1941931 - Beta won't update on restart; it must be closed and then reopened

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect, P2)

Description

[Ed]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:134.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/134.0

Steps to reproduce:

Clicked Help > About Firefox > clicked the update button > clicked the 'Restart to Update Firefox' > clicked Help > About Firefox.

Actual results:

The 'Restart to Update Firefox' button was still there. Clicking it and restarting that way always produces the same scenario.

Expected results:

After clicking the 'Restart to Update Firefox' button and restarting, Help > About Firefox should be showing that FF is up to date. Pretty sure this started with beta v133.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Toolkit::Application Update' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Ed]

Instead of restarting FF, closing/reopening produces the expected results.

Comment 3

[Max Christian Pohle [:/dev/max]]

Hey Ed, it would help a lot if you could enable update logging and try this again. To do this, go to about:config, search for app.update.log and set it to true. Then press Ctrl+Shift+j (or use the burger menu ☰ -> More Tools -> Browser Console) and watch what happens when you open the help dialog again and try to update. Please copy the log messages that start with AUS: from there to the clipboard and paste them here.

Comment 4

[Ed]

Attachment: console-export.txt - only beta is running

Comment 5

[Ed]

Attachment: console-export2.txt - beta and release are running

Comment 6

[Ed]

(In reply to Ed from comment #2)

Instead of restarting FF, closing/reopening produces the expected results.

Actually, the update only happens if I close/reopen beta while the release version is running.

I noted this in the logs:

When beta is the only version running:
Other instance of the application currently running: true

When beta and release are running:
Other instance of the application currently running: false

Don't know what to make of that!

Also of note: Thunderbird beta appears to have a variation of the same problem. Close/reopen works, but TB release doesn't need to be running.

Comment 7

[Eric Chen]

Looping in @bytesized for more insights

Comment 8

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

Download Process Explorer. When this problem happens:

1. Navigate the browser to about:support. Find the row that says "Update Folder" and take note of the directory name. Mine, for example, is 6F193CCC56814779.
2. Launch Process Explorer.
3. File -> Show Details for All Processes. Accept the resulting UAC prompt.
4. Find -> Find Handle or DLL.
5. Enter UpdateLock- and your update directory name. I would enter UpdateLock-6F193CCC56814779. Press Search and wait for the search to complete.
6. How many processes come up? If you click on each one, what arguments were they all invoked with?

Comment 9

[Ed]

what arguments were they all invoked with?

How do I find that, exactly? When I open the process, there are several tabs.

Comment 10

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

When you click on the process in step 6, it should highlight the row in the main UI, for which one of the columns should be "arguments"

Comment 11

[Ed]

Attachment: Process Explorer - only release running

Comment 12

[Ed]

Attachment: Process Explorer - only Nightly running

Comment 13

[Ed]

Attachment: Process Explorer - only Beta running

Comment 14

[Ed]

Attachment: Process Explorer - only Beta running_after_restart

Comment 15

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

What's the context here? Did you check that the problem was happening when you collected all of these?

Comment 16

[Ed]

Attachment: Process Explorer - only Beta running_after_close then reopen

Comment 17

[Ed]

(In reply to Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized] from comment #15)

What's the context here? Did you check that the problem was happening when you collected all of these?

The two beta ones were done after the update was downloaded and either restarted or closed >opened. The others were done before that just to see what it showed. Still won't update unless closed > reopened.

Comment 18

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

I feel like maybe I'm misunderstanding.

(In reply to Ed from comment #0)

Steps to reproduce:

Clicked Help > About Firefox > clicked the update button > clicked the 'Restart to Update Firefox' > clicked Help > About Firefox.

Actual results:

The 'Restart to Update Firefox' button was still there. Clicking it and restarting that way always produces the same scenario.

Can you please be more specific about what's happening? Just knowing that the button is still there isn't really enough. Does the browser restart? Does the window close? Does a window open? Does anything happen at all?

Comment 19

[Ed]

(In reply to Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized] from comment #18)

I feel like maybe I'm misunderstanding.

(In reply to Ed from comment #0)

Steps to reproduce:

Clicked Help > About Firefox > clicked the update button > clicked the 'Restart to Update Firefox' > clicked Help > About Firefox.

Actual results:

The 'Restart to Update Firefox' button was still there. Clicking it and restarting that way always produces the same scenario.

Can you please be more specific about what's happening? Just knowing that the button is still there isn't really enough. Does the browser restart? Does the window close? Does a window open? Does anything happen at all?

Sorry! Yes, the browser restarts after clicking the 'Restart to update' button. Then when I go back to Help > About, the 'Restart to update' button is still there. It is only after I close the browser > reopen it > go back to Help > About, that the 'Up to date button' shows.

Comment 21

[Thorin [:thorin]]

Can you please be more specific about what's happening?

See my duplicate issue. So to clarify, once the about firefox dialog button reports Restart to update Firefox, you click it, the browser window(s) close, and the browser "restarts" - go back into the about Firefox dialog and the Restart to update Firefox persists

OP mentioned something about beta or other releases being open. I just updated nightly no problems with stable and beta open. The issue, so far, seems to be limited to beta (portable FF) and dev (installed) and started this release cycle: both have the same update settings, Weird that nightly (installed, same update settings) doesn't suffer from this. Let's hope the issue doesn't ride the train to release.

