1278956 - Deinstallation of Firefox leaves Profiles (even corrupted ones) behind

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[Michael Walter]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/6.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; SLCC2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E)

Steps to reproduce:

Firefox suddenly did no longer use the (activated!) autofill function, did only Flash 'Save' option for new ones. All Settings were unaltered, no private mode used.
So I deinstalled Firefox completely (Windows function) to start all over


Actual results:

After a new Installation of Firefox I was surprised to still find all my orginal Settings as well as the corrupted auto-fill function in place!
Turns out that the Deinstallation of Firefox neither offers nor actively executes a removal of the associated profiles.
In my case the bug of the autofill Feature was inherited from the previous Installation!
By manually deleting the damages Profile and replacing it with a good copy I finally got the needed function back.


Expected results:

A Deinstallation of ANY Software should be complete, i.e. proprietary DLLs, Settings, registry entries etc MUST be removed, at least an OPTION to delete them must be provided.
In my case the Profile was apparently corrupted (maybe due to an anti-Virus program that tinkered with Firefox browser Settings in a non-reversible way), which is a different issue by itself. But it should have vanished with a fresh reinstallation of this application!

Comment 1

[[:Towkir] Ahmed]

Hi Michael, this option of removing profile while uninstalling is willingly removed. if you still want to touch the profiles, you can see this :  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

Closing this as WONTFIX

Comment 2

[Michael Walter]

I am aware that you willingly dropped this needed cleanup functionality, it was an option before.
Yet this does not make it right:
as explained I expect ANY software to ENTIRELY retreat after a deinstallation, be if for memory space (a profile can easily exceed 50MB), be of for security purposes (personal data). Without being forced to use extra 'managers' to clean up the mess later.

I am NOT a Firefox user myself (I do use Thunderbird Mail though), and found this issue because of corrupted profile settings at a foreign PC I maintain. The bug remained even after a de/re- installation, until I realized the messy cleanup of Firefox (not even caught by CCleaner).
While I cannot replicate the original profile issue (maybe caused by an over-zealous virus checker that overwrote the autofill funtion badly), I still complain about the profile HANDLING itself, e.g. that I need extra tools to manage or remove them.

You may call it 'resolved', I see it as a violation of basic installation standards within the Windows operating system. Proprietary DLLs and personal settings MUST be removed WITH the software, period.

Comment 3

[[:Towkir] Ahmed]

If you are not satisfied, I am reopening this for you and moving to a more appropriate component, lets wait and see what a developer says

Comment 4

[Michael Walter]

What is wrong about offering a SIMPLE OPTION to TOTALLY remove Firefox during the de-installation?
That way the rules of Windows are followed; also it would immediately resolve issues with corrupt profiles. Eg as found by me when trying to debug an odd Firefox bug (no more auto-fill, despite proper settings for using stored log in credentials).

As said I am not using FF myself (I do have an installation for special purposes only); I am simply telling my opinion about leaving garbage behind after a full de-installation. That is plain WRONG!

Comment 5

[Benjamin Smedberg]

We can have a philosophical discussion about what the uninstaller should do, but in practice we've decided that the uninstaller removes the app but will not remove user data. If we did have an option, it would remove profile(s) for only the current user, and we've judged that to be potentially more confusing than other options.