Firefox update to 146.0 - not working
Yesterday I tried to update Firefox to 146.0, but the update failed, consistently. Here's what I did: Seeing the usual "There is a new update available"-pop up, I accepted. "About" screen came up. I clicked the button "update to 146.0", but no download started. I waited about 15 minutes, but still no download. I closed the window. Next, I tried the menu option: "Help->About Firefox". "About" screen came up. I clicked the button "update to 146.0". Same as above, no download.
Before anyone asks the obvious questions: Yes, I was connected to the internet the whole time. I checked that by calling up random pages. No, my firewall was not blocking Firefox. No, it was not just one quirky device. I tried it on laptop and desktop both. Yes, I did close and restart Firefox, I even rebooted the devices, and tried again. Same problem.
Now while my workaround (see below) helped, there is still the question of the update process failing in the first place. For me, that brings up two pressing issues at least: 1. Has anyone external tampered with the update process, maybe with malicious intent? It has happened to several software distributors, most recently the guy behind Notepad ++. 2. What happened to people relying on automatic (i.e. not prompting) updates? Did they even notice they were not being updated?
Not a solution, but a workaround: I synced all my setting to my Firefox-account (worked just fine, no problems), downloaded the newest installer, installed the new version on top of the old (worked like a charm), started new version, all just fine. I did not even need to sync my settings back, all was kept intact. Excellent!