518513 - After installing Firefox or Thunderbird on Mac OS X 10.6, Check for Updates doesn't work

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 394984

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Mac OS X 10.6 apparently introduced a new "feature"...

When you drag an application into the /Applications folder in the Finder, it automatically chowns the application to root.

This effectively breaks Firefox/Thunderbird's update service because you have no permissions to write to the app as a normal user, and thus it doesn't bother to/won't allow you to check for updates.

Probably the only real fix is to not care if we can write to it or not for purpose of checking, and prompt for an admin password like every other Mac app does when it's time to run the updater.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

This is a dupe.

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

I did search for a while before I filed and couldn't find one.  That surprised me that no one would have reported it yet, it must just have some obscure summary or something.

Comment 3

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Bug 394984, bug 318855, bug 407875, and Bug 309367 are similar to this bug with Bug 394984 being the most similar to the symptoms and Bug 318855 being the most similar to the proposed solution.

Comment 4

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Yeah, this is basically bug 394984, except the major difference here is 10.6 changes it so NOBODY is the same user as the app owner, which will make this affect a LOT more people than it did before.