1234653 - Firefox remembers last session despite privacy settings

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[Marcin]

Attachment: ff_privacy_settings_PL.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0
Build ID: 20151216175450

Steps to reproduce:

(important: report is for ff43, but the problem has also appeared in ff42)
Set custom privacy settings (see attached file - it's in Polish, but it is not a problem, I hope), and then:
1. Start browser
2. Use one or more tabs to browse the web
3. Close browser
4. Reopen browser


Actual results:

The button for reopen last session is visible on start page/screen, enabled and works - I can reopen last session with all tabs which were opened when closing browser. This means that history was not deleted (I suppose so) despite privacy settings. It may strongly violate privacy.


Expected results:

History should be deleted according to custom privacy settings and the button for reopen last session should not be enabled.

Comment 1

[YF (Yang)]

I reproduce it sometimes (just one time) on Fx43 Win10, seems to fail to clean while close, locking profile about ten seconds while close, and no error or crash popup.

Comment 2

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Hi Marcin,

I have tested your issue on latest Firefox release (43.0.3) and latest Nightly (46.0a1) and I could not reproduce it. History is deleted according to the custom privacy setting and the button for reopen last session is not enabled. 

Firefox: 46.0a1, Build ID: 20151229030216, User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:46.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/46.0
Firefox: 43.0.3, Build ID: 20151223140742, User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0

Can you please test again this on the latest Firefox release (43.0.3) or latest Nightly (46.0a1, https://nightly.mozilla.org/) and tell me if this still reproduces for you ? When doing this please use a new fresh Firefox profile, maybe also in safe mode (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems). Sometimes this kind of issues could appear when using custom settings, themes or some addons. 


Thanks, 
Cosmin.

Comment 3

[Marcin]

I have just upgraded to Firefox 43.0.3 and tried to reproduce the bug.
It seems that everything is OK now.
I will test it for a few days and confirm whether there's no problem finally.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks for the update.
Please reopen the bug if you see the problem again

Comment 5

[Marcin]

Attachment: ff_no-history_restore-possible.jpg

Comment 6

[Marcin]

Attachment: ff_no-history_restore-possible_restored-5-tabs.jpg

Comment 7

[Marcin]

Unfortunatelly, this bug needs to be reopened.

More informations
1. two new screenshots uploaded.
1.1. ff_no-history_restore-possible.jpg: you may see, that history is empty, but you may restore the previous session.
1.2. ff_no-history_restore-possible_restored-5-tabs.jpg: and the previous session restored
2. screenshots were made on fresh profile (FF v 43.0.4), just privacy options were set (see ff_privacy_settings_PL.jpg), but bug also appears using my custom, long time used profile, and other profiles (checked on four maschines, desktops and laptops, win10 and win7).
3. what may be interesting: bug appears after 5-10 FF runs on fresh profile or after upgrade (that's why I thought, that problem is resolved after upgrade to 43.0.3).

Comment 8

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Hi Marcin,

I have tested again this issue on latest Firefox (44.0) release and on latest Nightly (47.0a1) 
release but I still can not reproduce it. I have repeated the provided steps over then 15 times.
The button "Restore previous Session" does not appear, no previous session restored and the history was deleted.

We'll leave the component "Private Browsing" set to see developers opinion on this.

Thanks,
Cosmin.

Comment 9

[Bill Wayson]

User Agent:	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:44.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/44.0
Build ID:	20160123151951
O/S:		Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

I believe I am experiencing the same issue with additional symptoms.  Despite selecting "Clear history when Firefox closes" and all of the options in the "Settings..." button dialog, FF remembers some things (at least) between restarts of the application and reboots of the PC.  This happens quite frequently, but not all of the time, I think.  The two symptoms I notice most are:  1) when visiting https://weather.com, I am not asked if I want to share my location.  FF appears to remember that I have previously selected "Never share."  2) When I log onto Yahoo Mail (https://mail.yahoo.com), my previously entered email address is remembered and displayed as soon as I start typing it in.  I have also seen the "Restore previous session" button in the Mozilla Firefox Start Page after starting FF.  Manually pressing the "Forget" toolbar button , running "Clear Recent History..." under Menu -> History, and restarting FF fixes these issues.

