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Release DateMay 14, 2024
Release OwnerDonal Meehan
Nightly cycle length4 weeks
Beta cycle length4 weeks
Corresponding ESR release 115.11.0
Release notes Nightly notes
Milestones
Desktop, Android & iOS
Nightly starts

The first day of the cycle is Merge Day. After merging mozilla-central to mozilla-beta, we bump the nightly version number on mozilla-central and a new development cycle starts for Firefox. A new Firefox Nightly is shipped every 12 hours.

March 18
10 days ago
Deadline to request manual QA

QA has been informed (via a Jira ticket) about features that require manual testing during the nightly and/or beta cycle.
Feature technical documentation is also required to draft Test Plans and Test Cases.

March 22
6 days ago
Build ready for QA in nightly

Features with a QA request are ready for testing to assess feature quality and provide a formal test report by the end of Week 3 of the nightly cycle.

March 29
No working day before milestone
Build ready for QA in beta

If nightly testing was skipped then features should be in a testable state by this date for beta testing.

April 11
In 9 working days
Soft Code Freeze starts Draft beta release notes

We are nearing the end of the nightly cycle. Don't land new untested features. Risky changes should be avoided after 8:00 AM UTC until after the nightly version bump on Merge Day.

April 11
In 9 working days
QA Test Plan approval due

For features requiring Nightly testing, the QA team appreciates an earlier sign-off from the project teams. If an early sign-off is not available or testing is required only in Beta, the approval milestone will be the final deadline for any feature Test Plan sign-offs. No feedback/sign-off on QAs Feature Test Plan could result in misalignment on testing scope, incomplete test coverage and invalid bugs.

April 12
In 2 weeks
String Freeze starts

In order to ensure that our localizers have adequate time to translate strings, please make sure that all string changes have landed by end of day.

April 12
In 2 weeks
QA pre-merge regression testing done

QA assess build readiness for shipping to Beta by running a set of Regression test cases and shares a test report. Nightly Regression coverage is limited compared to Beta Regression testing throughout the Beta cycle.

April 12
In 2 weeks
Merge day

This is the day in the release cycle when we merge mozilla-central into mozilla-beta. This is the end of the development cycle for Firefox 126 and the beginning of our Beta stabilization cycle.

April 15
In 2 weeks
Beta 1 Go to build

Built manually just after the merge. It is rolled out to 25% of our beta population. Some experimental features are still activated to watch their behavior on a wider population. These experimental features will be deactivated mid-cycle. Uplift requests are open.

April 15
In 2 weeks
Beta 2 Go to build

First automated beta of the cycle. It is rolled out to 50% of our beta population. Build starts at 13:00 UTC.
Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 17
In 2.5 weeks
Beta 3 Go to build

Beta rollout bumped to 100% provided stability is good. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 19
In 3 weeks
SUMO content creation

User affecting changes were identified and provided to the support.mozilla.org team. The support content for this release can now be created and will be translated before RC week.

April 19
In 3 weeks
Beta 4 Go to build

Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 22
In 3 weeks
Beta 5 Go to build

Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 24
In 3.5 weeks
Beta 6 Go to build Last early beta

On a regular 4 weeks beta cycle, Beta 6 is the last beta with experimental features still activated. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 26
In 4 weeks
Beta 7 Go to build

Experimental features are no longer activated at compile time. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

April 29
In 4 weeks
SUMO content localization

New content on support.mozilla.org team is finalized, uploaded to the server and provided to our localization teams internationally.

April 29
In 4 weeks
Beta 8 Go to build

Last week of the beta cycle. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts.

May 1
In 4.5 weeks
Pre-release QA sign-off

A week before the final sign-off, QA shares preliminary test reports for each feature riding the train. This pre-release sign-off can be Green, Yellow or Red.

May 1
In 4.5 weeks
Beta 9 Go to build Last beta uplifts (sec-approval request deadline)

On a regular 4 weeks beta cycle, this is the last beta and thus the end of beta uplifts, including security bugs for this release (sec-approval+ on Bugzilla). Build starts at 13:00 UTC.

May 3
In 5 weeks
Release Candidate Go to build

We merge our mozilla-beta repository to mozilla-release and close mozilla-beta until the next merge day. We then build our Release Candidate from mozilla-release. This is the build we intend to ship a week later unless we need to build a second Release Candidate to fix a major quality or business critical issue.

May 6
In 5 weeks
Release Candidate Release notes finalized

Our Release Candidate is shipped to all of our beta population.

May 7
In 5.5 weeks
Release day!

We ship Firefox 126 at 14:00 UTC (6AM PST) at 25% rollout.

May 14
In 6.5 weeks
Planned dot release

Two weeks after the release, we ship a dot release to address identified quality issues if needed. We may have to ship other dot releases before that date. If this is the case and post-release quality issues are already fixed and shipped, the decision on shipping or not the planned dot release is on the release management team.

May 28
In 8.5 weeks