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The update could not be installed. Please make sure there are no other copies of Firefox running on your computer, and then restart Firefox to try again. I get this message when I try to install FF 7 and FF is NOT running! Help

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Get this message everytime I try to upgrade from FF6 to 7. I have rebooted and tried again twice and still nothing. Shortly after I get the failed to install message FF6 starts up by itself. On top of all this some, if not all web pages, do not complete. Google Chrome works just fine. No fix for FF problems I will uninstall and use Google Chrome

e-mail: gdo@q.com

Get this message everytime I try to upgrade from FF6 to 7. I have rebooted and tried again twice and still nothing. Shortly after I get the failed to install message FF6 starts up by itself. On top of all this some, if not all web pages, do not complete. Google Chrome works just fine. No fix for FF problems I will uninstall and use Google Chrome e-mail: gdo@q.com

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If there are problems with updating then best is to download the full version and uninstall the currently installed version.

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

  • Uninstall your current Firefox version.
  • Do not remove personal data when you uninstall the current version or you lose your bookmarks and other data in the profile folder.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

  • It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.


If files already have been downloaded then you may have to remove the files in the updates and updates\0 folder.
You can delete active-update.xml and updates.xml as well if present.

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

The "Application Data" folder in XP/Win2K and the "AppData" folder in Vista/Windows 7 are hidden folders.