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Being offered 6.0-beta as a "security and stability" update from 5.0-stable

  • 4 replies
  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by zwol

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My Mac is, or should be, on the -stable channel for Firefox updates, yet I am being offered an upgrade from 5.0-stable to 6.0-beta rather than to 5.0.1. about:config has "beta" in app.update.channel, and labels this "default" rather than "user set" -- so this is a client-side glitch rather than a server-side one, but I'd still like to know how this happened and why.

Addendum: I tried changing that pref to "release" and to "stable", but the about box still offered the 6.0-beta upgrade rather than the 5.0.1 upgrade. Is this because the beta has already been downloaded? How can I get it to give me the 5.0.1 upgrade instead?

My Mac is, or should be, on the -stable channel for Firefox updates, yet I am being offered an upgrade from 5.0-stable to 6.0-beta rather than to 5.0.1. about:config has "beta" in app.update.channel, and labels this "default" rather than "user set" -- so this is a client-side glitch rather than a server-side one, but I'd still like to know how this happened and why. Addendum: I tried changing that pref to "release" and to "stable", but the about box still offered the 6.0-beta upgrade rather than the 5.0.1 upgrade. Is this because the beta has already been downloaded? How can I get it to give me the 5.0.1 upgrade instead?

Modified by zwol

All Replies (4)

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Did you ever install a beta release in the past?

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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I may have had 4.0 betas on this computer, I don't remember for sure.

Surely there is a way to correct this problem without reinstalling?

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Firefox 5.0.1 has been released. That update is aimed at Mac (Windows and Linux users aren't offered this update), so you will still have to install a new version and if you are on the wrong update channel the you need to install a new full version anyway. That will probably also happen if you would edit the file /defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js in the Firefox installation folder to switch the update channel.

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I really, seriously disbelieve that there is no way to switch the update channel without reinstalling from scratch.