Update Firefox Web Browser

Updated at: Jun 11, 2024

This guide will step you through the process of updating your Firefox web browser.

Updating Firefox

Firefox normally updates itself

The default setting in Firefox is to automatically download and install updates, so you may not actually need to do anything. If you have disabled automatic installation of updates, then Firefox will still prompt you to install updates when they are available - you have a choice about when updates are installed.

When updates are available but not installed yet, Firefox prompts you

Firefox regularly checks if there are updates that need to be installed. When it finds an update, it will display a notice in the top-right corner of the browser window. It looks like this:

Simply click Download and Firefox will download and install the newest update.

If you want to make Firefox check for any updates (instead of waiting for it to happen automatically), this guide will show you how to manually tell Firefox to check for updates and install them if they are found.

1. Click the menu button in Firefox

   The menu button will be in the top right-hand corner of Firefox; it looks like three horizontal lines on top of each other.

   

2. Click the "Settings" menu item

   After you've clicked the menu button, the Firefox menu apears; one of the items is Settings. Click it.

   

   The Settings tab will now appear.

3. Click the "Check for updates" button

   Scroll down the Settings tab and towards the bottom you'll see the Firefox Updates section.

   

   Version numbers shown here are examples and will change depending on what is considered the latest version...

   In our screenshot, you can see that Firefox doesn't think there are any available updates at the moment; however there might still be some updates that haven't been found yet. Click Check for updates to force Firefox to discover if there are brand new updates available.

4. Firefox will look for updates and prompt you to install them

   Firefox will now contact the Mozilla servers and ask if there is a newer version of Firefox that you can update to.

   

   If Firefox finds a newer version of it will prompt you to Update to it.

   If it doesn't find a newer version, it will confirm that Firefox is up to date.

5. Restart Firefox to finish updating Firefox

   Once the new version has downloaded and unpacked itself, Firefox will prompt you to restart itself.

   

   When you are ready, you can click this button to finish installing the update - Firefox will close itself and restart with the version it just downloaded. All of your tabs should re-open (except if you had any ones in Private Browsing mode).

6. Firefox has now been updated

   If you reopen the Firefox Updates section in Options, you'll now see the "Firefox is up to date" message!

Congratulations, you have now ensured that your copy of Firefox is up to date. Confirm this by using our page to check if your browser is up to date.

Firefox auto-updates itself

Having an up to date web browser is vital to having a safe and fully-featured web experience and Firefox's auto-update feature facilitates this very easily.

In most cases - actually, unless you have specifically disabled it - Firefox will check for updates every couple of hours and automatically update itself.

What if Firefox is not already auto-updating?

If you are being told that Firefox is out of date (our homepage will tell you if your web browser is out of date) then in most cases you just need to wait a few hours and Firefox will auto update itself.

If this doesn't occur, it's possible that:

• Your computer's firewall is preventing Firefox from checking if there are updates
• Your employer has blocked Firefox from auto-updating
• You (or someone else) has configured your Firefox to not auto-update

Fixing these issues is beyond the scope of this article; these situations are typically rare.

Keep Firefox up to date

You may have noticed in the Firefox Updates section of the Options/Preferences page, there was also a setting to control how Firefox will handle future updates:

You can use this setting to control how Firefox will handle new updates. You can let Firefox completely handle updating itself for you; or you can ask that it will check for updates but let you decide when they will be installed.

Conclusion

We hope that helped you! Using an up to date browser is a big step in staying safe online.