Why can't the devs have it update in the background or on next startup? I was in the middle of my work when I got this. Now I need to close everything and go through all the logins and 2FA again. 😡
Chrome is much better at this, hands down. It has never interrupted me the way Firefox does during updates.
I've been using Firefox since 1.0PR and I've never seen this message before. For me, Firefox has always quietly downloaded the update in the background and then installed it the next time I used it.
I'm curious to know just exactly what it is you're doing to make this message come up.
I saw this yesterday on Linux after a typical update command and it surprised me. Restarting FF reopened all my tabs without issue and it wasn't really an inconvenience to me.
I typically keep Firefox open all the time with 50-100 tabs, (using various extensions to keep the organized)
This happens to me every few weeks and it's genuinely annoying, unless I had all my tabs saved it just lose them, and instead of giving me a chance to do that, Firefox just becomes useless until I hit the button.
I don't understand why, if it's going to put a page like this up anyway, that it doesn't just restart on its own; I would prefer it to not do either but at least that removes the unneeded button click.
For anyone who is still confused about what causes this: Firefox launches copies of itself when creating new website instances (usually when loading a website that has not already been loaded). Because of this, if it is updated in the background (through any means; I usually see this after a manual system update), Firefox has to restart when you try and load a new site because it cannot create any compatible copies of itself, since the old version is the one that is still running and the copies would use the new (updated) version.
The solution is to only update when Firefox is closed, or restart it when it asks.
Are you sure you don't have some other software updating Firefox in the background?
Normally this only happens on Linux when your package manager updates Firefox while it's running, and on Windows that doesn't happen because Firefox updates itself only when you (re)start it.
Not on the Linux systems I'm familiar with. The only way to trigger anything similar is to execute a package update while running FF, at which point new tabs will show a message to restart, but you can keep on using the open ones indefinitely.
Probably already been said, but I'm wondering why you haven't just checked the box in Settings for automatic updates that says "When Firefox is not running", because I've never encountered this problem with that turned on.
That's a Linux (and similar) issue. When Linux updates via it's package managers it will update Firefox in the background even though it's open. Firefox then forces you to close it rather than open other tabs to prevent problems.
But you don't have to install Firefox via the package managers or flathub. You can build it yourself or install a binary manually and I believe it well self update as it does on other platforms. I haven't done it for a while though.
Otherwise manually control Linux updates so it doesn't mess with Firefox when you're in the middle of something important.
Edit: the exception on Windows would be if some other software is handling firefox's updates or there is a group policy / system management of Firefox. I've never had this issue on windows on my own PCs
Edit: btw I have had worse happen on windows with chrome on a work pc. An update was forced on my and chrome close itself without warning and reopened with the update. Pissed me off no end.
In 4 or 5 years on Ubuntu I have no memory of ever seeing it.
My complaint is the roulette of sometimes being unable to reopen my last session after restarting my computer. I'd say once every 10 restarts, the "reload last session" button is grayed out and I lose all my open tabs.
You could try pinning tabs you want to keep before restarting. I do the same if I really want to be sure. Pinned tabs generally survive restarts, even during updates.
If you are okay with trusting an extension, I use Tab Session Manager, it takes snapshots of all your open windows and tabs, and it can restore them when, for example, you forget to restore the previous session before closing Firefox, and overwrite the previous session of dozens of tabs, with the current session that you don't care about.
I usually just rely on the built-in restore, but having the backup just in case is such a relief to have on those occasions when "reload last session" is grayed out.
I had this exact scenario (asking me to restart after an update) happen to me yesterday on pop os which is Ubuntu based. And I've definitely seen it other times too. Having said that, it was absolutely no big deal whatsoever.
I don't remember seeing the other issue you mention. I've literally had some tabs open several months. Have you tried looking for the "restore tabs" option in the History menu when this happens? Afaik that's available even if you don't have any option set to save your tabs
The site that launches after updates is for telemetry - the request gives them information on the updater (IP, geo location, OS, localization, fonts, fingerprinting, etc).
I have never seen this in all my time using Firefox. It always tells me there's an update available and prompts a restart but I can still continue using the browser.
just don't update stuff unless you're ready to restart apps? cuz you're not gonna get the new stuff until it restarts anyway. also it should restore your session
Why is this being downvoted? It's true, don't upgrade if you can't affort to restart. If it is some shitty OS or package manager feature that does this automatically, then turn it off.
And if you'd tried to use a search engine in that new tab, you're presented with a blank tab after restart, having to remember what your search query was.
I get something similar to this on Linux all the time and it makes it hard to choose Firefox, as much as I want to try.
I dug around once to try to find out why and how to stop it. The alternative is just straight up crashing, and so they chose to slap up that blank new tab page instead. related bugzilla
Depending on how you've installed it / configured updates, you may just be out of luck whenever an auto update happens and you just have to restart the browser.
It sucks, even if it remembers your tabs, because some of them are inevitably returned in a different state, have to relogin, etc.
Manual update is best update. FF has background update tho, and it shouldnt log you out from your websites unless you have it set to delete cookies on exit or smthng.
For me this happens after I update Linux, so if you have Firefox open while a Firefox update is installing, upon finishing, if you open a new tab in Firefox then it shows that screen. For me the more annoying part is that on Linux the language I set Firefox to is reset to Englisch after every update, I maybe set something up wrong because on windows I don't remember having this problem but it happens after every Firefox update on linux
I've never seen this and I keep firefox open pretty much until it decides to randomly crash (probably an extension so something but still goes for a few days usually)
How long are you going without restarting firefox once?
I've been using Firefox on all my machines for (many) years now and literally not once have I ever seen this. Maybe you unintentionally have some option set to install updates more quickly/directly?
Yeah, caught out the first.time. Now I never OK the update until I am about to close.down, which is a bulahit workaround but there it is. Why can't it be downloaded with a pop uo notification saying install the update now or wait until you reboot?