FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

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JLJ
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FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by JLJ »

The release notes for FF 55.x at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/5 ... easenotes/ include this ambiguous paragraph:

Firefox does not support downgrades, even though this may have worked in past versions. Users who install Firefox 55+ and later downgrade to an earlier version may experience issues with Firefox.

I have in the past uninstalled FF and reinstalled earlier versions, keeping my profile, because of various issues. Anybody know exactly what this dire "warning" means?
frg
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by frg »

> I have in the past uninstalled FF and reinstalled earlier versions, keeping my profile, because of various issues. Anybody know exactly what this dire "warning" means?

Favicons were moved out of places.sqlite. You can downgrade but the next upgrade will not go smooth because Fx thinks you have already upgraded. If you reset the migration version numbers in the profile you should be good then but I would restore a backup instead of downgrading. After downgrading you probably need to clean the profile up. Storage access usually changes and you see some interesting errors about indexedDB and others in the log after a downgrade.
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Frank Lion
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by Frank Lion »

JLJ wrote: Anybody know exactly what this dire "warning" means?
Yeah, it means you may well bugger up the earlier version. It's not a problem, after installing, say 52 ESR, make a new profile* and then just follow this - http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14759393

Alice's link there details the actual technical details and relevant Bug numbers relating to this, but it's a dull read.


* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_ne ... on_Windows
Last edited by Frank Lion on August 18th, 2017, 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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makaiguy
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by makaiguy »

As long as the structure of the underlying profile files remains the same, you can move back to an earlier version with no problems. But sometimes when a program updates it alters the structure of underlying files, such as adding a new field to a database. When that happens, if you want to go back to the earlier version, you'd best have a backup of the prior profile you can use.
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Reflective
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by Reflective »

If you've ever upgraded to FF55 you can't downgrade to an earlier version anymore unless you made a copy of your profile before installing it.

See this article on ghacks.net for more info: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/02/you-c ... -profiles/
DN123ABC
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by DN123ABC »

What if we are happy on version Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0 ID:20170815141045, and want to leave it there, without further updates?

This is what I am using, and it seems pretty good for now. I'd hate to lose any further functionality.

Is there a way to turn off updating for a while?

Thanks.
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c627627
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by c627627 »

makaiguy wrote:As long as the structure of the underlying profile files remains the same, you can move back to an earlier version with no problems.
It took me four threads on this forum fully believing that like you do, before someone finally posted that major and not just minor or cosmetic problems could occur if a profile has been touched by Firefox 55+ and you go back. I then started a thread about it here to get further clarification and got one response, but here's what Mark12547 posted that helped me a lot, maybe it can help someone else too:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3032554
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the-edmeister
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by the-edmeister »

DN123ABC wrote:What if we are happy on version Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0 ID:20170815141045, and want to leave it there, without further updates?

This is what I am using, and it seems pretty good for now. I'd hate to lose any further functionality.

Is there a way to turn off updating for a while?

Thanks.
Firefox 56.0 is a Beta version, which has already moved beyond Firefox 54.0.1 to Fx 55 when some files (such as the places.sqlite file) were changed. Once those files are changed to the newer makeup going back to the earlier version is risky.

And the main change was to the places.sqlite file which involved moving the bookmark favicons to a different file for storage.

Yes, updates can be disabled via Options > Advanced -> Update - Never check for updates - but that isn't absolute, the Mozilla Maintenance service can also do a forced update so that "feature" needs to be disabled.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/wh ... ce-service

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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by c627627 »

Thank you the-edmeister for posting that about Mozilla Maintenance service.
I didn't know it could perform forced Firefox updates, I just instinctively never allowed it to install afraid of something like that.


DN123ABC wrote:What if we are happy on... Firefox/56.0... without further updates?

This is what I am using, and it seems pretty good for now. I'd hate to lose any further functionality.

Is there a way to turn off updating for a while?

Thanks.
Just to make sure you know, yes you will lose many of your Extensions if you update to Fx57, but rather than staying on Fx56,
Firefox ESR 52 will allow all your Extensions to still work and will be updated until 06/2018, so you get extra time using Firefox while still being fully updated until June of 2018.

Firefox ESR 52 is Firefox 52 but with updates going until June 2018. No other difference.
It took me a while to understand that there was no other difference.
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by James »

DN123ABC wrote:What if we are happy on version Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0 ID:20170815141045, and want to leave it there, without further updates?

This is what I am using, and it seems pretty good for now. I'd hate to lose any further functionality.

Is there a way to turn off updating for a while?

