Why can't I download the update to Firefox?
I have a brand new I-mac and just recently added Mozilla Firefox to my browsers. I get a notice that a security update is available. When I select update, it say "connecting to update server", but it just stays on that place and never downloads the update. I can wait 5 or 6 minutes and it keeps saying "connecting to update server" but nothing else happens. I am new to Apple after saying farewell to my 8 year old Dell P.C., so everything is new to me. Is something blocking the update? I never had this problem when I used Firefox on my P.C. and since I love it as a primary browser, I want to keep everything up to date.
Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Shockwave Flash 11.5 r502
- Displays Java applet content, or a placeholder if Java is not installed.
- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
Application
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0
More Information
To manually check for updates:
- On the menu bar click the Firefox menu and select About Firefox.
- The About Firefox window will open and Firefox will begin checking for updates. If updates are available, they will begin downloading automatically.
Ref: Update Firefox to the latest version
You can also update Firefox to the latest version (currently Firefox 17.0.1) by downloading the installer from http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/fx/#desktop and running it. See Install Firefox on Mac for details.
If there are problems with updating or with the permissions then easiest is to download the full version and trash the currently installed version to do a clean install of the new version.
Download a new copy of the Firefox program and save the disk image (dmg) file to the desktop
- Firefox 17.0.1: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
- Trash the current Firefox application (e.g. open the Applications folder in the Finder and drag the Firefox application to the Trash) to do a clean (re-)install
- Install the new version that you have downloaded
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Installing+Firefox+on+Mac
Your profile data is stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder, so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data if you uninstall and (re)install Firefox.