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Firefox Updater Crashes on Launch – No Error

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Some quick Sys Info:

iMac 27-inch, Late 2015 Mac OS 10.12.3 Firefox v60.0.1, Standard Release (Also confirmed to happen on Developer edition and Nightly)


Issue:

For a consistent 6 months or so (started before and continued after Quantum update), whenever Firefox has automatically downloaded and queued an update to be installed, the Firefox Updater (and by extension, Firefox) crashes immediately upon launch. There is no error message, nor does it seem to output a message into any sort of text log. The icon simply appears on the dock, bounces once, then disappears.

As it stands, the only way to solve this is to manually delete the cached update files in my Library, then use another browser to download an updated copy of Firefox to install over the old installation.

Some things I have tried that do *not* solve this issue: Deleting my Firefox profile, Creating a new Firefox profile, Completely deleting and clearing my settings, Fully removing and reinstalling Firefox, Removing all of my addons and plugins, Installing different editions and versions of Firefox, Starting Firefox in Safe Mode, Using the 'Refresh Firefox' feature, Poking around in the files in my terminal like I have any clue what I'm doing.

Some things I haven't checked because I'm not smart enough to know how to do them right: Starting updater through the terminal in verbose mode to see if it has a crash error?, Figuring out what file the updater is unpacking into and changing the permissions to be more open, Running the updater as SU (thought this might be a bad idea).

I would really like to have my automatic browser updates back and would prefer to not have to dig around in my system files whenever I want to start my browser—if anyone has an idea of what might be causing this, I would greatly appreciate the help!

Some quick Sys Info: iMac 27-inch, Late 2015 Mac OS 10.12.3 Firefox v60.0.1, Standard Release (Also confirmed to happen on Developer edition and Nightly) Issue: For a consistent 6 months or so (started before and continued after Quantum update), whenever Firefox has automatically downloaded and queued an update to be installed, the Firefox Updater (and by extension, Firefox) crashes immediately upon launch. There is no error message, nor does it seem to output a message into any sort of text log. The icon simply appears on the dock, bounces once, then disappears. As it stands, the only way to solve this is to manually delete the cached update files in my Library, then use another browser to download an updated copy of Firefox to install over the old installation. Some things I have tried that do *not* solve this issue: Deleting my Firefox profile, Creating a new Firefox profile, Completely deleting and clearing my settings, Fully removing and reinstalling Firefox, Removing all of my addons and plugins, Installing different editions and versions of Firefox, Starting Firefox in Safe Mode, Using the 'Refresh Firefox' feature, Poking around in the files in my terminal like I have any clue what I'm doing. Some things I haven't checked because I'm not smart enough to know how to do them right: Starting updater through the terminal in verbose mode to see if it has a crash error?, Figuring out what file the updater is unpacking into and changing the permissions to be more open, Running the updater as SU (thought this might be a bad idea). I would really like to have my automatic browser updates back and would prefer to not have to dig around in my system files whenever I want to start my browser—if anyone has an idea of what might be causing this, I would greatly appreciate the help!

Modified by CapnWhales

All Replies (5)

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When you say you reinstalled Firefox, did you get the full installer from Download Firefox For All languages And Systems {web link}

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I downloaded from the main link on GetFirefox.com—I believe they're the same final download location though.

But yes, when I reinstalled, I used the full Mac OS installer after removing all of my profiles, addons, and settings.

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CapnWhales said

I downloaded from the main link on GetFirefox.com—I believe they're the same final download location though. But yes, when I reinstalled, I used the full Mac OS installer after removing all of my profiles, addons, and settings.

Hi, no they are not the same place. Where you go is the stub installer which is a small download that starts the download. Where Fred would like you to go is the full version downloader, please do so.

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I've downloaded the dmg from the link above—the files are entirely identical in size and content to the file served from GetFirefox.com. Windows may get a web/stub installer, but it appears that Mac OS is always served the full executable.

I've gone ahead and replaced my installation with the installation linked by Fred above for the sake of being thorough, but unless 60.0.2 has introduced an update to the automatic updater, I don't believe this has made any significant change.

Unfortunately, updating my browser leaves me unable to check the status of this issue until another update is issued.

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Some protection programs don't like the update/install stubs.