14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla rolled out Firefox 78 on all supported desktop platforms yesterday, and now only a day later the company comes up with the very first minor revision.
Firefox 78 was a major update, and it brought several important improvements for the desktop operating systems where it’s available.
But as it turns out, it also introduced a pretty widespread bug that broke down the search feature available in the browser. And because the problem was confirmed on a big number of devices, Mozilla decided to halt the automatic rollout of the browser and instead ship Firefox 78.0.1.
Those who have already installed Firefox 78 can now install version 78.0.1 manually or check for updates in the browser using the built-in update engine. On the other hand, users where an older version of the browser is still running are automatically offered the update to 78.0.1.
The bug that Mozilla has already acknowledged in Firefox 78 breaks down the search feature. As per the release notes of version 78.0.1:
“Fixed an issue which could cause installed search engines to not be visible when upgrading from a previous release.”
According to a post on Bugzilla spotted by TechDows, Firefox users are experiencing three different issues related to search engines after installing version 78 of the browser:
- All search engines are gone, list of one-click search engines is empty now
- Auto complete in the address bar doesn't work any longer
- Search function on the start page doesn't start a search any longer
The issue was mostly confirmed on Windows systems but there’s a chance that the other platforms are affected as well.
Needless to say, users are recommended to get the new Firefox version as soon as possible on their devices.
As for what’s causing the problem, Mozilla hasn’t provided too many details on this, but the linked discussion thread includes a little bit more information.
Firefox 78 introduces changes for the search service available within the browser, and by the looks of things, this is what’s causing the search engines to no longer be available be listed in the browser.
“The search service is now using remote settings in 78, and if indexed DB isn't working, that stops that and a lot of other things from working,” one Mozilla engineer explains. “Unfortunately, our search service has just switched to using that local database, and as a result isn't working properly.”
Unfortunately for Firefox users, this isn’t the first time Mozilla ships a broken update. A similar problem was experienced when Firefox 77 was officially launched nearly a month ago, with Mozilla rolling out the very first minor revision only a day later, once again to resolve a critical issue.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like Mozilla’s accelerated update pace is working exactly as anticipated. The company is now pushing major Firefox updates every four weeks, as compared to six weeks as it was the case before. In other words, new Firefox versions land in the stable channel much more often than before, and if we are to judge from all these blunders, this is something that’s not working really great.
Less time to prepare major updates increases the likelihood of issues like the ones that users have come across lately, despite the testing builds that are also shipped in the meantime. The only way to go right now is to wait for a few more days before installing a new Firefox major version in order to determine the reliability of the update. This is something that more users are likely to do in the coming months, especially if Mozilla doesn’t find a way to improve the reliability of its updates.