Firefox plugin doesn't automatically update anymore

(I thought I posted this yesterday, but I don’t see it in the forum.)

I’ve had the latest version of the Firefox plugin installed for a long time. In the last few days, I’ve discovered that it’s stopped automatically updating. If I right-click and select “Retrieve Weather”, it updates. This is very repeatable. It isn’t just that it’s updating less often, I first noticed it when it was 2 days behind. Forcing the update fixed it, but it’s obviously not doing it automatically any more.

I have a few questions for you:

1) Which version of Firefox are you using?

2) Did you verify that you have an update time set in the “General” section of the Weather Watcher Live Options window?

Firefox 3.6.13.

Weather Auto Update Rate: Every 15 minutes

I’m also using Firefox 3.6.13, but am unable to reproduce that problem. Try to uninstall and reinstall the Weather Watcher Live extension.

Sorry. No difference. After the reinstall, it showed the current conditions for “today”, including a sun because it was sunny today. This was in the middle of the afternoon. Several hours later it still showed the same information, saying it’s for “today”. I forced the update, and now it updated to “tonight”, and the correct conditions, being a moon.

I’ve tried it on a few computers and was unable to reproduce this issue. Nobody else reported it either. Do you think the problem could be your Firefox installation? Perhaps a reinstall of Firefox would resolve it.

It appears the symptom has disappeared. I’ve restarted firefox several times, but that didn’t make any difference. Oddly, there was one thing that I don’t do very often, but happened just before I noticed it was working again. And that was an update of another plugin. I got the notice it was updated, and I installed it and restarted Firefox, and then I noticed a few minutes later that it had updated automatically.

Actually, never mind. I checked my computer this morning and it was a day behind. I had to force the update to get it current again.

Hmm, now the situation seems even worse than before. It’s not updating at all, even when I force “Retrieve Weather”. Right now the icon says it’s 22.9 degrees, which it’s been at for about an hour or so, but when I click on the icon to go to the WeatherBug page, it says it’s 27 degrees.

Try resetting your Firefox preferences:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

Or, try the suggestions at the following link:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/basic%20troubleshooting#w_4-troubleshoot-your-extensions-and-themes

I am having a similar problem to the above posters, with firefox 4.

I recently updated from Firefox 3.0.16 to 4.0.1, and my WWL plugin was ported along with the upgrade. After upgrading, WWL was unable to update the weather info automatically, and would routinely have hours-worth of minutes under the “Last Downloaded” heading.

Reading through the support comments and suggestions on this forum, I tried wiping the firefox cache, which appeared to work for a while. It retrieved fresh weather info and seemed to work properly for a short time. But after a few days it has once again restarted this behavior, downloading weather data and refusing to update – the only difference now from before, is it plainly states that it’s updating every 15 minutes as requested, but the weather conditions and forecast itself don’t change. Today is Sunday, but my WWL box claims it’s still last Thursday.

I removed the WWL plugin completely, restarted the computer, then re-installed the WWL plugin, and it appeared to work temporarily, but soon reverted to the stuck data again.

I also tried removing the Bettercache plugin I had installed, to see if perhaps that was the cause of the issue, but even after the uninstall, restarting firefox, and even restarting the computer, the weather data does not properly update until I wipe the cache.

Do you have any suggestions, or are there any logs I can provide? Is there perhaps a way to use the Bettercache plugin to force Firefox not to cache the data from the update url? Thanks!

shadowstitch, do you keep Firefox open all day or do you open and close it as you go?

I keep it open all day, and only restart it when necessary for an update, or when something crashes/restarts.

I’ve noticed that the only times the WWL plugin will update are upon restarting the browser, or when I clear the browser cache and force it to update the weather. This occurs with or without the Bettercache plugin enabled (or installed) but as that plugin was present throughout the life of my Firefox 3 install, I’m not certain its presence is part of the problem.

Again, it’s only started doing this since I upgraded to firefox 4. I have it set to “auto manage” the cache right now – since my last post I tried disabling the auto-cache as a test, but the problems persist regardless of that setting.

I’m experiencing the same “no automatic updates” described above. I can retrieve updates manually, but automatic definitely isn’t working on new installations of FF 4.0.1 and 1.0.17 WWL on two different machines! Have tried various update settings without success, and clearing cache makes no difference. ???

I’m seeing the symptom on two different computers, one with FF 3.0.16, and one with 4.0.1. I also have WeatherBug installed on the 3.0.16 instance, and that appears to not have this problem. I keep them both running all day.

I left Firefox 4.0.1 open for a little over 24-hours, and the extension seemed to update as expected. I didn’t continously check to see if it was updated, but all looked well when I checked about every 5 or so hours.

Did any of you notice that it sometimes updates? Or is it never automatically updating?

Today, I uninstalled and reinstalled the extension. I’ll also try keeping the Firefox window minimized to see if that makes a difference. We’ll see what happens with that setup today.

On mine at least, it seems like it’s going through the motions of updating the weather data, even if it never actually displays the new info. I’m sure it works for most people or there would be a lot more complaints – what interests me is discovering exactly what circumstances are causing this to occur on my (and similar) systems.

The “Last updated” counter dutifully shows the last update at the expected intervals, but the weather data displayed always reflects the first content retrieved upon starting the browser or dumping the cache and ordering it to refresh. The updated info is never displayed. Could there be some temp files that are not being purged, or a cached weather data file that is being set as read-only, on certain systems?

If you can tell me where the cached data is stored between weather updates, I can monitor to see if it is actually changing (which might indicate something wrong with the plugin’s ability to display new data) or if the data is being prevented from updating (which may indicate something is wrong with the disk or cache settings preventing incremental overwrites)

I am still using Windows XP, SP3.

As a follow-up: after removing and reinstalling the WWL extension, it’s now updating like it should! Evidently, the stored data was not deleted, as all my settings were still there after reinstalling. I’m clueless what the problem may have been, but am happy it’s working now. Keeping my fingers crossed. :cheers:

Sorry, but it looks like I have to retract my previous “all fixed” post. While the program updated successfully a few times (10 minute intervals), it’s now reverted to the same no update problem as before. No programs were added or deleted in the interim, only light and safe surfing, and I remain totally stumped! ](*,)

I had been seeing this symptom in FF 3.6.x for a long time. I finally upgraded to FF 5 on both of my computers, and it seemed like the symptom had gone away. Finally, after perhaps a month of using FF 5, the symptom has reappeared again on one of the computers. It’s reappeared on the WinXP box, but not yet on the Win7 box, which I use only a fraction of the time.