Closed Bug 1065234 Opened 10 years ago Closed 9 years ago

"Document Expired" on Startpage.com

Categories

(Core :: Networking: Cache, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Networking: Cache
Version:
32 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Windows 7
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1079789

People

(Reporter: totallynotprofessional, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; InfoPath.3; .NET4.0E; rv:11.0) like Gecko

Steps to reproduce:

When the cache reaches its maximum allotment, use https://startpage.com and search for something.  Navigate away from the results page either forward or backward and then return to the results page to find "Document Expired."

It is worth noting the bug does NOT occur while the cache is not full.  Also does not occur at all with previous versions.


Actual results:

The results page is replaced with a "Problem Loading Page" error page stating, "Document Expired

This document is no longer available.

The requested document is not available in Firefox's cache.

    As a security precaution, Firefox does not automatically re-request sensitive documents.
    Click Try Again to re-request the document from the website.


Expected results:

Expected result is to return to viewing the search results and continue browsing them.
What is your cache's maximum allotment?
Component: Untriaged → Networking: Cache
Product: Firefox → Core
I typically use ~300 MB, but for testing this issue on other machines, I have set it to 20 and 30 MB (happens on these other machines as well - even with a fresh installation).

(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)
> What is your cache's maximum allotment?
Duplicate of bug #1060082.
On Win2008 R2 running Firefox 35.0.1, the problem occurs without the cache being full. I have checked the "Override Automatic Cache Management" selection and unchecked "Use hardware acceleration".
I have this error over and over on both Windows and Mac OS X (newest FF versions).

Usually, setting "Override Automatic Cache Management" and clearing cache helped for some time, bot now I got into the situation when the cache is reported empty by FF and still get this error at startpage.com.

Please, do something about it.
At Mozilla start page one can read: 

"Firefox Committed to you, your privacy and an open Web"

Well... So is "Startpage". Not working with it as expected is a real shame IMHO.
OK - few words how to handle it for those who fight this problem like me:

First - Startpage FAQ mentions this problem as has a remedy: disable "POST" queries (https://startpage.com/uk/company-faq.html#q9). BUT - for the long time I thought this does not work.

The problem is that when you open Startpage.com in the browser, make a search, go to result page and press "Back" - it works fine.

But when you use Firefox "Search engine plug-in" from Startpage - this does not work, no matter what you do with startpage settings.

So - for me the problem is with startpage search plugin, not with Firefox.
I have this as well, started 2-3 days ago. Had to change search engines.
(In reply to Maciej Maczynski from comment #6)
> OK - few words how to handle it for those who fight this problem like me:
> 
> First - Startpage FAQ mentions this problem as has a remedy: disable "POST"
> queries (https://startpage.com/uk/company-faq.html#q9). BUT - for the long
> time I thought this does not work.
> 
> The problem is that when you open Startpage.com in the browser, make a
> search, go to result page and press "Back" - it works fine.
> 
> But when you use Firefox "Search engine plug-in" from Startpage - this does
> not work, no matter what you do with startpage settings.
> 
> So - for me the problem is with startpage search plugin, not with Firefox.

editing the startpage searchplugin xml file: change "POST" to "GET" seems to fix it for me - also seems to work with cache as low as 100MB, so maybe that is not the issue.
oh, and don't forget you have to delete search.json and restart firefox after editing the search plugins
This does the job! I can confirm that setting POST in XML file and deleting search.json fixes the problem.
Thanks Zan.

However: the strange thing is that while I tried it on 3 systems (2 Windows 8 and one Mac OS X) I got different results every time. On one system - mere editing files and removing search.json worked immediately.
On other two (Windows and Mac) - I had to remove and add again startpage plugin, then edit XML to make the fix. Could not determine how to do that in 100% deterministic way. Anyway: I can use Starpage with FF again - that's great.
The reporter of bug 1140738 (Linux) says cache doesn't matter in their case.
QA Whiteboard: [bugday-20150309]
(In reply to Zan from comment #8)
> editing the startpage searchplugin xml file: change "POST" to "GET" seems to
> fix it for me

Of course, if you use GET instead of POST, all of your search terms will be sent to the sites you click in the results page, which defeats one of the privacy measures that startpage normally gives you.
Could someone with the licence to confirm please confirm this bug and the similar bug 1140738? Unconfirmed bugs are forever;-)
I had emailed start page about this bug, and received this reply today:
"Thanks for your patience. There was a temporary issue on https://startpage.com that caused the Document expired message to appear. This issue was fixed this week, so you are able to use the back button again without any issues."
And it does appear to work now, so this had nothing to do with firefox.
Thanks, Zan!
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
(In reply to Zan from comment #14)
> And it does appear to work now, so this had nothing to do with firefox.

It did very much have something to do with firefox. See bug 1060082.

Startpage simply worked around the problem by adding Cache-Control directives to their POST reponses. (Their support team doesn't seem to be particularly astute; they would not even acknowledge the problem when I reported it months ago.)
Why was this bug closed? There is a definite defect in Firefox. The fact that StartPage worked around a Firefox bug is a shame (although helpful to their users). Does any Firefox developer care about fixing this bug?
Reopened as Bug 1144002. Hopefully a Firefox dev will actually take a critical look at this issue.
(In reply to D Tyler from comment #18)
> Why was this bug closed? There is a definite defect in Firefox. The fact
> that StartPage worked around a Firefox bug is a shame (although helpful to
> their users). Does any Firefox developer care about fixing this bug?

If I read it correctly, it has been fixed in bug #1060082.. despite Startpage.com made a work around or not.
(In reply to D Tyler from comment #19)
> Reopened as Bug 1144002. Hopefully a Firefox dev will actually take a
> critical look at this issue.

It is easy to actually reopen a bug.  A developer posted in bug 1060082, so duping there.
Resolution: INVALID → DUPLICATE
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Ever confirmed: true
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago → 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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