1168775 - Synced tabs are not cleared from "Synced Tabs" panel when "Clear on exit" is used

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Settings and Preferences, defect)

Description

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Set up sync
2. Go to Settings -> Privacy -> Clear private data -> "Clear on Exit" and check "Synced Tabs" option 
3. Go to Menu -> Quit
4. Reopen Nightly

Expected results:
- "Synced Tabs" list should be empty

Actual results:
- Synced tabs are still present in the panel

Comment 1

[u535116]

I can take a look at this and fix.

Comment 2

[:Margaret Leibovic]

(In reply to Matt King from comment #1)
> I can take a look at this and fix.

Awesome, thanks! Let us know if you need help figuring out where to look.

Comment 3

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

It's possible that the Synced Tabs are just being repopulated by Sync, since you're very likely to have a Sync as soon as you start browsing.  That's a confusing experience, for sure.

Comment 4

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

Attachment: logs-sync.txt

-turn "Sync" off from android settings
-go to Settings -> Privacy -> Clear private data -> "Clear on Exit"
-check "Synced Tabs" option 
-go to Menu -> "Quit" 
-reopen Nightly
=> synced tabs are still displayed in the panel
-go once again to Menu -> "Quit" 
-reopen Nightly
=> synced tabs are removed from the panel.

I've attached the logs while performing these steps.

Comment 5

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

I/Process ( 5256): Sending signal. PID: 5256 SIG: 9
I/ActivityManager(  840): Process org.mozilla.fennec (pid 5256) (adj 11) has died.


Running actions on quit, when "quit" is defined as "kill -9", is not a sane concept.

Comment 6

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

Matt - Any update on this?

Comment 7

[u535116]

This doesn't sound like a bug to me. If you still have sync set up, then of course it will re-sync your tabs, even after they are cleared.

Maybe the larger question is how should this behave in the first place. If you check the option to clear synced tabs on exit, should it propagate closing the synced tabs on other devices? Or should it remember those tabs that were cleared and not add them again?

Comment 8

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

(In reply to Matt King from comment #7)
> This doesn't sound like a bug to me. If you still have sync set up, then of
> course it will re-sync your tabs, even after they are cleared.
> 
> Maybe the larger question is how should this behave in the first place. If
> you check the option to clear synced tabs on exit, should it propagate
> closing the synced tabs on other devices?

I don't think it should, and if we want this we would need to build a mechanism for it, since Android doesn't sync Gecko preferences.

 Or should it remember those tabs
> that were cleared and not add them again?

I don't think so.  If you're actually syncing a client, it /should/ come back.

I supported this feature 'cuz it makes it possible to purge stale Sync clients and possibly self-heal your display.

Comment 9

[u535116]

Sounds like we don't want to alter this behavior, as it's working as designed. Should we resolve this ticket then?

Comment 10

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

Let's renom and find out if this is WONTFIX

Comment 11

[:Margaret Leibovic]

If we're going to WONTFIX this, shouldn't we remove this option from "Clear on exit"? It seems confusing that we let someone clear their synced tabs, only to automatically repopulate them.

Comment 12

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #11)
> If we're going to WONTFIX this, shouldn't we remove this option from "Clear
> on exit"? It seems confusing that we let someone clear their synced tabs,
> only to automatically repopulate them.

My intention here was to provide an out for users who have lots of old, stale *devices* in their Synced Tabs/Shareplane menu.  Clearly the messaging is bad (that's on me) so it appears that the costs outweigh the benefits.

Comment 13

[:Margaret Leibovic]

(In reply to Nick Alexander :nalexander from comment #12)
> (In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #11)
> > If we're going to WONTFIX this, shouldn't we remove this option from "Clear
> > on exit"? It seems confusing that we let someone clear their synced tabs,
> > only to automatically repopulate them.
> 
> My intention here was to provide an out for users who have lots of old,
> stale *devices* in their Synced Tabs/Shareplane menu.  Clearly the messaging
> is bad (that's on me) so it appears that the costs outweigh the benefits.

I definitely think they should be able to clear their synced tabs/devices somewhere in the UI, I just don't think "Clear on exit" sounds like the right place for that.

Comment 14

[u535116]

Would you all be open to me removing the option? I can do that as part of this ticket, or create a new one.

Comment 15

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

(In reply to Matt King from comment #14)
> Would you all be open to me removing the option? I can do that as part of
> this ticket, or create a new one.

Matt: if you could file a follow-up, that would be great.  I'd like to apologize for leading us down a bad path, and to thank you for staying involved.

Comment 16

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

(In reply to Matt King from comment #14)
> Would you all be open to me removing the option? I can do that as part of
> this ticket, or create a new one.

That seems to make the most sense here I think.

Comment 17

[u535116]

New ticket: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1181146