950357 - The About dialog automatically checks for updates (and then asks the user if he wants to update) even when the "Never check for updates" option is selected.

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[IU]

Now opening the About dialog causes Firefox to check for updates, even though "Never check for updates" is the chosen option.

This is a regression from bug 600500.

Comment 1

[tetrepotte]

Confirmed on Nightly on Win7 64.
Doesn't happen in Aurora on same platform.

Comment 2

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Steffen, can you take a look?

Comment 3

[u52928]

Confirm Win XP SP3

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0 ID:20131214040202 CSet: ff302db28367

Comment 4

[Steffen Wilberg]

This works as intended.

Firefox honors the option "Never check for updates" by never checking for updates *in the background* and therefore never prompting you to install a newer version. However, if you deliberately open the About Firefox dialog, you are implicitly asking the question: "OK, I know I have updates set to manual, I might be behind, so what version of Firefox is this, and is there an update available?" That's the main purpose of the About dialog. The About dialog answers that question by checking for updates and telling you whether or not an update is available. If you really don't want to check for updates, why would you open the About dialog in the first place?

I don't think there's any harm in checking for updates if you open the About dialog, because we then let the user make a conscious decision whether or not he wants to install the update by displaying the button "Update to 30.0".
There is only one case where even the About dialog never checks for updates: the "adminDisabled" case. If the system administrator has not only disabled updates, but also locked the pref "app.update.enabled", so that the user can't enable updates, the About dialog doesn't check for updates, but displays "Updates disabled by your system administrator".


If you've set "Check for updates, but let me decide whether to install them", Firefox *does check for updates in the background* and displays a small notification or a large dialog (not the About dialog), asking whether or not you want to download and install it. The About dialog behaves likewise, it checks for updates and displays a "Update to 30.0" button if updates are available.

If you've set updates to be automatic, Firefox checks, downloads and installs in the background. The next time you restart Firefox, you're on the new version automatically. If you don't restart in a while, Firefox prompts you to so it can switch to the updated version it has already installed in the background.

Comment 5

[Steffen Wilberg]

I tried to explain that in the following comment in aboutDialog.js:
136   // If app.update.enabled is false, we don't pop up an update dialog
137   // automatically, but opening the About dialog is considered manually
138   // checking for updates, so we always check.
139   // If app.update.auto is false, we ask before downloading though,
140   // in onCheckComplete.

Comment 6

[u52928]

Just out of interest, when was this "intention" changed? 

I've been using Firefox since it was Bon Echo, and this was never the behavior until yesterday.

Comment 7

[Steffen Wilberg]

In bug 600500, which landed less than 3 days ago in Nightly.

Comment 8

[u52928]

Thank you. I've made a recommendation in bug 600500 for a small UI amendment.

Comment 9

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

While I personally think it's harmless to just check for updates when opening the About Dialog, the current wording of the option leaves that unclear, and implying that opening About means Check for update is not ideal. I think we should try to still honor the pref description, and I think it's simple to do.

In bug 600500 we removed the implication of "Check for updates means download & install it", so I think it's fair to remove this one too.

Note that this option should never be used by normal users anyway, and the very very few people that want to use it is the kind of user who wants total control of the update process.

Comment 10

[Steffen Wilberg]

I have to admit that I don't quite understand why anybody would not even want to check for updates when opening the About dialog. But OK, I'll reimplement the "Check for Updates" button in the "never check" case.

Comment 11

[u52928]

Again, thank you, Mr. Wilberg, and you, Mr. Gomes, for understanding my concern. I'm sorry to make the extra work for you.

Comment 12

[mdew]

I use this option on nightlies, so I update when I want too. If I know there is recent regression that I want to avoid (till its fixed) and stay on an slightly older build.

Comment 13

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: never-check.diff

This was easy to implement indeed, by adding just another panel.

As for the implementation of "Never check for updates" in the prefwindow, the getter just looks at the app.update.enabled pref. If it's disabled, the "Never check for updates" radio box is selected.
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/preferences/advanced.js#645
(The setter sets both app.update.enabled and app.update.auto to false, but that doesn't matter).
So in the About dialog, it's sufficient to check for the app.update.enabled.pref.

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to mdew from comment #12)
> I use this option on nightlies, so I update when I want too. If I know there
> is recent regression that I want to avoid (till its fixed) and stay on an
> slightly older build.

There is no regression that causes or forces you to update when "never" is selected

Comment 15

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Comment on attachment 8347778 [details] [diff] [review]
never-check.diff

Review of attachment 8347778 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Perfect, thanks!

Comment 16

[Steffen Wilberg]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/fe1973c6c1b7

Comment 17

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/fe1973c6c1b7

Comment 19

[Paul Silaghi, QA [:pauly]]

(In reply to Steffen Wilberg from comment #10)
> I have to admit that I don't quite understand why anybody would not even
> want to check for updates when opening the About dialog. 
I always get the date/version of the build by there.

Comment 20

[Paul Silaghi, QA [:pauly]]

Checking the "Never check for updates" pref and then opening the Help/About dialog displays first the "Check for updates" button. If pressed, then the "Update to 29.0a1" button shows up.
Verified fixed FF 29.0a1(2014-01-08), win 7 x64