Flashing exclamation triangle on green onion

Question

I have seen an answers for this suggesting a security update, but no matter how many times I download the latest bundle, save, then run, I still get the flashing warning. Why?

Answer 1

You don't explain exactly what you do to upgrade to new version, so it's difficult to be certain, but I suspect that what you are observing is a symptom of the way the upgrade check is currently implemented:

The Torbutton extension in Tor Browser periodically downloads a list of "recommended versions" from https://check.torproject.org/RecommendedTBBVersions in the background and compares its current version with that list. If it finds that the version you are running is no longer recommended, it sets an internal Firefox preference (a configuration value) to indicate that an update is required, and displays the update notification in the browser user interface (the flashing yellow triangle).

If you simply extract the new version of the Tor Browser Bundle over the old Tor Browser directory when you upgrade to a new version, then the previous value of the "update required" preference will be retained, and the new version will also display the update notification based on the value of this preference.

This is harmless; next time it downloads the list of "recommended versions" it will notice that you now have an updated version and that the update is no longer required. Thus the warning notification should disappear by itself after some time.

The recommended way to upgrade is to delete the old Tor Browser Bundle (after exporting any bookmarks etc. you want to retain), and then extract the new version; see "How can I switch from one Tor Browser Bundle version to another?". If you do this, then you will avoid the bogus notification.

Answer 2

1. In Firefox type about:config in the location/(search) bar.
2. Check the yes I'll be careful warning.
3. In the Config Search bar type torbutton.update and change both options that appear to false. You can do this by double clicking on each option.

This will automatically change the settings. Voila no more blinking Tor Button.