Closed Bug 1045589 Opened 10 years ago Closed 10 years ago

Firefox for Android v33 doesnt close with back button from HOME screen

Categories

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

33 Branch
All
Other
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: groachfriends-bugzilla, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:28.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/28.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20140314220517

Steps to reproduce:

1, Launch Firefox for Android v33
2,  At home screen, press the devices BACK button

OR

2,  Browse around, go into pages, and eventually use the BACK button to go back to the beginning of the session history and press BACK one more time to close.


Actual results:

Upon pressing the device back button, the firefox interface closes but the process continues to run (as shown in the devices ACTIVE APPLICATIONS app) and requires a forced END PROCESS to close it.


Expected results:

Pressing the BACK button from the home screen (with no session history) should close the interface and kill the application process (it does not remain an 'Active Application'). It always worked before v33.  (Pressing the device back button until the beginning of the session history of the last remaining tab should also close the app and kill the proocess - not only just from the home screen)
OS: Windows 7 → Other
Hardware: x86_64 → All
Version: Firefox 30 → Firefox 33
Note:  there are no ADD-ONS installed.
> It always worked before v33

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain this is invalid, we behave like any other Android application. We do not terminate the browser on pressing the back button on purpose.
Android is responsible for terminating the Firefox process if it so chooses.

Recent activities will always appear in the task switcher.

This behavior hasn't changed for as long as I can remember.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 10 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
@comment2  "are you sure"?

I am positive!  It always worked like that.  And what's more I have it in my mind that I have even read that this is the way but unfortunately I cant remember where I have read it (maybe some 'manual' for Firefox on the Support pages?)

@comment3 "Recent activities will always appear in the task switcher."

I am not talking about the Recent User Task Switcher (long press home button).  I am talking about ACTIVE APPLICATIONS available via the stock APPLICATIONS app.  I have the system widget for this on my home screen (which shows number of active applications - preferred to be zero - so you know if you have left something running) and so that when you exit program (in this case Firefox) and the app GUI closes, I can immediately see the number of active apps goes from a green "1" to a red "1" (as the program completes is termination fully), and then to a fat green zero (no apps running).

I have multiple reasons to believe my report is true (memory of reading it somewhere and experience and seeing it happen that backs up what I have read) and it now has all stopped working like this with v33.

If someone wants to tell where I can download the previous version (because obviously its now not available on Google Play) then I will do so to prove the point (but also so so can they.)
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: INVALID → ---
Ok, I now cannot find where I read about the back button.  Although I am sure about what I have experienced and my report, I can no longer provide the proof.  And unless others can back me up with a similar experience I guess I am on my own.  (Maybe I was just lucky in the past).  Hey ho.
"Back" on Android pops the activity from the top of the stack, in the absence of overriding behavior. It does not end the process. Nor should it: the process hosts content providers and services that are supposed to stay running to handle background events.

If you have some reason to need the process dead -- which I advise against; leaving it running will avoid Android doing additional work next time you launch it, and killing it will break Sync and other functionality -- you can use an extension called QuitNow, your use your task switcher.

I'm resolving this as INVALID, because it's the intended behavior.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 10 years ago10 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
Noted
We had a similar discussion over in bug 1010721, the important details starting from bug 1010721 comment 7. Notably, we do intentionally override the back button behavior.
See Also: → 1010721
From that bug: "We override onBackPressed to avoid this."..."Then it sounds like this is working as intended."

Just because it is working as intented, it doesnt necessarily mean that the *intended* is correct.  Personally I still dont understand why it has to remain active as an ACTIVE APPLICATION just to preserve some 'load time'.  Users know their device and know the consequences from starting apps from fresh (regarding speed, and consequential battery performance). And they also have the control of THEIR devices. And if they choose to close outright their browser, knowing that the next time they launch it it will take that extra time to start then  that is the users prerogative to do.  Is it right that firefox developers dictate to the user how to preserve their system? (treating users as fools).

Im sure, that like other applications, a level of the Firefox system can go to a background process just like all other apps ready for 'quick launch' from the MRU application list or its own launcher icon.  I personally dont care about the RAM, as android does take care of that. But the difference is that an active foreground process will be using more CPU than a dormant background process and that affects battery performance.  And forcing the user to 'exit firefox, swipe to go to ACTIVE APPLICATIONS, find firefox and SWIPE to kill' affects a users performance....and his patience.

Therefore, I still dont understand why this application behaves like this, when many other standard apps 'close', disappear from ACTIVE APPLICATIONS yet maintain a presence as a cached background process for a 'quick start' just fine.  (As you say, you deliberately choose to stop it behaving like these other apps - otherwise it would be just fine.  Im sure).
(In reply to jimimaseye from comment #9)

> And if they choose to close outright
> their browser, knowing that the next time they launch it it will take that
> extra time to start then  that is the users prerogative to do.

And they can do so, as I described in Comment 6.


> Im sure, that like other applications, a level of the Firefox system can go
> to a background process just like all other apps ready for 'quick launch'
> from the MRU application list or its own launcher icon.

That's what we do: we shut down a bunch of stuff, then send the task to the back. The process stays alive, just as it always does when an Android app exposes content providers and services. Foreground activity code isn't running. 


> Therefore, I still dont understand why this application behaves like this,
> when many other standard apps 'close', disappear from ACTIVE APPLICATIONS
> yet maintain a presence as a cached background process for a 'quick start'
> just fine.

I think you need to let go of some preconceptions.
Hi Richard, Michael et al'.  To be sure I dont have ANY technical knowledge about Mozilla or Android and simply cannot contradict or argue about the workings of either.  I can only ask questions based on what I see:

1, Why doesnt Firefox disappear from the ACTIVE APPLICATIONS screen (as shown in my screen shot) just like other applications do?  (eg, launch calculator, then press the back button.  Or launch Yahoo Mail app, and press the back button. Or whataspp. Or Onedrive or....) and you will see they all disappear from the ACTIVE APPLICATIONS screen.  They all still remain in the 'long press HOME' MRU process list for quick launch again - presumably because some sort of backgrounding of process/application has happened.  (Because from here you can 'swipe' to kill completely).  And with exception of calculator, they are all apps that are exposing content providers and services.

2,  The suggestion in comment 6 about installing an extension to compensate for something that I am questioning missing is not the answer (eg, remove the ability for users, then say 'but you can add it yourself by....').  Surely the point is justifying the removal of the feature in the first place (the purpose of question 1)
(In reply to jimimaseye from comment #11)

> 1, Why doesnt Firefox disappear from the ACTIVE APPLICATIONS screen (as
> shown in my screen shot) just like other applications do?

Because there's an unfinished Activity. It's paused, rather than finished.

That your Active Applications screen thinks it's active is pretty much irrelevant; it's using hardly any more resources than if the Activity were finished, but this is what allows for background media playback, amongst other things.


> They all still remain in the
> 'long press HOME' MRU process list for quick launch again - presumably
> because some sort of backgrounding of process/application has happened. 

That's not really how the app switcher works. An app can be dead; it'll be relaunched simply by sending it an intent.


> 2,  The suggestion in comment 6 about installing an extension to compensate
> for something that I am questioning missing is not the answer (eg, remove
> the ability for users, then say 'but you can add it yourself by....'). 
> Surely the point is justifying the removal of the feature in the first place
> (the purpose of question 1)

No. There's plenty of precedent that browsers can't make everyone happy by default, and add-ons are the solution we use for that. There are two straightforward approaches that obsessive users can use to control which processes are running (one add-on, at least one built into Android), if they're happy making those tradeoffs; other users are better served by what we ship.

Furthermore, Mozilla is not a consensus-driven project. We certainly aim to please as many people as we can, and explain and educate as time allows, but we are fundamentally driven by principles and guided by expertise, not consensus.
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox for Android Graveyard
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