1404103 - New Private Window menu option should not exist when "Never remember history" is enabled

Status: REOPENED

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Astro Guy]

Attachment: shouldsee.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0
Build ID: 20170926190823

Steps to reproduce:

File, New Private Window.



Actual results:

New Private Window opens, but there is no indication that you are in private browsing mode. Everything appears as if you just opened a new browser window.




Expected results:

The purple mask icon should have appeared. The title should have the words Private Browsing. The page should have a purple background with text indicating that you are in Private Browsing Mode.
Please note, If I right click on the Firefox icon on the task bar, I have a pop up window that allows me to choose New Private Window. When I choose that, I get the Purple Mask, the title bar showing I'm in Private mode, and the page with a purple background with text indicating that I am in Private mode.
I have included screen shot with how it should happen and how it does happen.

Comment 1

[Josh Matthews [:jdm]]

Do you have the either "Never remember history" or "Always use private browsing" option enabled in "Privacy & Security" in Firefox's preferences?

Comment 2

[Astro Guy]

Josh Stated:
Do you have the either "Never remember history" or "Always use private browsing" option enabled in "Privacy & Security" in Firefox's preferences?

Response:
Yes, I checked (and do not remember making this change) Never remember history is enabled in "Privacy & Security in Firefox's preferences.

Additional Testing:
I selected Options, Privacy & Security. Under Privacy & Security, under the History section I made these changes.
The first entry set to: Firefox will - Use custom settings for history.
The second entry, unchecked (not ticked) - Always use private browsing mode.

When the above are selected, then when you choose File, New Private Window the information appears correctly (in the new window Private Browsing text appears in the title bar and in the new tab. Also, the purple mask appears).

Please let me know if you would like me to do additional testing under Privacy & Security to see if a different combination will keep the purple mask from appearing. Without the purple mask, and text in the appropriate places, no one can verify that they are actually in Private Browsing mode? This is a bug.

Comment 3

[Josh Matthews [:jdm]]

"Never remember history" is equivalent to "Always use private browsing" (Firefox's implementation of it just relies on all windows being treated as private windows), and we intentionally do not show private browsing UI when this mode is enabled.

Comment 4

[Josh Matthews [:jdm]]

Actually, I guess the problem here is that the menu still suggests that there is a distinction between private and non-private windows that does not actually exist.

Comment 5

[Josh Matthews [:jdm]]

Oddly, this is supposed to be handled already by https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/browser/base/content/browser.js#8182 based on this check: https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/toolkit/modules/PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm#67 . This preference should be set by https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/browser/components/preferences/in-content/privacy.js#487 when the history mode menu is changed.

Comment 6

[Astro Guy]

(In reply to Josh Matthews [:jdm] from comment #5)
> Oddly, this is supposed to be handled already by
> https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/
> 19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/browser/base/content/browser.
> js#8182 based on this check:
> https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/
> 19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/toolkit/modules/
> PrivateBrowsingUtils.jsm#67 . This preference should be set by
> https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/
> 19f368b1267d67f1bc214abae058ec20cb532c64/browser/components/preferences/in-
> content/privacy.js#487 when the history mode menu is changed.

Thanks!

Comment 7

[Luke Crouch [:groovecoder]]

Marking this P3 [meta] to track bugs & work that clarify the UX around "Never Remember History", "Always use Private Browsing" and Private Browsing windows.