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4 "default" profiles, only 1 allows automatic updating and it's not my real default profile

Firefox Update failure
jbr replied
Nimbulaxan
Nimbulaxan

I've had a problem for a while where Firefox tells me "Firefox is being updated by another instance" and the only way I've been able to get updates is by using the installer.

In my attempts to resolve this, I learned of the `about:profiles`. I have never set up profiles so I figures I should only have the 1 default profile but it turns out I have `default`, `default-release`, default-release-1`, and `default-release-2`.

Of these profiles, the `default-release` is the 1 that has my data while it is `default-release-1` that is able to update.

I would like to make it so that I only have 1 profile that has all of my data AND is able to update.

I already tried removing all the profiles accept the one with my data but that leaves Firefox unable to update. I restored all the profiles I removed and I am back to where I started.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've had a problem for a while where Firefox tells me "Firefox is being updated by another instance" and the only way I've been able to get updates is by using the installer. In my attempts to resolve this, I learned of the `about:profiles`. I have never set up profiles so I figures I should only have the 1 default profile but it turns out I have `default`, `default-release`, default-release-1`, and `default-release-2`. Of these profiles, the `default-release` is the 1 that has my data while it is `default-release-1` that is able to update. I would like to make it so that I only have 1 profile that has all of my data AND is able to update. I already tried removing all the profiles accept the one with my data but that leaves Firefox unable to update. I restored all the profiles I removed and I am back to where I started. Does anyone have any suggestions?

All Replies (2)

Kiki
Kiki
  • Locale Leader
  • Alábòójútó
  • Níwọ̀ntúwọ̀nsì
  • Olúdásí mẹ́wà Òkè
Mozilla Staff

Hi Nimbulaxan,

This thread may help you with that issue which I will quote in the following:

So, I went ahead and removed all profiles in about:profiles which I did before also but it did not work that time. I then closed all firefox processes in task manager. Rebooted my device and it seems to be working for now.
jbr
jbr
  • Olúdásí mẹ́wà Òkè

So, basically you shouldn't delete "default" as that's the one the background processes like the updater might use — even if it appears "empty" it's for launches that should not use your actual user profile so I'd keep that.

"default-release" is usually your user profile, while the –1 and –2 might have been created at some point in the past for some exploring and if they don't have any real data you might be looking into removing these two dupes once you get everything else working.

See if some of the profiles hold an old update lock that you can remove, and after restarting the current profile should be able to grab a lock of its own, in case it's able to write to the update directory. Some analogous steps are described in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1940481#c34 to explain that with paths and images.

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