Firefox shows outdated version
 

We use Firefox on a MacBook Air with OSX 10.9.5 Mavericks and an iMac with OSX 10.11.6 El Capitan. For years we have used Firefox which is always kept current. The latest version which is on both Macs is 78.11.0esr.

Firefox works fine on the MB Air. It used to work fine on the iMac. However over the past few months on the iMac a number of websites have sent messages saying: "Please update your browser", "Your browser is no longer supported" , "Your web browser is out of date, Please update your browser" etc. One website now refuses to work with my very current browser.

Although Firefox is supposedly the same on both Macs with the latest version and the same settings it seems that Firefox on the iMac is somehow incorrectly identifying itself. There have been several Firefox updates installed since this problem first appeared on the iMac.

I will appreciate advice on where the problem is and how to correct it.

Please note that the current version of Firefox is version 89.0.1, released on June 17, 2021, which requires macOS 10.12 or newer. That means that you are running an older version due to the fact that your operating systems are preventing you from using a newer release. I don't know how old your MacBook and iMac are, but you could consider uprading macOS on both if possible, that may get you access to a newer version of Firefox as well.

I think the latest version of Firefox dreadful - so reluctantly now using Edge

Strongly agree. What were they thinking? I'm persevering with it however, although I have to admit that Edge is looking more attractive all the time ...

According to Firefox, Version 78.11.0esr is the current version for Mac and was released on June 1, 2021. I checked this on both of our Macs.

First on the MB Air I opened Firefox and clicked on "About Firefox". The window that opened advised "Firefox is up to date" and that it has Version 78.11.0esr. To the right is a link "What's new". I took a screen shot of this window.

I clicked on "What's new" and a new page of Firefox ESR Release Notes opened. This advises: Version 78.11.0, first offered to ESR channel users on June 1, 2021. This is the date on which both our Macs were last updated to the CURRENT release of Firefox, less than 3 weeks ago. I took another screen shot of this.

I then scrolled down on this Release Notes page to Mac Operating Systems for this release of Firefox. It lists the following: MacOS 10.9, MacOS 10.10, MacOS 10.11, MacOS 10.12, MacOS 10.13, MacOS 10.14, MacOS 10.15 and MacOS.11. I took another screen shot showing this.

I then opened YouTube as it is one of the websites that for the past few months has opened on the iMac with "Please update your browser". As always on the MB Air, this warning did not happen. It went straight to the YouTube cookies page.

Then I checked the iMac. It has exactly the same version that Firefox released less than 3 weeks ago. On opening YouTube the "Please update your browser page" appeared. I clicked on the "Remind me later" link at the bottom and it then went to the cookies page.

All info I can find indicates that our Macs have the same current version of Firefox that was released on June 1, 2021. As far as I can see all the Preference settings are the same. Somehow the Firefox installation on the iMac is giving incorrect version info to websites. I would like to know how to correct this on the iMac. Is there a particular version ID setting in Firefox that can be changed? Firefox must be sending something about versions to websites. What is it sending and where may it be found? It just needs correcting on the iMac.

Firefox 78.11 is the latest extended support release version, Firefox 89.0.1 is the latest regular version. See also older Mac OS users switched to Firefox ESR.

Right click on a page & select Inspect, select the Network tab & reload the page. Click on one of the requests then in the right hand pane scroll down to User-Agent.

Given up on Firefox - gone over to Edge!

Browse the Mozilla site on a Mac with a newer macOS version and you'll be able to see the regular release channel. This is what my Mac is using:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....af08ee40b8.png
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....16f10622a5.png

If you want to get a newer macOS version, click on the Apple at top left, select 'about this Mac' and try 'Software Update'. I cannot remember if the sequence is the same for your version of macOS, but if a newer OS is available, you should see it there (or in the App store). Have a look at this page for more information on what version of macOS will be supported on your Macs: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2f7f78efe6.png

I followed Prop Swinger’s Instructions (many thanks - we are making progress) on the iMac using the YouTube “Please update your Browser” page. The stuff that opens at the bottom is different but I eventually found my way to User-Agent. It shows:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.10; rv:50.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/50.0

I then did the same on the MacBook Air, which although it has the older OSX 10.9.5 has never displayed this problem. Since it never receives the “Update your browser” page I used the YouTube page for cookies. User-Agent for this page shows:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.106 Safari/537.36 OPR/38.0.2220.41

Any thoughts on why the two User-Agent sections are different, apart from the OSX version? Both Macs were updated to Firefox 78.11.0esr on June 1 2021. Interesting that the correct version of OSX is not shown in User-Agent on either Mac.

We are using Firefox 78.11.0esr on both Intel IMacs with OSX 10.9.5 on the MB Air with no issues and OSX 10.11.6 on the iMac which receives the “Update your browser” pages. It seems no change is needed on the MB Air but something needs to be changed on the iMac. How may I correct this on the iMac?

Thanks to various for info on Mac OSX versions. The iMac cannot be upgraded beyond its current 10.11.6 as Apple ceased providing updates for it. It does all that we want and is especially useful as it has a built in DVD player for our considerable collection. The MB Air’s OSX version will be upgraded after a couple of security issues have been addressed.

A little about useragent:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...-agent-firefox