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Updating before PortApps offers?

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November 4, 2018 - 5:18am
#1
OsakaWebbie
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Updating before PortApps offers?

Firefox was really pesky last week - every day (perhaps even more often - I'm not sure) it popped up a notification saying that version 63.0.1 was available and suggesting I download it. Until today PortableApps did not say it was available, so I kept clicking "Not Now" on the notification until I could upgrade through PortableApps. In the Options, there are only two choices: "automatically install updates" or "check for updates but let you choose to install them". Thunderbird has a third choice, "never check for updates" (which of course they warn against, but PortableApps takes care of it), but Firefox doesn't.

So, is it safe to let Firefox install updates when it starts pestering me? Or do I need to keep clicking "not now" until PortableApps offers to do it?

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November 4, 2018 - 7:25am
Gord Caswell
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Yes/No

Mozilla Firefox generally can be safely updated using the built-in updater rather than waiting for the Firefox, Portable Edition update.
However, we do not recommend doing so, as there may be small, or large for that matter, changes in the way data is handled between versions that need to be dealt with via an update to the portable mechanisms.

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November 4, 2018 - 9:21am
(Reply to #2)
OsakaWebbie
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Thanks

Thanks for the clarification - I'll try to be patient in the future. I'd be completely content waiting if Firefox had a "let me handle it" choice for updates like Thunderbird does, but it was getting on my nerves. Can I assume it would normally only be a matter of days before PortableApps would be ready to update it?

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November 4, 2018 - 7:38pm
(Reply to #3)
AlexMail
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Mozilla removes the option to disable auto updates in Firefox 63

See my comment below on how to disable auto updates using policies.json in Firefox 63:
https://portableapps.com/comment/238559#comment-238559

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December 24, 2018 - 10:05pm
OsakaWebbie
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Further confusion

I got as far as 63.0.3 using patience. But now something weird has happened. I allowed PA to do an update while Firefox was open (I think that was a mistake, but I expected it to complain if it couldn't do that). Now Firefox itself is still on 63.0.3 and continuing telling me to update to 64, while PA says everything is up to date. Since the version listed on https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable is 64.0, I assume PA's internal version database (however that works) thinks I have 64 even though I don't. How do I solve this?

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December 24, 2018 - 10:53pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Files Locked

The files were locked since Firefox was still running. So only the 32-bit version and container got updated, not the 64-bit version. You can manually install a new copy of Firefox Portable 64.0 over your current one to upgrade it. That's what the platform is doing when it updates an app.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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December 25, 2018 - 10:00pm
(Reply to #6)
OsakaWebbie
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Procedure?

Thanks, John. How do I do that? I don't want to lose my settings and such. Do I get a ZIP file somewhere and carefully overwrite files?

Or should I create that policy file that AlexMail suggested (I hadn't tried that) and then just wait for 64.0.1 to come out? Presumably PA would then do the update gracefully.
Or if you happen to know that v.64 doesn't change any data handling (Gord Caswell's caveat), I could let Firefox update itself like it is eager to do.

In any case, a feature suggestion for PA if it's not too hard would be to detect if files are locked and either simply refuse to update or give the user a chance to close the application.

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December 25, 2018 - 10:09pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Relatively Easy

Download the Firefox Portable installer from here: https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Follow the "PortableApps.com Platform Manual" instructions here: https://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#upgrading

This does an "upgrade" even if the platform doesn't think you need one (like if an app half upgraded, got corrupted, etc). The upgrade process works the same way as with the updater and preserves all your settings and stuff.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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December 25, 2018 - 11:35pm
(Reply to #8)
OsakaWebbie
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Got it!

Thanks - that worked smooth as silk.

Note to others reading this thread (I suspect John already knows this): AlexMail's advice about adding a policy will only last until the next time PA updates FF, as the update removes the added "distribution" folder from the App area (first-hand evidence in the case of this manual method, but I suspect it's true even if PA initiates the update).

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December 26, 2018 - 12:24pm
(Reply to #9)
John T. Haller
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Preservation Coming

Preservation of the distribution folder in both 32-bit and 64-bit Firefox folders will be occurring in the next releases.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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