Solved Vivaldi browser needs two stages to install updates

I don't know if this is due to Vivaldi being based on Chrome but this is what happens every time I update Vivaldi: -

First attempt - Help>Check for updates>Update found>Click on 'Install update'.
This seems to download a 2.9 MB installer which then tries to run but seems stuck in a loop. The progress bar continually active but nothing else happening.
After about 2 minutes I cancel the process via Task Manager.

Second attempt - I repeat Help>Check for updates>Update found>Click on 'Install update'.
This time it shows 'Downloading update' 92.1 Mb and it then installs normally. Restart Vivaldi and all is well.

This has happened with every Vivaldi update for the last year as far as I can remember. I am sure that Vivaldi have not designed Vivaldi to behave like this. It is not an important issue but annoying so does anyone else have the same problem and if so is there is a solution?

Are there no Vivaldi users out there who can say they have had the same problem and if there is a solution?

I have been using Vivaldi since new, and have never had that issue. Vivaldi has an active forum and you may get more specific help there is you join and post

Personally I'd copy the Default folder from C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data make a backup of passwords if any and bookmarks and reinstall Vivaldi. You can quickly import bookmarks and passwords, and paste the backed up Default folder and all your data will be there

We have a member @Jane from team Vivaldi here who may have some suggestions

A Guy

@A Guy - Thanks. I'll try the Uninstall-Reinstall but it may be a while (until the next update) to see if it has worked. I'll report back as and when.

Hi @wiganken!
Can you go into Settings > General > Show Update Settings. Have you enabled automatic downloading and installing of updates? If not, I recommend enabling it. That way you don't have to check for updates manually. When an update has been downloaded you'll see an Update Ready message on the right side of the Address Bar. You can click it and restart the browser immediately to install the update or do it whenever it's convenient for you.

What A Guy recommended is also an option. There's a more detailed guide on our Forum - [HOW TO] Manually Backup/Restore/Transfer your profile to another device.

Jane / Team Vivaldi

@Jane - Thank you.
For now I have disabled the auto download/install updates option so that I can test if the uninstall/reinstall has worked. I will manually update again to see if there is any change in the install procedure. If there isn't I will then enable the auto option and see if that works.

Sounds like a good plan. Keep us updated.

There won't be another big update for some time since we just recently released Vivaldi 5.7, but we usually have a few minor updates, which you can use for testing.

@Jane and @A Guy - FYI and thank you.

Today, 9th March 2023: I updated to next version 5.7.2921.63.

Clicked on Help>Check for updates>Update found>Click on 'Install update'.
After clicking on ‘Yes’ to allow Vivaldi to make changes the installer then ran showing the ‘Installing’ bar but the progress bar was active for 4 minutes and nothing seemed to be happening until suddenly the new version of Vivaldi launched. So, the process did work first time but it was slow and behaved differently to how it did a year ago when it would show a ‘Downloading update’ window. It no longer shows this but it is obviously happening in the background.

Previously I had been stopping the Install process because I thought nothing was happening after 2 minutes. Wrong move.

I have now enabled the automatic download/install updates option so hopefully Vivaldi will update in the background.

At least I know what's happening now so I will call this 'Solved' and get used to the new behaviour.

Thanks for the update @wiganken.
It's unfortunate that downloading the new version takes that long, but good to know that it eventually works.

And yes, with automatic updates the new version will be downloaded in the background and you'll be prompted when you can restart the browser to install the new version.

Thank you for using Vivaldi!

Good to hear

A Guy