Next beta update will be to 136.0 - I can't check any process handles until then

Comment 22

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

I can't really think of any more ideas for how to debug any further here without either being able to reproduce the situation myself (so I can debug it with an actual debugger) or making custom builds to have the reporter(s) use. I haven't been able to reproduce the situation. Unfortunately, I don't have time to make a custom build for this right now. So I'm going to redirect this back to the triage owner.

Comment 23

[Ed]

Workaround found:

• install v133.0b9 from https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/candidates/133.0b9-candidates/

• to preserve your existing profile, do not start FF via the install script

• go to your beta profile folder and delete the compatibility.ini file

• start FF

• if you're not prompted to update immediately, go to FF menu > Help > About FF

Comment 24

[Ed]

Need a new workaround because today's update failed again until close > restart.

Comment 25

[Thorin [:thorin]]

Attachment: betaupdate.png

active-update.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?><updates xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2005/app-update"><update xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2005/app-update" appVersion="135.0" buildID="20250127201358" channel="beta" detailsURL="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/135.0/releasenotes/" displayVersion="135.0" platformVersion="undefined" installDate="1738107977372" isCompleteUpdate="false" name="Firefox 135.0" previousAppVersion="135.0" promptWaitTime="691200" serviceURL="https://aus5.mozilla.org/update/6/Firefox/135.0/20250124091819/WINNT_x86_64-msvc-x64/en-US/beta/Windows_NT%252010.0.0.0.26100.2605%2520(x64)/ISET%3ASSE4_2%2CMEM%3A32617/default/default/update.xml?force=1" type="minor" statusText="Install Pending" foregroundDownload="true"><patch size="76814782" type="complete" URL="https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-135.0build1-complete&amp;os=win64&amp;lang=en-US" hashFunction="sha512" hashValue="e0be1183f13245a558dbc338617a8c1a2638c27dda01a21b2a84fd65774ed474f621f42543d5386233c1a1188e045879ed9149791ee238827e26bf18908f9d76"/><patch size="11119591" type="partial" URL="https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-135.0build1-partial-135.0b9build1&amp;os=win64&amp;lang=en-US" selected="true" state="pending" hashFunction="sha512" hashValue="1a615522f25c057deb1c8de8e5dcd58f1018f6d1430f1258af0b4a831302971256b82bd24d5f634a66aec4eb355fc875811ceac9556f0c00c1fc9cb7bfd1e3d7" bitsId="{722C3AA0-4D79-46D3-9A16-2B20BC844E31}" bitsResult="0"/></update></updates>

How many processes come up? If you click on each one, what arguments were they all invoked with?

1 process, there is no column available (checked columns for display settings) anywhere for arguments - did you mean command line? The corresponding 7260 PID highlighted by the search shows the firefox.exe has no command lines whatsoever

Comment 26

[Ed]

Attachment: console-export-after clicking Help_About_FF button.txt

Comment 27

[Ed]

Attachment: console-export-after clicking restart button.txt

Comment 28

[Ed]

Attachment: console-export-after close_reopen.txt

Comment 29

[Ed]

I added three log files which might make the sequence of things more clear.

I noticed this in the second log; only beta was running then:

AUS:SVC Other instance of the application currently running: true

After closing/restarting, the value changed to false.

Comment 30

[Chris DuPuis]

Hi Ed, can you open the about:config page and see what value is currently set for this key: app.update.service.enabled

(Apologies, I originally gave the wrong key. The key I'm looking for is app.update.service.enabled)

Comment 31

[Thorin [:thorin]]

app.update.service.enable: FYI: I just tested nightly with the pref at false and had no issue. Will test Beta/Dev next time they have an update available with the pref at true

releases = {
	stable134: {
		pref: false, issue: 'no'
	}
	beta135: {
		pref: false, issue: 'yes'
	}
	dev135: {
		pref: false, issue: 'yes'
	}
	nightly136: {
		pref: true, issue: 'no'
	}
	nightly136test: {
		pref: false, issue: 'no'
	}
}

Comment 32

[Ed]

(In reply to Chris DuPuis from comment #30)

Hi Ed, can you open the about:config page and see what value is currently set for this key: app.update.service.enabled

(Apologies, I originally gave the wrong key. The key I'm looking for is app.update.service.enabled)

It is false on beta, as well as release and nightly. I have always disabled the Mozilla Maintenance Service and never automatically install updates, if that matters. There has not been this problem with release or nightly, but it also affects Thunderbird beta.

Comment 33

[Ed]

Problem persists on the update to 136.0b1.

Comment 34

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

Does the problem stop if you use about:config to set app.update.multiSessionInstallLockout.enabled to false?

Comment 35

[Ed]

(In reply to Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized] from comment #34)

Does the problem stop if you use about:config to set app.update.multiSessionInstallLockout.enabled to false?

Yes!

Comment 36

[Robin Steuber (she/her) [:bytesized]]

Yeah, I'm fairly confident the problem here is that when Firefox restarts to update, it sometimes detects the previous instance that is still shutting down. I think that the solutions here are either (a) delete the lock file when the "Restart" button is clicked, or (b) let go of the lock itself earlier in shutdown. I'm leaning towards option (b).

I'll see if I can whip up a quick patch for this after my current work is done.

Comment 37

[Thorin [:thorin]]

https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1iruaqb/136_beta_update_issue/

Comment 38

[Ed]

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1isvp0v/update_v13501_error_restart_to_update_goes_back/