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Firefox keeps reinstalling ESR

I used Firefox ESR for about a year (2017-2018) when Mozilla decided to kill support for a lot of their add on APIs. But last year the ESR that supported the old APIs went away and I upgraded to the latest version of Quantum. In the past year, every time there's a major upgrade to Quantum, my browser reverts to ESR. It completely disrupts my day because I have to spend an entire day backing up my profile, uninstalling the browser, reinstalling the browser, adding all my addons again, getting all my addons set back up the way I like it, etc.

This has been going on for over a year now and it's driving me crazy! I've done everything I can think of. I've changed my upgrade channel (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2280605), doesn't work. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the entire browser, doesn't work. I've uninstalled, deleted my entire profile data folder, and reinstalled, doesn't work.

What do I have to do to stop Firefox from forcing me back into ESR?!?!?!?!? Do I need to entirely format my whole computer before I can use Firefox Quantum in peace? Mozilla, you make it really hard to want to use your products.

I used Firefox ESR for about a year (2017-2018) when Mozilla decided to kill support for a lot of their add on APIs. But last year the ESR that supported the old APIs went away and I upgraded to the latest version of Quantum. In the past year, every time there's a major upgrade to Quantum, my browser reverts to ESR. It completely disrupts my day because I have to spend an entire day backing up my profile, uninstalling the browser, reinstalling the browser, adding all my addons again, getting all my addons set back up the way I like it, etc. This has been going on for over a year now and it's driving me crazy! I've done everything I can think of. I've changed my upgrade channel (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2280605), doesn't work. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the entire browser, doesn't work. I've uninstalled, deleted my entire profile data folder, and reinstalled, doesn't work. What do I have to do to stop Firefox from forcing me back into ESR?!?!?!?!? Do I need to entirely format my whole computer before I can use Firefox Quantum in peace? Mozilla, you make it really hard to want to use your products.

All Replies (12)

Hi Pinski, your browser identified itself as Firefox 60 on Windows 10. Is that accurate? Could you share the first few values on the Troubleshooting Information page. Either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, what do you have for

  • Version
  • Update Channel

Can you double-check that you only have one installation of Firefox? These are the usual installation folders, assuming your Windows user has administrator privileges:

  • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox

It was Firefox 67, it said there was an update, then when I opened it back up it was back to Firefox 60 ESR. So I had to reinstall Firefox Quantum, again. I'm now on 67.0.4. But for how long?

I'm running on a 64-bit version of Windows 10. I do not have multiple installations. Firefox just likes to revert to the ESR branch whenever it updates itself.

And what is the Update Channel listed on the page? Is it esr by any chance?

Nope, it says release. I've physically changed it to release several times by editing the channel-prefs.js. It reverts to ESR when there's a major update.

You shouldn't edit channel-prefs,js.

Did you try a clean reinstall and deleted the Firefox program folder? You may have to reboot the computer and check again to make sure that the Firefox program folder is gone.

Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.

You can create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

" I've uninstalled and reinstalled the entire browser, doesn't work. I've uninstalled, deleted my entire profile data folder, and reinstalled, doesn't work. "

Another update, another revert to ESR. This is getting old.

What is your update channel?

  • Help -> About Firefox

See also the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page.

Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.

If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.

  • do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall the current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including personal data in profiles created by other Firefox versions

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

  • (64-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • (32-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"

Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.


Reinstall Firefox

cor-el said

What is your update channel?
  • Help -> About Firefox
See also the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page.

As stated previously, my update channel is set to release yet when it updates ESR becomes installed and then the update channel becomes ESR. I uninstall / reinstall release and then the update channel becomes release again until there's actually an update.

cor-el said

Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release. If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.
  • do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall the current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including personal data in profiles created by other Firefox versions
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
  • (64-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
  • (32-bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.

Reinstall Firefox

This isn't some type of corrupt file or something, this is happening on all three of the computers I use Firefox on. One I use daily, one I use weekly, and one I use monthly. All three of them used ESR, all three of them had ESR uninstalled, all three of them had the latest release installed, and all three of them revert to ESR whenever there's a major update. Unless, somehow, all three had the same file get corrupted, I doubt a corrupted file is the issue.

Also, as stated before, I've uninstalled and done a clean reinstall numerous times and it doesn't work. I've done everything except completely format the hard drive.

Also, this is pretty much the exact same answer you posted before. I guess it's easy to get 10s of thousands of post when you just copy / paste the same solution over and over without reading what the user has already said.

Modified by Michael Lipinski

I don't know whether it's relevant, but there is another little piece over here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Maintenance Service

I would think that service takes its marching orders from the current version of Firefox and not a remnant from the past, but perhaps it plays some role in this problem?

jscher2000 said

I don't know whether it's relevant, but there is another little piece over here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Maintenance Service I would think that service takes its marching orders from the current version of Firefox and not a remnant from the past, but perhaps it plays some role in this problem?

Yeah, I found that too. Good catch.

On my most recent uninstall I uninstalled everything, including the Maintenance Service. I did an entire uninstall, deleted my profile, deleted every folder that had Mozilla or Firefox in it's title on my C drive, and did several reboots during the process before reinstalling. If this doesn't fix it, I don't know what will.