1316080 - Tapping on search suggestions or entering a search term sometimes doesn't display search results

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Search Activity, defect)

Description

[u583025]

Attachment: 1gA5uC3.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0
Build ID: 20161025164528

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open search activity through Firefox widget or Assist app (long press on Home button)
2. Start searching for something
3. Tap on any search suggestion/ hit enter for the search term



Actual results:

Sometimes the search result doesn't show up. It keeps showing the search suggestions overlayed on top of the actual search result page. We need to clear the search term to see that the search page was actually rendered.


Expected results:

The search suggestions should have gone away and the search result page should appear.

Comment 1

[u583025]

The key to reproducing this is to do the search really fast. Close the app every time (via the task switcher) and search multiple times.

Comment 2

[Sorina Florean [:sflorean]]

Hello and thank you for your report!
I've tested with HTC Desire (Android 6.0.1) and couldn't reproduce the issue that you find. Every time I search for a term, the results was displayed. 
What device and android did you used when have seen this issue?

Comment 3

[u583025]

It happens more when you tap on a search suggestion rather than when tapping enter for a search term. I am using CM 13 on Moto E2 LTE. I have uploaded a GIF file to show you the issue more clearly -  https://imgur.com/5E32Wov

I hope it becomes possible now to reproduce the issue. I can also confirm that the same issue is present on another phone, Moto E3 Power on regular Android 6.0.

Comment 4

[u583025]

Another user seems to have reported a similar bug over a year ago - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1176418

Comment 5

[u583025]

And here is a GIF showing the same issue when tapping enter - http://imgur.com/ieaW9hn

I have been able to consistently reproduce this by killing the search activity from the Android task switcher, and then start the search. Otherwise, it seems to occur randomly.

It is a very small but irritating issue and could put off the general user. My dad for example got a bit confused when the search results didn't appear.

Let me know if you need any other information. I would like to have this bug confirmed and fixed for everyone :)

Comment 7

[Sorina Florean [:sflorean]]

Tested again with:
- Motorola Razr (Android 4.4.2)
- LG G4 (Android 5.1)
- HTC Desire 820 (Android 6.0.1)
- Nexus 5 (android 6.0.1)

Still wasn't able to reproduce what you described. Do you have any add-on installed or keyboard?
Have you tried with clear profile (Android settings ->Firefox -> Clear data)?
Or from Firefox settings -> Clear private data? to see if this is still happening.
 Thanks!

Comment 8

[u583025]

(In reply to Sorina Florean [:sorina] from comment #7)
> Tested again with:
> - Motorola Razr (Android 4.4.2)
> - LG G4 (Android 5.1)
> - HTC Desire 820 (Android 6.0.1)
> - Nexus 5 (android 6.0.1)
> 
> Still wasn't able to reproduce what you described.

That's unfortunate. Are you closing the app via the task switcher before starting a new search? And doing a few searches? The issue affects me almost always after clearing the app from the task switcher.

> Do you have any add-on
> installed or keyboard?
> Have you tried with clear profile (Android settings ->Firefox -> Clear data)?
> Or from Firefox settings -> Clear private data? to see if this is still
> happening.
>  Thanks!

I have tried it with and without add-ons. The keyboard is the standard AOSP keyboard. I tried with a clean profile and clear all data too. It is still happening in all of those cases. :/

Comment 9

[Sorina Florean [:sflorean]]

(In reply to uncertainquark from comment #8)
> (In reply to Sorina Florean [:sorina] from comment #7)
> > Tested again with:
> > - Motorola Razr (Android 4.4.2)
> > - LG G4 (Android 5.1)
> > - HTC Desire 820 (Android 6.0.1)
> > - Nexus 5 (android 6.0.1)
> > 
> > Still wasn't able to reproduce what you described.
> 
> That's unfortunate. Are you closing the app via the task switcher before
> starting a new search? And doing a few searches? The issue affects me almost
> always after clearing the app from the task switcher.
> 
> > Do you have any add-on
> > installed or keyboard?
> > Have you tried with clear profile (Android settings ->Firefox -> Clear data)?
> > Or from Firefox settings -> Clear private data? to see if this is still
> > happening.
> >  Thanks!
> 
> I have tried it with and without add-ons. The keyboard is the standard AOSP
> keyboard. I tried with a clean profile and clear all data too. It is still
> happening in all of those cases. :/

I was able to reproduce with Asus ZenPad (Android 6.0.1) on latest Nightly, but not all the times I've tried. I will mark this bug as new. If you see any change, please comment here. Thanks!

Comment 10

[u583025]

Finally! As you said, it doesn't always happen, but in my case, it happens rather frequently. Especially if Firefox is closes from the task switcher and then launched.

Comment 11

[rushabhgala12]

I am facing the same bug since a week or so. I have attached a link of the GIF showing the bug. 
https://vid.me/27bt
the frequency of reproduction of the bug is once in average 3 searches.
Device : MOTO G2 (2014 Ed.)
Android version CM 14.1

Comment 12

[Raj Mehta]

I'm facing the same bug. Link attached below:

https://vid.me/6vcI

The experience is so bad that I've stopped using Firefox as the assist app altogether!

Would really appreciate a fix, thanks!

Device: Moto E2 (2nd gen)
Android version: CM 13.0-20161122-NIGHTLY-surnia

Comment 13

[u583025]

I recently switched to a CM 13 SNAPSHOT for my phone (Moto E2) and still have the bug.

Comment 14

[u583025]

Any update on this? Considering that the bug is affecting many, the priority should be changed.

Comment 15

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

The people who use the search widget may see this behavior from time to time. The total number of users for the search widget is quite low relative to the total number of Firefox for Android users.

I will flag this for Android triage. Triage will have the team look over the bug and make a decision about how important it is relative to the other bugs that the team is dealing with. The team does not have infinite resources thus decisions are made based on the number of users affected and the rough estimation of how hard the bug is to fix. The answer may be that this bug is  not important.

Comment 16

[u583025]

(In reply to Kevin Brosnan [:kbrosnan] from comment #15)
> The people who use the search widget may see this behavior from time to
> time. The total number of users for the search widget is quite low relative
> to the total number of Firefox for Android users.
> 
> I will flag this for Android triage. Triage will have the team look over the
> bug and make a decision about how important it is relative to the other bugs
> that the team is dealing with. The team does not have infinite resources
> thus decisions are made based on the number of users affected and the rough
> estimation of how hard the bug is to fix. The answer may be that this bug is
> not important.

Then why ship it at all? Can't the search activity just open a regular Firefox tab instead? For people who do use the widget will be saved from having a frustrating experience anyway, which is not desirable.

Comment 17

[Wesley Huang [:wesley_huang] (EPM) (NI me)]

I think we can track this under Fennec UX enhancement, though it doesn't seem easy to dig out the root cause of this issue.

Comment 19

[Will Levine]

I also see the same behavior. However in my case, the issue seems to be correlated with my choice of keyboard. When I use the swype keyboard (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nuance.swype.dtc&hl=en), the issue occurs very frequently, probably at least 80% of the time. When I use the default keyboard, the issue occurs only rarely. I wonder if anyone else see the same behavior, where different keyboards act differently.

I have a Sony Xperia X running Android 7.0.

Comment 21

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

This is an ex-Search Activity now (bug 1221344).