[Tip] Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox
If you want to permanently block automatic updates installation in Mozilla Firefox web browser and want to stay on the current version, this article will help you.
Following screenshot shows automatic updates installation disabled in Firefox web browser:
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Firefox is showing “Updates disabled by your system administrator” message on the About Firefox window and can’t scan or search for new updates available from Mozilla servers.
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Some Firefox Users Want to Disable Automatic Updates
Firefox comes with a built-in updater service or executable which looks for new updates available for Firefox and downloads and installs them automatically for the user. It helps Mozilla in delivering important fixes and newer versions of Firefox to users. It also protects Firefox users and keeps their browser and computer safe.
Sometimes you may want to turn off automatic updates installation in Firefox due to various reasons. For example, some of your favorite extensions or add-ons are not compatible with new Firefox version and you decide to stay on an old compatible version of Firefox. Similarly, your organization or other important websites are not working in new version of Firefox and you are forced to keep using old version of Firefox to be able to use those websites.
Recently a reader “xtasy” asked us a way to stop automatic updates feature and its pop-up notification in Firefox:
Hi VG, Is there any way to stop Firefox ‘update available’ from popping up? Thanks! I don’t want to upgrade it because some extensions don’t work in new versions. Is it possible to stop update notifications from popping up while staying on the current version?
In older versions of Firefox, it was very simple to turn off automatic updates. There was a dedicated option “Never check for updates” available on Firefox Settings page which could be used by Firefox users to completely disable automatic updates. But the option was removed long time back since the release of Firefox 64.0 version.
Now we get only 2 options to choose: Automatically install updates and Check for updates but let you choose to install them.
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PS: You should uncheck “Use a background service to install updates” option present on Firefox Settings page to block the background service from always running and scanning for new Firefox versions. Advanced users can also disable the background service by changing app.update.service.enabled preference/flag to False using about:config page.
This article will help you in preventing and restricting Firefox from automatically upgrading to newer versions. Once you follow the steps given in this article, Firefox will be unable to search for new updates and will stuck at the currently installed version in your device.
How to Disable Automatic Updates in Mozilla Firefox
There is still an official way to disable automatic updates in Firefox which works 100% and permanently turns off automatic updates installation in Firefox. Interested users can deploy a policy in Firefox to disable or block automatic update feature in Firefox.
Following Registry tweak will help you in applying the required policy in Firefox to disable automatic updates installation:
1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies
3. Create a new key under Policies key and set its name as Mozilla
4. Select Mozilla key and create another new key under Mozilla key and set its name as Firefox
So the final key path will be:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox
5. Select Firefox key and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD DisableAppUpdate and set its value to 1
6. You’ll need to restart Firefox to take effects. If you have opened multiple tabs and you don’t want to lose them, you can restart Firefox without losing tabs using methods given in following tutorial:
[Tip] How to Restart Mozilla Firefox Without Losing Tabs
That’s it. Restart Firefox browser and automatic updates functionality will be permanently disabled in your Firefox browser.
You can check by opening Firefox Settings (about:preferences) page. Firefox will start showing “Updates disabled by your system administrator” message under Updates section as shown in following screenshot:
PS: In future, if you decide to restore automatic updates in Firefox, delete the new DisableAppUpdate DWORD from Registry Editor and restart Firefox.
Registry Script to Automatically Disable Firefox Updates
If you don’t want to modify registry yourself, we have created ready-made Registry script file for you to apply the required Registry tweak automatically.
Download following ZIP file, extract it using 7-Zip or other file archive utilities and run the extracted REG file:
The script file will ask for confirmation, accept it.
The ZIP file also contains UNDO file to restore automatic updates in Firefox.
Your Browser is being Managed by Your Organization Message in Firefox
You may notice a new message “Your browser is being managed by your organization” displaying at the top of Firefox Options (about:preferences) page after applying the policy. Ignore it. It’s a default message which is displayed by Firefox when the user implements any policy in the browser. Check out following tutorial for more information:
[Fix] Your Browser is Being Managed by Your Organization Error Message in Mozilla Firefox
Also Check:
[Tip] Disable Automatic Background Updates Feature in Mozilla Firefox
[Tip] Disable “Default Browser Agent” After Installing Mozilla Firefox
Version 112 still dont work on these.
app.update.service.enabled is already on false long ago before updates
I use Win10 64bit on my laptop with a single SSD and use FF110 portable with autoupdate turned off to help stop FF updates from BLOATING my SS drive. NONE of the solutions here worked to stop the extremely annoying non-stop FF update available popup.
I did find a fix at: reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/onesvu/how_to_disable_automatic_check_for_update/ and it seems to work so far.
It seems to modify the FF executable version number to the latest version without DLing or installing the actual update. Even file R-Click –>properties show the latest FF version. Sure hope this helps others.
Bob, thank you. Your tip worked for me. I need to remain on ESR 102.11 and so changing the channel-prefs.js file from “esr” to “default” was a simple fix to stop the autoupdate popup.
Is there some way you can add a setting in either the registry or the about:config which will stop the update check at browser startup? This is massively annoying. Every.single.time. I open the browser, it just hangs for sometimes up to 45 sec checking for an update. Once that is done, everything moves at lightning speed on my ssd, but before that check it will not load any tabs or bookmarks so I have to wait for the check to be done before I can go about using the browser. I don’t care about it updating, I just don’t want it to do it every.single.time I open the browser.
Firefox recently removed the option ‘ Check for updates “Never”.’ Now the least intrusive option checks for updates every 24 hours and notifies you when available. To disable update *checking*:
1. Go to about:config
2. Search for the preference “app.update.interval”. This sets the time between update checks in seconds. By default it is “43200”, i.e.12 hours.
3. Change “app.update.interval” to your preferred interval. I set mine to “315360000” which is 10 years.
Now you will be notified at most once a decade instead of twice a day.
Thank you. It works really fine. Anyway, I can’t understand why creators want to difficult our life and decide what’s better for us. No, sir, I am who will decide on my life and computer and security and whatever.