1235262 - One of the updates in ESR changed saved option "Open new windows in a new tab instead"

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Igor]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/38.0
Build ID: 20151221154602

Steps to reproduce:

I have been following ESR line, doing regular updates.
I seldom use tabs, and I've always had options configured to open things in a new window.


Actual results:

At some point, the new windows (and links from other applications, e.g. Thunderbird) started opening in a new tab of an existing window.
I finally discovered that the option "Open new windows in a new tab instead" is checked in the settings. One of the updates reset this option.


Expected results:

The previously configured options should not be modified during any updates/upgrades.

Comment 1

[alex_mayorga]

¡Hola Igor!

Is this reproducible?

Can you download an older ESR and then update again?

Please keep copies of prefs.js and attach them to this bug.

¡Gracias!

Comment 2

[Kanchan Kumari QA]

@alex_mayorga : Thanks Alex! Even I looked into this problem at around the same time that you did.

I tried to duplicate it by installing an old 31.0 esr version and then upgrading it to the latest ESR version 38.5.2 on a Windows 7 64 bit machine. I unchecked the "Open new windows in a new tab instead" preferences option on the older version and then upgraded it to the latest Firefox ESR version. In my case, firefox 38.5.2 ESR did not modify this configured option during the update. 

Name 	Firefox
Version 	38.5.2
Build ID 	20151221154602
Update Channel 	esr
User Agent 	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/38.0

I also tried to duplicate it by installing a released 38.0 version. I installed Firefox 38 on Windows 7 64 bit machine. I unchecked the "Open new windows in a new tab instead" preferences option and then upgraded it to the latest Firefox version (43.0.3). In my case, firefox 43.0.3 did not modify this configured option during the update. 

Name 	Firefox
Version 	43.0.3
Build ID 	20151223140742
Update Channel 	release
User Agent 	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:43.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/43.0

So essentially, I was not able to duplicate the problem in any of the above cases.

If a new profile is created, this option is "checked" by default. 

Hello Reporter, as alex_mayorga suggested can you please double check and let us know if you are able to duplicate it with the latest version. Older versions of ESR can be downloaded from https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/. Could it be the case that a new profile got created between the time you last remembered that it used to work fine and before the upgrade? Let us know.

Comment 3

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard