Cannot change to Release Channel. There is no "Change" link
Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0
I volunteered for the Beta program a while ago. Now I want to leave the Beta program, because Firefox asks me to update to the Beta several times per week. I need to use this browser for work, and the frequent nagging messages are annoying.
However, the instructions to change Release Channels are wrong. Here are the steps to reproduce:
1. The Release Notes for 6.0Beta say:
If you do not wish to participate in the beta program, you can switch to the release channel.
2. I visit http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/how-do-i-switch-update-channels. The instructions on this page say:
"On the menu bar, click the Firefox menu and select About Firefox to open the About Firefox window. In the About Firefox window, click the Change link. Click the drop-down menu to select the Release, Beta or Aurora channel.
However, there is no "Change" link.
I cannot proceed with this this method.
Please update the links on your website to point to updated information.
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Chosen solution
Selecting the update channel via the About Firefox window has only been there for a short while and was removed because it didn't work properly. You can still see on which update channel you are.
- Bug 659972 – Remove channel switching UI
All Replies (11)
Download the version that you want to install.
There is a Firefox 5.0.1 update special for Mac.
- Firefox 5.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
Drag the current Firefox application to the trash and install the new version.
@Cor-el : Thank you for your answer. I'm sure that will get me to the correct version of Firefox. However, my real issue is that the documentation on the website is incorrect and misleading.
Suluhisho teule
Selecting the update channel via the About Firefox window has only been there for a short while and was removed because it didn't work properly. You can still see on which update channel you are.
- Bug 659972 – Remove channel switching UI
Thanks for the authoritative link Cor-el.
I suppose my next step would be to file a bug with the Mozilla webteam so that they can fix the incorrect documentation. If I have time...
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/how-do-i-switch-update-channels
At the top of that article it says:
This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.
Yes the-edmeister, but as I said above the Release Notes for 6.0Beta link to this unmaintained page. The Release Notes for 6.0Beta should link to a good, maintained page instead.
Now that Firefox has adopted an aggressive update schedule, keeping documentation up to date is even more important.
-= Stefan
I am also searching for a way to get out of the Beta channel. there are too many updates and temporary loss of addons with new beta versions.
but I cannot find a way to switch back to a regular 5.1 release. I tried reinstalling with 5.1 but the next time i opened firefox it returned to beta 6
There is a suggestion for mac users to "trash" firefox, then reinstall the release version because profiles are saves elsewhere and will not be lost but there is no information on what happens to us windows 7 users if we uninstall firefox.
Is there a way to get windows 7 out of beta and back to released firefox AND turn off the endless offers to join the beta program
Make sure that you have only one Firefox version installed.
Do a clean reinstall.
Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.
- Firefox 5.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
- Uninstall your current Firefox version.
- Do not remove personal data when you uninstall the current version.
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.
Here's how I did it:
- Goto about:config
- Accept the warning
- Type app.update.channel
- change value beta to release
That should do it.
For good measure, I also downloaded the latest Firefox 6.0 for Mac OS X and copied over my existing app.
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msepthon: That was also my first guess, but unfortunately it doesn't work any more. You can set this value to whatever you like, you will still remain on the beta channel (Firefox 6 beta, Win 7 x64).
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@ Cor-el Awesome! Thanks. I did the uninstall-reinstall and it worked perfectly and was completed in minutes.
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