There have been a few times when I updated Firefox Portable through the browser itself. But the vast majority of the time, I use the PortableApps program to update it. Is either fine, or should I only do it through the PortableApps program? The reason I ask is because it would be faster to use the browser instead because it usually takes 1-2 days before the PA program prompts for an update. And if I did it through the portable browser, I probably wouldn't ever have to launch PA since Firefox Portable is pretty much the only PA program that I use.
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First of, do not update Firefox Portable by allowing it to update itself through the browser. You might get away with it for while but every time you do so you risk something going wrong.
If by 'PortableApps program' you mean the PortableApps.com Platform then you do not need to use that to do the updating of your Firefox Portable.
I don't use the PortableApps.com Platform myself so when I want to update my Firefox Portable I just download the latest offering here: Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition and use that file to manually update the version of Firefox Portable that I have on my system. To do the manual update do the following:
(1) Download the latest portable version available, say, at the time of writing this,
"FirefoxPortable_100.0.1_EnglishGB.paf.exe"
(2) Once the file is downloaded launch it and point its installer to the directory in which you already have Firefox Portable 'installed' to.
(3) Having done that it will the 'paf' file will just update your already existing 'install' of Firefox Portable. It will not touch your Portable Firefox Profile so you will retain any custom settings you have made.
For general guidance on PortableApps see: https://portableapps.com/support
For more details on 'installing' a portable app see this: https://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#installing
For guidance for Firefox Portable see: https://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable (Please note that this webpage is pretty well out of date in some places so just read it and glean what can, ignore what won't work.)
P.S. If you Firefox Portable throws an update message, just ignore it until such times as the latest version is posted up by John Haller. It usually takes a few days for John to build the new Firefox Portable so be patient — he will not necessarily have the new update posted at the same time as the official release of the new version by Mozilla. You can keep track of what apps are being updated by visiting this page daily: https://portableapps.com/development/outdated
Hope this helps.
Use Portable Apps on both Flash Drive and HDD/SSD.
You can update via Firefox's internal updater. It's recommended you then update the whole package. Today's release, for instance, fixes some left behind non-personal files. That's why the 100.0.2 release was delayed a bit.
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Okay, I received conflicting answers but you are the developer so I trust you when you say that I can update using Firefox's internal updater. But I don't understand what you mean afterwards. You say that it is then recommended that i update the whole package. Is that possible using the PortableApps.com program? I'd rather use the PA program than have to download Portable Firefox from the website. If it is possible to update using the PA program, how does that work? So for instance, I have 100.0.1 right now. Using Firefox's internal updater, that might bring me to 100.0.2. Will the PA program then say you have 100.0.2 but we are prompting you to install OUR VERSION of 100.0.2, and then I'll have the Portable App version with fixes?
Think of Firefox Portable as 3 pieces: 32-bit Firefox within App\Firefox, 64-bit Firefox within App\Firefox64, and the Firefox Portable launcher of FirefoxPortable.exe within the base directory. I'm guessing you're on a 64-bit machine, so if you let Firefox update itself, it updated the 64-bit Firefox within App\Firefox64. Firefox Portable will still report itself to the PA.c Platform as 100.0.1, though, because that's what the rest of it is. You can let the platform update the app and it'll update all 3 pieces automatically just as always.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense.