1228686 - (Never) Remember History command needs to be chosen twice

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Data Sanitization, defect)

Description

[Nick Levinson]

Selecting either Never Remember History or Remember History (in Edit > Preferences > Privacy) requires choosing the same command twice consecutively and even then it will not survive a restart of FF. In version 42.0 for OpenSuse 13.2, the usual menu setting is Use Custom Settings For History. If Private Browsing Mode is on, selecting Remember History forces a restart of FF, resulting in Use Custom Settings For History without Private Browsing Mode. Then reselecting Remember History works. But quitting and manually restarting FF returns to Use Custom Settings For History without Private Browsing Mode. If I then Keep [Cookies] Until I Close Firefox and Clear History When Firefox Closes and change the menu to Never Remember History, Use Custom Settings For History is restored along with Private Browsing Mode but the options to Keep [Cookies] Until I Close Firefox and Clear History When Firefox Closes are dimmed, which presumably means that they're inoperative.

Comment 1

[Alice Wyman]

I did some searching and this sounds similar to the issue reported by a Linux user in this mozillazine forum thread from 2009:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1368505 Major Firefox bug - Wierd Privacy/History Settings behaviour
... which links to this "known bug":
Bug 493527 - Custom prefs are not reset in privacy pane when selecting Remember history / Never remember history

Nick, it's hard for others to confirm this bug without clear-cut Steps To Reproduce (see the mozillazine thread or bug 493527 for STR examples).

Comment 2

[Nick Levinson]

STR, similar to above (I usually don't offer STR unless asked but sometimes my descriptions are too concise):

1. FF 42.0 is on openSuse 13.2 Linux and FF is as last updated by openSuse; I accept all openSuse updates. (I also have Chromium ver. 47.0.2526.80 (64-bit) open, so I can see the original post, but I don't expect that, in tech terms, Chromium being open should affect FF.)

2. Starting configuration: Edit > Preferences > Privacy > History > Firefox Will > Use Custom Settings For History, with Always Use Private Browsing Mode checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites checkmarked, Exceptions none, Accept Third-Party Cookies menu set to Always, Show Cookies listing 2 cookies from google.com (I don't delete either one), and everything else dimmed.

3. Change menu to Remember History.

4. Result: FF requires restart for the change; I OK it; restart produces Use Custom Settings For History, Remember Search and Form History auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, and Keep Until set to They Expire, while other options are not in effect (Always Use Private Browsing Mode, Remember My Browsing and Download History, and Clear History When Firefox Closes all auto-uncheckmarked, which I guess means that browsing history won't be remembered and therefore that FF can't restore tabs). At the same time, new tabs auto-opened, for <http://www.amazon.com/>, <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1206436>, and <https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-browsing-search-download-history-firefox?redirectlocale=en-US&as=u&redirectslug=Clear+Recent+History&utm_source=inproduct>, so browsing history was remembered, but why those tabs and not others opened now is unknown to me, since I didn't open them recently, while I did open others recently, including from <mozilla.org>, which did not open now. Show Cookies now lists cookies from 24 domains, of which at least one (from yahoo.com) is to persist into 2017 (I didn't view the other cookies) (I didn't delete any cookie).

5. Change menu to Remember History. This is the second consecutive menu change to the same menu item. This time, there's no need to restart FF and there are no checkboxes in the History section. The text in the History section is different; it's explanatory.

6. File > Quit.

7. Manually restart FF.

8. Result, caused by FF, not by me: Edit > Preferences > Privacy > History > Use Custom Settings For History, same as above (Remember Search and Form History auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, and Keep Until set to They Expire, while other options are not in effect (Always Use Private Browsing Mode, Remember My Browsing and Download History, and Clear History When Firefox Closes all auto-uncheckmarked, which I guess means that browsing history won't be remembered and therefore that FF can't restore tabs)). Show Cookies lists cookies from 23 domains (one less domain than above).

9. Changes: Keep [Cookies] Until menu to I Close Firefox and checkmark Clear History When Firefox Closes (the Settings dialog shows all options already checkmarked).

10. File > Quit (here I diverge from the opening post but I now think that this step is more realistic).

11. Manually restart FF.

12. Result: Settings are as last set. However, Show Cookies lists one session cookie, from <google.com>, although I didn't visit any website since quitting FF, when FF was already set so that cookies would be kept only until FF was quit from (I assumed that's the same as being closed but, since FF has a File > Close Window command, perhaps not, in which case a clarification somewhere is needed).

13. Change menu to Never Remember History. FF requires restart for the change; I okayed it.

14. Result, by FF and not by me: Use Custom Settings For History in effect, Always Use Private Browsing Mode auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, while Remember My Browsing and Download History and Remember Search and Form History auto-uncheckmarked and dimmed and Keep Until set to I Close Firefox but dimmed and Clear History When Firefox Closes auto-uncheckmarked and dimmed, which I guess means that browsing history won't be remembered and therefore that FF can't restore tabs.

15. Change menu to Never Remember History (again, the 2d consecutive attempt). This time, there's no need to restart FF and there are no checkboxes in the History section. The text in the History section is different; it's explanatory.

16. At this point, I extend the STR beyond the scope of the opening post.

17. File > Close Window.

18. Result: FF disappears, apparently having been quit from. It is not in the alt-tab choices.

19. Manually restart FF.

20. Result, by FF and not by me: Use Custom Settings For History in effect, Always Use Private Browsing Mode auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, while Remember My Browsing and Download History and Remember Search and Form History auto-uncheckmarked and dimmed and Keep Until set to I Close Firefox but dimmed and Clear History When Firefox Closes auto-uncheckmarked and dimmed, which I guess means that browsing history won't be remembered and therefore that FF can't restore tabs. However, Show Cookies lists one session cookie, from <google.com>, although I didn't visit any website since closing the window in FF, causing FF's disappearance from alt-tab.

21. Change menu to Remember History.

22. Result: FF requires restart for the change; I OK'd it; restart produces Use Custom Settings For History, Remember Search and Form History auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, and Keep Until set to They Expire (not until FF closed, which was my last setting and should have been remembered by FF), while other options are not in effect (Always Use Private Browsing Mode, Remember My Browsing and Download History, and Clear History When Firefox Closes all auto-uncheckmarked, which I guess means that browsing history won't be remembered and therefore that FF can't restore tabs). No new tabs auto-opened. Show Cookies now lists one cookie, from google.com and persistent into 2016 (I didn't delete it).

23. Change menu to Remember History. This is the second consecutive menu change to the same menu item. This time, there's no need to restart FF and there are no checkboxes in the History section. The text in the History section is different; it's explanatory.

24. Remove Individual Cookies link clicked, listing one cookie, from google.com and persistent into 2016 (I didn't delete it).

25. File > Quit.

26. Manually restart FF.

27. Result, by FF and not by me: Use Custom Settings For History in effect, Remember Search and Form History auto-checkmarked, Accept Cookies From Sites auto-checkmarked, Accept Third-Party Cookies set to Always, and Keep [Cookies] Until set to They Expire while Always Use Private Browsing Mode auto-uncheckmarked, Remember My Browsing and Download History auto-uncheckmarked, and Clear History When Firefox Closes auto-uncheckmarked. However, Show Cookies lists one session cookie, from <google.com>, although I didn't visit any website since quitting FF.

28. As a further trial, I opened tabs for <http://www.cnn.com/>, <http://www.latimes.com/>, and <http://www.macys.com/>, none of which I had visited today or long before (I chose them because I think they'll generate cookies). Show Cookies listed cookies from 101 domains. I changed the menu to Never Remember History, but only once. The results were that Use Custom Settings For History is set, private browsing is on, and Show Cookies listed cookies from 97 domains. No tabs are open. I changed the menu to Remember History, but only once. The results were that Use Custom Settings For History is set, private browsing is off, tabs auto-opened for CNN, the L.A. Times, and Macy's, and Show Cookies listed cookies from dozens of domains. 

The reason I mentioned Chromium above is because I keep seeing a Google cookie in FF without having visited Google in FF in all of this experiment. I thought cookies were stored in browser-specific files/directories, so that Google being accessed in Chromium (I did access Google in Chromium but I don't remember if that was before the first time I saw a cookie from google.com) should not have caused FF to report a cookie. This possibly is a bug involving both browsers and I have not decided whether and how to report that.

I looked at parts of the cited reports in a Mozillazine forum and bug 493527 but they're somewhat different and over 5 years old (one was locked after about a year as "elderly"), FF has been reprogrammed since then, and I don't know if the reprogramming addressed those two reports.

Short report from this STR series: Apparently, tabs are forgotten but only after two consecutive Never Remember History menu selections. After Custom Settings For History with private browsing on but remembering browsing dimmed, selecting Remember History once reveals that tabs were remembered even through private browsing and even with remembering browsing dimmed. That there were two Google cookies early in this trial but only one later suggests that the later Google cookie was newly written, but I'm not sure exactly when.

Comment 3

[Paul Zühlcke [:pbz]]

I can't reproduce the given STR so I'll close this bug for now.
Let me know if you're still running into this issue.