I also use FF under Linux Mint 17.3 and three versions of openSUSE, all 64-bit (although not as much as I use the Windows version), and I have never experienced this issue in any Linux version of FF.  Also, I did not experience this issue until I converted to the 64-bit version of FF for Windows.  I have tried the Places Maintenance extension, but it has had no effect that I can see on this issue.

Steps to Reproduce:
1)	Go to Menu -> Options -> Privacy
2)	Select checkbox next to "Clear history when Firefox closes"
3)	Press the "Settings..." button to the right
4)	Select all options in the "Settings for Clearing History" dialog and press the "OK button
5)	Navigate to https://weather.com and choose "Never share location" when asked about location sharing
6)	Open a new tab, navigate to https://mail.yahoo.com, and log into a valid yahoo mail account after deselecting the "Stay signed in" checkbox
7)	Log out of Yahoo Mail
8)	Completely close Firefox and then restart it
9)	Navigate back to the weather.com or mail.yahoo.com sites, or both

Actual Results:
More often than not, at https://weather.com, I am not asked if I want to share my location and my location is not shared (location defaults to Washington, D.C., USA); and at https://mail.yahoo.com, my email address appears as soon as I enter its first character in the email address field.

Expected Results:
To be prompted if I want to share my location with weather.com, and to have to completely enter in my email address at mail.yahoo.com.

Comment 10

[Marcin]

(In reply to Cosmin Muntean [:CosminMCG] from comment #8)
> release but I still can not reproduce it. I have repeated the provided steps
> over then 15 times.
ok, I was checking FF44 behavior, and it looks like it is right.
but there is one more strange thing - maybe it would be the clue:
it was few days after upgrade to v44.
my daughter came to me and said that the login form fields (names) are still filled with data when she opens login page of any service (FF was set to erase all data when closing - same as in my settings). so they were still remembered somewhere. i tried it few times - she was right (however there was no button for reopen last session visible). then i pressed ctrl+shift+del and cleared history manually. it helped in the end - the datas were forgotten. and they are still, so FF works right.
in 42 and 43 versions ctlr+shift+del did not help - data/history was erased, but next time problem was returning as described in previous comments

Comment 11

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Firefox: 47.0a1, Build ID: 20160221030340
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0
Firefox: 44.0.2, Build ID: 20160210153822
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:44.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/44.0

Hi,

I have tested again on latest Firefox (44.0.2) release and latest Nightly (47.0a1) build, with the new provided steps in comment 9. Every time after I restarted the browser and I navigate to  https://weather.com the "share location" pop-up appears. The location Washigtin, D.C., USA is set by default until you share your location. The button "Restore previous Session" does not appear.
The "Clear history when Firefox closes" option clears just "Active Logins", logins that are stored in a cookie. Active logins are websites that you are currently logged into. So if you are logged into Facebook for example, and clear the active logins, you will have to log back in.

If you saved a login, the credentials are not removed because is another functionality for browser. If you go to Menu -> Options -> Security you will see the check box "Remember logins for sites" and the "Saved Logins" button. In "Saved Logins" window you can see all remembered logins or you can remove them. See this link https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/password-manager-remember-delete-change-and-import.

If the "Restore previous Session" no longer appears and all history is successfully deleted, I think we can mark this issue as RESOLVED - WFM. The saved password is a different functionality and if you believe that it is a bug, please feel free to log a new bug.  


Thanks,
Cosmin.

Comment 12

[HUMANWINE]

I am also experiencing this in 44.0.2 as well as dev edition (Aurora) 46.0a2.

Settings are no longer saved.

To reproduce:

- Open privacy panel
- Change History to "Never remember history"
- Close tab
- Reopen privacy panel.

