Manually Update Firefox Browser in Android

As soon as the news that the Firefox version 36.0 has been released came out on various web sites, I checked for the latest version on my Android smart phone. But Google Playstore was still showing the older version 35.0.1 for Firefox. This could happen perhaps because Mozilla did not quickly update their browser on the Playstore or there was some delay in the distribution. In any case, I did not want to wait for another day to update the Firefox for Android and decided to manually update Firefox in Android through side loading.

Here is how you can manually update Firefox browser in your Android device:

  1. First of all download the new version of Firefox APK file from the Mozilla FTP servers located at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/releases/. This FTP server has all the old and new releases including the beta versions, so you have to find the latest version that does not have a “b” in its version number. Further, you have option to download android-x86 or android arm versions – for most of the Android devices it is going to be arm version that works. Do not worry if the file says fennec instead of firefox as the codename for Firefox’s mobile version is Fennec.Manually Update Firefox for Android
  2. Copy the downloaded APK file to your Android device’s storage. Open the Android settings in your device, select Security and enable installation of apps from Unknown sources.Manually Update Firefox for Android
  3. Open File Manager in Android and touch the APK file that you downloaded earlier in step 1. You will be asked to install an update to Firefox, proceed by touching on Install and you will have an updated version of Firefox before everyone else.Manually Update Firefox for Android

Conclusion: You can update Firefox in Android to its latest version before everyone else by manually side loading it through the latest version of its APK file. This way you do not have to wait for the latest version to be delivered through the Google Playstore.