After every Firefox upgrade I am unable to use it. I have to uninstall it then reinstall Firefox. This happens every time there's an upgrade.

Question

Firefox alerts everytime there's an upgrade available. I decline the upgrade because of crashes. Then Firefox automatically upgrades. When that happens I can no longer access the internet. I have to uninstall Firefox then go online via IE and reinstall Firefox. Once it it reinstalled it works fine. So my question is - why does an upgrade cause Firefox to stop working and how can I avoid that in the future?

Answer 1

Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.
*Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop<br>https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.
*Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
*(32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
*(64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
*It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
If you keep having problems then also create a new profile.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall
It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls