1238330 - Back button goes to an ancient version of web page

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox for iOS :: Browser, defect)

Description

[Gerald Squelart (he/him) (not at Mozilla since 2022-09-15)]

Attachment: left: main page, center: article, right: back to older main page

Firefox/iOS seems to cache the oldest version of a visited page instead of the most recent one, when using the back button.

STR:
0. Open Firefox for iOS version 1.4 (1403).
1. Navigate to http://www.theage.com.au
2. (if necessary) go to bottom of page, and click on "Full Site" (or equivalent)
Notice the date and time at the top right.
3. Click on an article, wait for it to load, wait a couple of minutes or more.
4. Click the back button.
Notice the time, it should be the same as in step 2.
5. Reload the page.
Notice the time, it should now have changed to the current time.
6. Click on an article (same or different), wait for it to load, wait a couple of minutes or more.
7. Click the back button.

Expected:
The main page should be displayed, with the time seen in step 5.

Actual:
The main page is displayed with the time seen in step 2.

Even with step 5 (reloading), repeating steps 6-7 (click then back) will always go back to the very first main page (in step 2), even after a few days!

As an example, the attached image contains 3 screenshots:
1. Left: Main page just loaded on Sunday Jan 10, 3:40PM.
2. Center: Showing the first article, date shown is Sunday as expected.
3. Right: After clicking the back button, main page from Wednesday Jan 6, 8:17AM!
Reloading would display the Sunday page (1) with an updated time, but going to any article and then back always shows the Wednesday page (3).

I didn't see this happening in Safari.

Comment 1

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Let's take a look.

Comment 2

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

I have been unable to replicate this in 2.0(3)

Comment 3

[Catalin Suciu [:csuciu]]

I'm able to reproduce this issue every time I follow the steps from comment #0. 
I'm loading http://www.theage.com.au , tap on article, wait for five minutes then go back to the main page  

Result: The clock from top left is five minutes behind. Reloading the page will update the clock to the correct time.

Device: iPhone 6 Plus (9.2.1)
Build: 2.0(4)

Comment 4

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Reported on the forums today

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1108298

Comment 5

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

This problem exists in Safari as well. Reproduced this in Safari on iOS 9.2 on my iPad Air. 

i) Open reddit.com, take note of content on the front page
ii) Close the tab
iii) Leave iPad idle for a while (overnight for me)
iv) Open a new reddit.com (see new content), tap any newly submitted content 
v) Hit back, see content from yesterday

We should file a radar on Apple.