a "beta" version as when you first posted a week ago.

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That won't help.
If you are on the beta release channel then you only get the latest beta (currently 5.0b7) and not the latest current 5.0 release.