Acer Iconia One 10 B3-A30 won't install Firefox correctly. Errors & uninstall @ next reboot.

I'm beyond frustrated with this thing... It seems to refuse to do basic stuff that my Shield K1 does without flinching. Things as simple and stupid as installing the Firefox app.

HAd a beast of a time getting Facebook app installed. Kept crashing the UI, blacking out the screen, etc. Finally got it on like the 5th try. This was on a basically clean install, 1st day...

Anyway, still won't install Firefox despite my best efforts, either regular or Beta build.

IT says it installs, but as soon as you try to open it, the crash reporter comes up. You report the crash, and immediately the crash reporter comes up again. This seems par for the course for most apps prior to reboot. Pretty sure on most other tablets you can simply use an app once it's installed. On this one, you seem to have to reboot prior to opening them or they crash and burn. Annoying.

Problem is, assuming maybe that was the problem, I rebooted after a FireFox install prior to tryig to open it, only to find that the icon wasn't in my list of installed apps. Searching for it didn't find it either. Going to the Play store, it showed only "Install" button, NOT "uninstall" or "open." So, it seems to have not been installed correctly, or it installed and then auto-uninstalled. Bizarre behavior, given it works fine on my phone and Shield K1.

I have no idea what it's doing or why it's doing it, but it's annoying as all heck.

Accepted answers

clavead

I suggest you get the Firefox apk from a site such as APK Mirror. I downloaded the 51.0 beta version from there. I was able to install it and run it without any problems on my tablet after encountering the same problems as you when getting it from the Google Play Store.

All comments

Mary-Acer

Acer does not test third party apps but here is a link to some info that may be helpful: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-android-device-using-google-play If this doesn't resolve the issue we would suggest you contact Firefox support to see if they can assist with installing their browser on an Android tablet.

MGmirkin

I'm quite well aware of how to install apps. Which is why I'm so frustrated by this thing...

The app installs/works perfectly fine on all my other Android devices without issue: LG Sunset Phone, nVidia K1 tablet. For some reason, your tablet seems to not play nicely with it, and I'm trying to figure out why... Hence my inquiry with you guys, since it's your hardware / software it seems to be 'failing' on.

Had hoped maybe you guys had encountered this particular issue before and/or, if so, had a resolution to it. Sounds like perhaps not?

Likewise, any reason why your tablet seems to often require a "restart" prior to newly installed apps working correctly, whereas other phones / tablets will typicall use an app *as soon as it's installed*?

Kinda' not digging how finnickly this tablet is about fairly basic things. Much as I'd like to like it... $:\$ *Sigh*

Anyway, I guess I'll go inquire with Mozilla if they know why your hardware/software is so finnicky and if there's any way around it. Though, I get the feeling this may end up in a game of finger-pointing and "he did it," "no, he did it" with no resolution... Guess we'll see...

MGmirkin

I've punted over to the Mozilla Support Community, for the moment.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1147285

Honestly don't know where the buck stops in terms of who is responsible for making sure that apps work... Or is there a little bit of "buck stops here" on both ends: Mozilla for making sure that their app works within the general Android specs, Acer for making sure that it hasn't done anything odd that somehow prevents an app from working normally? Dunno...

Hopefully one or the other will come up with a solution. ^_^ Surely, though, I can't be the only person with this problem on this unit?

clavead

I suggest you get the Firefox apk from a site such as APK Mirror. I downloaded the 51.0 beta version from there. I was able to install it and run it without any problems on my tablet after encountering the same problems as you when getting it from the Google Play Store.

MGmirkin

Was thinking about something like that, just wasn't sure if there were places to go to download installers other than GP Store, and how trustworthy said sites were...

Though the question remains why it fails when downloading standard from GP Store, but works when downloading/installing .apk directly elsewhere? Makes me think there's something funky going on with this tablet itself and that it's not, per se, a "Mozilla issue"? Dunno...

MGmirkin

So, what the heck?

I went to Mozilla's ftp, downloaded the mobile .apk installed it. Everything worked fine. Even updated from 49.0.2 to whatever the next version the Google Play Store thought was current via the Google Play Store's update functionality.

Uninstalled it, went back to the Google Play store to install it the normal way, the way that works everywhere else, and, again, it failed to install. Ohh sure, it reported as "successfully installed," but on reboot the icon was nowhere to be found. What the heck, Acer? Seriously. This works fine on all my other Android devices in the standard way, why not yours?? It's a bit maddening. What is your hardware / software doing differently from my other devices such that the install fails? And generally many apps require a full tablet reboot before they work without crashing?

For now I'll simply install via the offline .apk installer directly from Mozilla, which works perfectly on its own, outside the GP Store. Hopefully you Acer guys will get this sorted and figure out why it refuses to install properly in the normal fashion via the normal Play Store channel...

Seriously, if there are techs who care, grab your Acer Iconia One 10" B3-A30, try installing Firefox via Google Play.

It reports installing correctly. Try opening it. Drops directly into crash reporter. Never opens.

Shut down tablet. Turn on tablet. Look for app. It's not there. Go to Google Play Store. Find Firefox again. It's not installed. Don't know why.

Instead, go to Mozilla download ftp:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/releases/49.0.2/android-api-15/en-US/

Download the fennec 49.0.2 installer .apk file. Run it. Installs fine. Opens immediately after install, no reboot required.

Figure out the difference between why it installs fine from ftp .apk file, but fails miserably direct from Google Play Store. If it's a problem on your end, fix it. If not, maybe reach out to Mozilla to let them know something is sideways. But given it works fine on other devices, but not on yours, I suspect the problem is on your end...? Given that it seems to have problems running other apps directly after install w/o reboot, which, from my experience on other Android devices should not be the case most of the time. Most things should work straight out of the box after install. So, I get the feeling your system does something weird/nonstandard when installing things. I could be wrong, of course...

[word filter avoidance]

MGmirkin

For the time being, I'm going to mark Clavead's solution as successful, though I don't like having to go outside the usual Google Store install process to sideload apps... At least the .apk was available directly from Mozilla as opposed to unknown 3rd party site... ^_^

Hopefully Acer at least looks into the issue to see if it's something on their end with the normal Google Play install process...

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