I keep geting asked to update FireFox and when I do it gets stuck in a loop "waiting for the update server", am I doing something wrong?

Question

I'm running FireFox 4.0 and get asked to update. When I go thru the steps I get to a Software Update window that says Downloading Firefox and has a status bar. Under the bar it first says "Waitng for the update server" then it goes to "Connecting to the update server" but goes on forever and never gets anywhere.

Answer 1

See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Software_Update (Software Update not working properly)
Remove the files in the updates and updates\0 folder.
You may need to delete active-update.xml and updates.xml as well if present.
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)
If you have problems with updating then easiest is to download the full version and uninstall the currently installed version.
You may need to remove the Firefox program folder to do a clean install of the new version.
Do a clean (re-)install:
* Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.
* Firefox 4.0.x: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
* Uninstall your current Firefox version and remove the Firefox program folder before installing that copy of the Firefox installer.
* Do not remove personal data if you uninstall the current version.
* 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.
Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Firefox Profile Folder] and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.