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My wife tried to update firefox and ever since it will not open. When I click on it a window pops up and says that I need to finish upgrading a previous version by rebooting. When I reboot nothing changes.

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My wife tried to update firefox and ever since it will not open. When I click on it a window pops up and says that I need to finish upgrading a previous version by rebooting. When I reboot nothing changes.

My wife tried to update firefox and ever since it will not open. When I click on it a window pops up and says that I need to finish upgrading a previous version by rebooting. When I reboot nothing changes.

Chosen solution

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 (stores the update history).

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

Do a clean (re)install and delete the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

Uninstall your current Firefox version if possible.

  • Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall the current version or you lose your bookmarks and other data in the profile folder.

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

  • It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.


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Chosen Solution

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 (stores the update history).

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

Do a clean (re)install and delete the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\).

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

Uninstall your current Firefox version if possible.

  • Do NOT remove personal data when you uninstall the current version or you lose your bookmarks and other data in the profile folder.

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

  • It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.


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Thank you very much. That fixed the problem