Comment 13

[Marcin]

(In reply to Cosmin Muntean [:CosminMCG] from comment #11)
> If the "Restore previous Session" no longer appears and all history is
> successfully deleted, I think we can mark this issue as RESOLVED - WFM. The
> saved password is a different functionality and if you believe that it is a
> bug, please feel free to log a new bug.  
OK, I hope we may consider this issue as resolved and close it.
Marcin

Comment 14

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Hi Marcin,

Thanks for the reply. I will mark this issue as resolved - worksforme. If you can still reproduce this, feel free to reopen it and provide the requested information.

@HUMANWINE, your issue described is different. Please file a new bug and provide the necessary details in order to reproduce it. 

Thanks,
Cosmin.

Comment 15

[Marcin]

It's boring...
It's back again (45.0 and 45.0.1).
In 45.0.1 (current) the situation is much better then in 45.0 (there were nice game possible - "Turn Firefox on&off": every second FF run there was "Revert last session" button appearing, and of course it was also visible and working after every session not finished with manual removing data using ctrl+shift+del. I wanted to prepare a short movie, but upgrade to 45.0.1 came).
Most sessions are remembered and you are allowed to revert it after FF close and open (however history is empty, so where are those sessions remembered?).
---
Additional problem was in 45.0 (I can't say if it is related to this bug): in just one session I found that after clicking Home button, home page was displayed (I'm using default - about:home - page) but address bar was not cleared even after ctrl+shift+del and it was possible to revert last page then. Unfortunatelly I could not reproduce that behaviour in any next session, and have not found it anymore.
---
But _there_is_ a real problem with clearing sessions (sessions data) and most FF editions since 42.0 have been affected. I'm affraid it is neccessary to analyse code very careful (yeah, I know it is terrible perspective)

Comment 16

[Marcin]

45.0.2 is also has the bug

Comment 17

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Hi Marcin,

It will be helpful if you can attach a screen recording as you reproduce this issue with a new, clean Firefox profile (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems). 
Also, it would be great if you could post all of your custom privacy settings.

Thanks,
Cosmin.

Comment 18

[Marcin]

Hi
of course, I will prepare screen recording and conf data as soon as possible (today, I hope)

Comment 19

[Marcin]

Hi
I'm sorry, I was horribly busy, as never before...
Here are two videos (links, because both are >25MB big) with FF45.0 starring.

1.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nlxgjpusn95ozzu/1_FF45.0_Turning_on_and_off_using_my_regular_profile.mp4?dl=0
It was made month ago, using my regular profile. It shows what I described as "Turn Firefox on&off" game.

2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1z1o0pm9vlypnc2/2_FF45.0_Clean_new_profile.mp4?dl=0
It shows FF behaviour on new clean profile and clean installation - FF was unistalled, \Program Files (x86)\Mozilla dir was removed, same as \Mozilla dirs in user profile. In the end of video you may see the privacy configuration).

In addition:
I was trying to reproduce the bug in 45.0.2 later, but it was back irregularly and totally randomly.
As far as I could check - FF46.0 and 46.0.1 are free of any problem described above.

Comment 20

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

With the current investigation done on Nightly 94 and Beta 93 on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20, we could probably close this issue as WFM. However, given that testing work is being done for bug 1724959, which indirectly is related to session restore, we can postpone closing it down until the end of 94 beta cycle pending more testing on this area.

Comment 21

[Negritas Sergiu, Desktop QA]

Hello! I have tried to reproduce the issue on firefox 93.0 on Windows 10 with the steps provided in comment 9 but unfortunately I wasn't able to reproduce it.
I can confirm that the issue is not reproducible on firefox 93.0, 94.0b9 and 95.0a1(2021-10-22) with the steps from comment 9.

Marking this issue as RESOLVED->WORKSFORME, if this issue occurs again please feel free to reopen this bug or file another one.

Thank you!