How to turn off add-on updates

Firefox checks for new versions of your installed add-ons once per day, and at other designated times, such as when upgrading to a new version of Firefox. By default, Firefox will check the Mozilla Add-ons Gallery for updates, but individual add-on developers may set their add-ons to check their own websites for updates if they are not hosted with Mozilla.

Each of these checks contains the same information that every web request does: your IP address, browser version, operating system, locale, etc. Mozilla uses this information in aggregate for statistics and usage information, as described in the Mozilla Firefox Privacy Policy.

It is strongly recommended that you do not turn off add-on update checking, as you may miss critical security updates to your installed add-ons. If you only wish to prevent add-on updates from being automatically installed, you may turn that functionality off from within the Add-ons Manager.

To turn add-on updates off entirely, follow these instructions:

  1. In Firefox’s location bar, type about:config
  2. A warning may be displayed if this is your first time modifying Firefox config. If you wish to continue, click the button.
  3. In the Filter text box, type extensions.update.enabled.
  4. Double click the extensions.update.enabled item to turn it from true to false

Firefox will no longer check your add-ons for updates.

18 responses

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  1. Lew wrote on :

    Does not work on FF 29. I have it set to false and the addons keep updating.

    Reply

  2. Barry wrote on :

    It also doesn’t work on 24.5.0 ESR.

    Reply

  3. P Reinie wrote on :

    I turned off auto-update, but I wish there was a FF setting tell me updates are available so I can choose when to update them/the update.

    Reply

  4. Shorn wrote on :

    This should be a per-extension setting. In other words, I should be able to disable updates for a specific extension. Why is it all or nothing?

    Reply

    1. Paul wrote on :

      Yep – should be available for each individual extension!!

      Reply

      1. Hugo wrote on :

        Actually, you can set it individually for each add-on. Visit:

        Tools > Add-ons

        Click on the ‘more’ link at the end of the add-on description. Here, you can set on/off/default.

        Reply

      2. Graham Perrin wrote on :

        about:addons ☑ Exclude from updates (Updates: … never) · Issue #349 · MrAlex94/Waterfox

        https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/349

        Reply

  5. David wrote on :

    I strongly support the request from Shorn.
    In particular I definitely do not wish to install the “Provider for Google Calendar” version 1.0.3 update – it does not work on my (German) system.
    Despite the fact that I clear the “In Update einschließen” checkbox, the update appears in the update list daily (with the checkbox set).
    I am afraid that I might install it by accident sometime when many updates are on the list…
    It would be enough for me if the status of the checkbox were to be remembered.

    Reply

  6. Withy14 wrote on :

    I posted here one post and IT WAS DELETED!!! Why? Because Mozilla knows better!!! Why cant I control what and when will be updated?!

    Reply

  7. bacounsel wrote on :

    What does the option “default” mean regarding an addon automatic update? Does it mean on, off, or that a notice will be given that an update is available?

    Reply

  8. Greg Robbins wrote on :

    I’ve tried this, but suspect it will not work as I don’t think Firefox would be updating spammy ad-ware programmes and what I really want is to be able to tell Firefox to PREVENT extensions from being added (at least without explicit permission).

    Reply

  9. Eddy wrote on :

    The best would be if one could set the update preference per addon/plugin (ie a button/option/check on each) whether an update is wanted; and if not, it would not even be checked for updates.

    Also, all addons/plugins should have their files/settings in their own folder, not all over the place. And one should be able to set, again, individually, if upon unistall/disable the settings of each are purged. Further, the settings of each should be made explicit for import/export.

    This way, one could have a proper housekeeping of FF.
    🙂

    Reply

  10. Wayne Sallee wrote on :

    Instead of turning off the checking of updates:

    As Hugo wrote, you can go to the addon and click on “more” next to the addon, and disable the automatic update.

    Or, as I did, you can leave then all on auto, and tell firefox to not automatically update any of the addons. by going to tools, addons, and click on the gear, and turn off automatic update.

    I would not recommend turning off automatic checking.

    Wayne Sallee
    Wayne@WayneSallee.com

    Reply

  11. JB wrote on :

    I wish there was an option to freeze the thing “as is” and stop it from executing ANY communication except the one that I type with my own hands. No auto no nothing. And yes, I may well miss an important update. But on the other hand – if all people have all their software set to autoupdate then we have a monoculture which over night may fall into the wrong hands.

    Reply

  12. Ray wrote on :

    I am using Firefox for Android and cannot turn off auto update of add-ons. When going into tools, add-one, the is no’more’ setting and no gear icon.

    Reply

    1. Krisztian wrote on :

      You can disable auto-update of all extensions at once in Firefox Android by following the steps in the article above (about:config -> search for extensions.update.enabled and switch true to false using the switch button).

      What you cannot do in Android (at least I could not figure it out either) to turn off updates only for one specific extension.

      Reply

  13. Larson wrote on :

    Thanks! It was always annoying to see addons updating and accessing internet on their own. This advice now especially useful with horrible Firefox 57 which breaks so many addons(I’m gonna stay at v56 for 1-2 years at least, then we will see).

    Reply

  14. Dutch Angle wrote on :

    Contrary to your advice we have ALL automatic updates turned off. While an original add-on install may have been scrutinized by the community that is not necessarily the case for an update. With add-ons coming from many small outfits, spread around the world, the chances of one such group being compromised and pushing malware onto our systems is just too real. You may want to adapt your advice to the realities of the 21st century. Instead the advice to developers might be: finish your product before release; publish the source code; allow building from source (yeah, I am a Linux, rpmbuild guy!)

    Reply

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