Open Bug 1113573 Opened 9 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Private browsing not working on some computers

Categories

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

x86
Windows 7
defect

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()

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(Reporter: nical, Unassigned)

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(4 files)

Sorry for the lack precision in the bug title.
I got report from a user that private browsing wasn't working on Firefox 30 and Firefox 34.0.5 (I assume it hasn't worked with the versions in between):

When opening a private tab, the mask icon on the top left is missing (see attached picture) and, more importantly, cookies are shared between private tabs and non-private ones.

On the affected computer, private browsing works with Firefox 36.0a2.
The original reporter says that other machines are affected (IIUC, their IT department built a service that somewhat relies on private browsing and they have several reports of it not working with the same symptoms).
Attached image Cookies in private mode
Attached image Cookies in normal mode
Is 'Never Remember History' enabled in Preferences -> Privacy?
Hi Josh,
I am part of the IT departement that built a system relying on private browsing and reported the issue to Nical.

We tried to reproduce the issue on another machine by enabling "Never Remeber History", result is as follow : 
  + new browser window oppened (similar to issue)
  + no private browsing logo in browser chrome (similar to issue)
  + no private browsing description text in tab (different from issue) and instead browser start page.
  + cookies shared between "private" and "normal" window (similar to issue)

Making it simple, oppenning a private browsing session on a browser set to never remeber history looks like openning a new browser window.

In our original issue, tab says it is in private mode, yet seems to behave as normal tab.

We couldn't try, as of now, this workarround on a machine that had the issue originally for the users encountering the issue are currently in vacations.

Still, i think private browsing shouldn't have its behavior changed by an option dealing with history. Is it due to me missunderstanding of what private browsing means ? 

Thanks
Gaël
I wasn't proposing a workaround; I was checking for a source of common confusion. People often turn on Never Remember History mode and then are confused when windows they expect to be private don't show any sign that they're private (since the mode is implemented by permanently enabling private browsing for all windows). I'm still not clear whether the problems you are reporting are explained by accidentally/intentionally enabling Never Remember History mode.
Hello and happy new year,

After that long time, all the people encountering issues with private browsing got back to work after long vacations.

The option "Never Remember History" is indeed the cause ( and solution ) for all the users who encountered shared cookies problem.

To me, the choice of having the browser switch to private browsing when enabling "Never Remember History" leads to some difficulties :

1 / There are two actions in the menu that lead to te exact same effect : "Open new window" and "Open new private window" will just open another private browsing window without the "private" affordance. It induces confusion, though it could be solved by displaying a text on the newly opened tab explaining there is no such thing as private browsing while "Never Remeber History" is enabled.

2 / This prevents to open two different sessions of any service such as gmail, fb, twitter, and so on... thought the link with history is remote and unclear. It is on that part we rely. Our old statefull application requieres the users to get logged on twice in some uses cases. (bad thing, but no budget to change it)

3 / So far, we have been able to help our users changing this option, yet we are not guaranted this will continue. It is possible some coporate tool deployment scripts alters firefox prefs. My client is the french national railway company. Its IT policies don't change often, but when they do, it is towards less liberty for the end user. (bad thing, but there is no way i can help here)

Thanks for your time :)
Gaël
(In reply to Gael Motte from comment #6)
> 1 / There are two actions in the menu that lead to te exact same effect :
> "Open new window" and "Open new private window" will just open another
> private browsing window without the "private" affordance. It induces
> confusion, though it could be solved by displaying a text on the newly
> opened tab explaining there is no such thing as private browsing while
> "Never Remeber History" is enabled.

That's weird; we explicitly try to avoid showing both of these options when in this mode: http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/base/content/browser.js#7432
 
> 2 / This prevents to open two different sessions of any service such as
> gmail, fb, twitter, and so on... thought the link with history is remote and
> unclear. It is on that part we rely. Our old statefull application requieres
> the users to get logged on twice in some uses cases. (bad thing, but no
> budget to change it)
> 
> 3 / So far, we have been able to help our users changing this option, yet we
> are not guaranted this will continue. It is possible some coporate tool
> deployment scripts alters firefox prefs. My client is the french national
> railway company. Its IT policies don't change often, but when they do, it is
> towards less liberty for the end user. (bad thing, but there is no way i can
> help here)
> 
> Thanks for your time :)
> Gaël
There are both "New Window" and "New Private Window" buttons when enabling "Never Remeber History"
Well, there must be something going wrong then.

In the options, when i swtich to "Never remeber History Mode", after firefox restarted, i can read in about:config : 
browser.privatebrowsing.autostart = true 

I guess this should be somehow linked to PrivateBrowsingUtils.permanentPrivateBrowsing, yet, i have no idea how.

Please have a look at the screenshot i added (FF 34.0.5).
Hello,

I am running on Linux and the issue is somewhere in the configuration files.  I have two accounts running and with a fully new account, if I try to set "Always use privte browsing mode" it doesn't go into private browsing mode.

If I leave the window open and then press ctrl+shift+p I get a private browsing window.

I removed the .mozilla directory and restarted Firefox to test if there was something in the directory but it didn't fix anything.

This is with Firefox 35.0

I have used this for a few days before finding out that when I thought I was in private browsing mode, I really wasn't.

Even opening with firefox -private I get a private tab but if I close that, I don't get a private tab anymore.

This is what happens opening firefox -private 

$1:  firefox -private
WARNING: content window passed to PrivateBrowsingUtils.isWindowPrivate. Use isContentWindowPrivate instead (but only for frame scripts).
pbu_isWindowPrivate@resource://gre/modules/PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm:25:14
@about:privatebrowsing:25:12
WARNING: content window passed to PrivateBrowsingUtils.isWindowPrivate. Use isContentWindowPrivate instead (but only for frame scripts).
pbu_isWindowPrivate@resource://gre/modules/PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm:25:14
@about:privatebrowsing:50:14

$1: firefox -private
WARNING: content window passed to PrivateBrowsingUtils.isWindowPrivate. Use isContentWindowPrivate instead (but only for frame scripts).
pbu_isWindowPrivate@resource://gre/modules/PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm:25:14
@about:privatebrowsing:25:12
WARNING: content window passed to PrivateBrowsingUtils.isWindowPrivate. Use isContentWindowPrivate instead (but only for frame scripts).
pbu_isWindowPrivate@resource://gre/modules/PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm:25:14
@about:privatebrowsing:50:14
Thanks for the screenshot! It looks like we're correctly fixing up the File menu but not the hamburger button menu when permanent PB mode is enabled. I've filed bug 1124061 about that problem.
Severity: normal → S3
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