Thanks.
The Beta development channel builds can get say six to fourteen builds in testing as Fx 54 and Fx 55 for example got thirteen Beta builds. Firefox 56.0 is not due for Release until September 20.
DN123ABC
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by DN123ABC »

I'm pretty happy with the 56 beta, but would like a way to prevent it from "advancing" (some might argue that term) to version 57, until such time that version 57 has extensions working properly (the ones I like, that is). I am not asking for much, but I'm willing to give them some time to fix things. In the meantime, I don't want to be forced into something I don't want, nor do I want to be held back to version 52 either. There have been some great speed and other improvements from 52 to 56 that won't be brought into 52.
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by c627627 »

Okay. I wasn't going to go to 52 ESR and was going to stay on Fx56 just like you, until I realized the hard way about the nature of change that is coming: extensions I use will *never* be compatible with Firefox versions 57 and up.
If your extensions are like that and they likely are if they modify Firefox significantly, then it's a choice of staying on Fx56 forever which will stop updates around Sep 2017, or switch to Fx52 ESR which will include updates until Jun 2018.

I'm not mentioning anything else because there is nothing else that will take *all* extensions to Jun 2018 like ESR 52 will.
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DN123ABC
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by DN123ABC »

Here's the extensions I am currently using and like to have:
Adblock Plus 2.9.1.4259-beta
Make Link 11.03.1-signed.1-signed
Nightly Tester Tools 3.10
NoScript 5.0.9
Print/Print Preview 1.0.1-signed
Session Manager 0.8.1.13pre20170130b
Sort Tabs 1.1.1-signed.1-signed
Tab Counter 0.2.1
Tabs Menu 1.4.8.1-signed.1-signed.1-signed
text/plain 1.1.9.2.1-signed.1-signed

Here are disabled ones I would like to have back and working:
Bookmark Backup 0.4.11 [DISABLED]
Bookmark Duplicate Detector 1.0.7 [DISABLED]
CopyAllUrls 0.9.8 [DISABLED]
Context Search 0.6.4 [DISABLED]
DictionarySearch 45.0.0 [DISABLED]
Duplicate Tab 1.0.2 [DISABLED]
FLST (Firefox 4+) 1.2.2 [DISABLED]
Forecastfox (fix version) 4.5 [DISABLED]
InfoLister 0.10.4a3 [DISABLED]
LastTab 3.0t3.1.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
ListZilla 0.8 [DISABLED]
RSS Ticker 14.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
Update Channel Selector 1.6.1-signed [DISABLED]

Here are the ones I have installed, but disabled, and can probably live without:
Abduction! 3.5.1 [DISABLED]
About This Site Bookmarks 1.5 [DISABLED]
Add Bookmark Here 3.0 [DISABLED]
BugMeNot Plugin 3.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
CacheViewer 0.8.6.3.1-let-fixed [DISABLED]
Cisco WebEx Extension 1.0.12 [DISABLED]
ColorfulTabs 31.1.9 [DISABLED]
CoLT 2.6.7 [DISABLED]
GSuggest 0.1 [DISABLED]
HashColouredTabs 0.3.3 [DISABLED]
IE Tab 4.0.20130422.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
IE View 1.5.6.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
Image Toolbar 0.6.18 [DISABLED]
Lightbeam 1.3.2 [DISABLED]
Map This 0.3.1.1-signed.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
Map With Google 1.2.2 [DISABLED]
MapFox 0.2.3 [DISABLED]
MapIt! 0.7.1 [DISABLED]
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.2.1 [DISABLED]
Ook 0.3.3.3 [DISABLED]
Popup Allow 0.2.6 [DISABLED]
Popup Count 0.3.7 [DISABLED]
Print Hint 0.55.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
Save Complete 1.0.1 [DISABLED]
Sketcher 1.0.1 [DISABLED]
Splash 2.0.2 [DISABLED]
Steep and Cheap Watcher 1.8.4 [DISABLED]
StockTicker 1.0.4 [DISABLED]
Sun Cult 1.3.20150730 [DISABLED]
Tab Clicking Options 0.6.9 [DISABLED]
View Source Chart 3.05.1-signed.1-signed [DISABLED]
Who's Ya Daddy 0.1.0.00 [DISABLED]

These, I have no idea, but they are on and working, I guess:
Activity Stream 0.0.0
Add-on Compatibility Reporter 2.2.4
Application Update Service Helper 2.0
Click-to-Play staged rollout 1.2
Firefox Screenshots 10.12.0
Follow-on Search Telemetry 0.9.1
Multi-process staged rollout 2.15
Photon onboarding 0.1
Pocket 1.0.5
Shield Recipe Client 55.1
Web Compat 1.1


(This whole list of extensions was pasted courtesy of "Nightly Tester Tools".)
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c627627
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by c627627 »

I only recognize Dictionary search as the one I have working under Fx55.
How many of those worked under 52 and if all worked then which features of 53 to 56 are more important than your extensions?
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Re: FF 55+ "downgrade" warning?

Post by DanRaisch »

Getting a bit off topic here, folks. Can we get back to the original subject of the thread?
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