Look, Mozilla's policy is that if you don't want to use a current version of Firefox they would rather you use a different up-to-date web browser rather than an old, no longer supported version of Firefox. Right, wrong, or indifferent about that policy, there isn't anything that anyone here can do about it.

That said, I have repeatedly posted how I keep Mozilla from automatically updating beyond Firefox 3.6.28, but that information usually get ignored in the complaint threads about "forced updates", It appears to me that the "forced update complainers" would rather commiserate your misery over this issue than listen to the common sense postings about this subject.

As to why the information that has been posted doesn't work for you, I have no idea. My Firefox 3.6.28 installation had never gotten updated - when I get asked about the update I always answer no immediately.

I suspect that you might be missing the popup about that older version, which suggests that you update; or you may be ignoring that popup altoghether. Miss it or ignore it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the update was installed.

I can assure you good buddy that I am not ignoring any choices to refuse the updates. This morning when I clicked my desktop icon as I do every morning, the first thing to appear was a box asking about my addons. The deed had already done before I had any opportunity to stop it. So far I have spent three+ hours drinking coffee and reading post after post of people who are also sick to death of the heavy handed, big brother tactics of Firefox, and many proposed solutions to the problem. I am currently deleting anything that mentions "update", "channel-pres.js", etc. but it seems everything I try to sabotage is just rewritten to default values when I open firefox again. Frankly I don't care if I have to dump Firefox now as I have Opera up and running but now its just a case of a little guy trying to do battle with the Firefox bully. I am not alone, apparently!

There is a delay of like 2 minutes (or more) after start-up before checks for the availability of an update, it doesn't happen as Firefox is being started. The update was probably downloaded the last time you used Firefox, and it was installed this morning when you started Firefox.

Certainly possible. I just finished editing the channel-pref.js file to "default" which I believe is the one that should stop any attempt at update. I had to do this in notepad with Firefox closed. Then when I restarted Firefox and looked for the file in "about:config" it has recorded the change. Again I will wait and see if it has been successful.

There's one pref in that file - app.update.channel - and "default" isn't a valid value for that pref. So I wouldn't be surprised if Firefox didn't recognize that change or if it was ignored. See if that change appears in about:config and if it reverts to "release" when you restart Firefox.

Did you try putting - user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);" - in a user.js file?
That's what I use when I setup a new Profile to keep Firefox from updating - along with 10 other prefs that I routinely set.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/User.js_file

Hi Heavystuff,

Hope you have fixed your problem now. I did post in the other thread and like the-edmeister made suggestions on preventing upgrades /questions/929483?page=2#answer-346224

Even if the upgrades override user preferences I doubt it will be changed. Developers rarely see this forum, and will not be influenced by posts here. Anyone aware of the risks and desperate to use fx3.6 is likely to be capable of preventing upgrades, and probably fully restoring Fx3.6 in at the most a few minutes.

Yes, "user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);" is showing in the user.js file? So it might work this time.

"Even if the upgrades override user preferences I doubt it will be changed. Developers rarely see this forum, and will not be influenced by posts here. Anyone aware of the risks and desperate to use fx3.6 is likely to be capable of preventing upgrades, and probably fully restoring Fx3.6 in at the most a few minutes. " Well I am certainly getting quicker at uninstalling v12 and setting up v3.6 these days. The time consuming part is my proxy server components and 3 or 4 addons.

Save the profile, the install file for 3.6 and use the-edmeisters suggestion of using a user.js file. In my case a reinstall takes seconds if I choose to do it.

• see Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

Note it is sometimes considered an advanced topic but if you wished multiple versions of Firefox may be installed. The easiest method is probably to use Firefox portable, and that is available at the moment as fx13 or fx3.6

• http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable#legacy

Firefox portable will install in addition to any other Firefox version you have.

You can also set the update URL pref (app.update.url) to an empty string, then Firefox shouldn't be able to check for updates.

If files already have been downloaded then remove the files in the updates and updates\0 folder.

You can also delete active-update.xml and possibly updates.xml (this will clear the update history).

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Updates_reported_when_running_newest_version
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Software_Update (Software Update not working properly)

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

If you do not keep changes then see:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Preferences+are+not+saved

Thankyou John99 and cor-el. I will make note of your suggestions and will thoroughly investigate the links and ideas. I'm sure I'm on the right track now with your help.