302 app.update.background.scheduling.enabled still in use? [A: yes, but deprecated in v96]

[yokoffing]

user.js/user.js

Lines 143 to 146 in 06b8d8b

	/* 0302: disable auto-INSTALLING Firefox updates via a background service [FF90+] [WINDOWS]
	* [SETTING] General>Firefox Updates>Automatically install updates>When Firefox is not running
	* [1] https://support.mozilla.org/kb/enable-background-updates-firefox-windows ***/
	user_pref("app.update.background.scheduling.enabled", false);

This is not an option in about:config for Firefox Nightly 97 and Beta/Dev 96.

If it is a pref the user needs to create, then we should add // [HIDDEN PREF] to the end.

[rusty-snake]

/* 0302: disable auto-INSTALLING Firefox updates via a background service [FF90+] [WINDOWS]

Do you use Windows?

[yokoffing]

Do you use Windows?

Yep. I was on my Windows 10 machine when I was looking into this.

[rusty-snake]

Onl appearance in firefox' code base (without system extensions?):

    // To be thorough, remove any traces of the pref that used to control the
    // default value that we just set. We don't want any users to have the
    // impression that that pref is still useful.
    Services.prefs.clearUserPref("app.update.background.scheduling.enabled");

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/mozapps/update/BackgroundUpdate.jsm#340

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

this was already on my radar. it's difficult, because I use portables. I do have two installed (Beta, Nightly) and I don't install any maintenance services - and there have been changes happening in the last several releases, ongoing

I don't actually think the pref does anything anymore, toggling the UI changes a different pref

• app.update.background.previous.reasons which would be runtime (not suggesting to change this)

I think the pref to actually use is app.update.background.enabled

As I said, this is on my radar, but it's not high priority - except for ME I don't want my test-suite of portables moving forward to update. I already have issues with ESR78/91 32bit portables from retaining their JSON files

• C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\updates\one-UUID-per-firefox\update-config.json
• it just deletes the JSON file on close
• in the end I just had to replace them with FF78/91 32bit (I like to have a few 32bit versions for FPing stuff)

---

All browsers are set to Check for updates but let you choose to install them. Here are some JSONs

FF65-95

{"app.update.auto":false}

Dev96 (portable)

{"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}

Beta96 (installed)

{"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}

Nightly

• NOTE: the location of the JSON changed: e.g.
• was in 96: C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\updates\6F193CCC56814779
• now in 97: C:\ProgramData\Mozilla-1de4eec8-1241-4177-a864-e594e8d1fb38\updates\6F193CCC56814779

{"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}

So as you can see there are changes, and I was waiting to see what rolls down into stable

What I could do is toggle app.update.background.enabled in Dev or Beta or Nightly and see what changes in the JSON. I would also want to make sure it worked from a user.js and is set correctly at runtime - both with and w/o maintenance service and I can't do that on this machine, unless I create new VMs

---

notes I have

DEV96 portable
app.update.background.scheduling.enabled = false

auto-update OFF
- with setting unticked
user_pref("app.update.background.previous.reasons", "[\"app.update.auto=false\",\"app.update.background.enabled=false\",\"no default profile exists\",\"not default profile\",\"the maintenance service registry key is not present\"]");

- with setting ticked
- user_pref("app.update.background.previous.reasons", "[\"app.update.auto=false\",\"no default profile exists\",\"not default profile\",\"the maintenance service registry key is not present\"]");

note the "the maintenance service registry key is not present\" part

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

nightly 97 + beta 96 (both installed) and dev (portable) have the following

• i.e the setting is present
• 
• 

FF95, 94, 93 (all portables) do not that the setting: I will need to check back to when I added it and follow the bugzillas down the rabbi hole - maybe the UI is/was dependent on the release channel

It's weird because I always check settings exist: but maybe I added this before stable and relied on dev/beta/nightly

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

This will be covered in FF95-FF96 diffs

In FF96+ there are four combinations (windows users) of the two values

• note the background update is a sub-item
• I will call them on and off

do not exist in about:config

• app.update.background.scheduling.enabled
• app.update.background.enabled

four combos

• A: default
  • on + on
  • {"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true}}
• B: portable default (or at least a portable that updates)
  • off+on
  • {"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.auto":false}
• C: user manually unchecks subitem before unchecking parent
  • off+off
  • {"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}
• D: user just wants to stop background updates
  • on+off
  • {"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false}

In all the above tests, the ONLY difference in prefs between ALL four of them is

• app.update.background.previous.reasons

---

case B is cosmetic, and if the user already has to manually change update settings in windows, then the sub-menu item can be done at the same time

The only thing left that I want to test is what the hidden pref app.update.background.enabled does when run from user.js

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

app.update.background.enabled = false: test from about:config and from user.js

setup config to be no auto-installs but the submenu item for background is dimmed out but checked

• added via about:config: does not change UI or JSON
• added via user.js does not change UI or JSON

So the background update is the same as app.update.auto on windows - i.e the user must do it manually and the settings are stored on disk (per firefox)

closing, the pref in OP is deprecated in FF95-FF96 diffs, will do it there

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

ugh, I guess I forgot to post this

• yes the pref still works and yes the UI exists
• it's just that the pref also controls the UI - the commit above tidied the description

Here's FF95 and I also checked ESR91

[crssi]

C: user manually unchecks subitem before unchecking parent

* off+off

* `{"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}`

@Thorin-Oakenpants is there a "typo" in {"__DEFAULTS__":{"app.update.background.enabled":true},"app.update.background.enabled":false,"app.update.auto":false}, I mean this part or array {"app.update.background.enabled":true}

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

there is no typos, the values were copy pasted from the JSON file