1522558 - Existing tabs become white if Firefox is backgrounded for a long time in Android 9

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1494748

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Nathan Phillip Brink (binki)]

Attachment: 01-tab-switcher-existing-tabs.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Run Firefox for Android on Android 9.
2. Background it and use other apps.
3. Let the device sit overnight.
4. Launch Firefox again.

Actual results:

All existing tabs are white. Opening a new tab results in a working tab. The UI keeps responding and I can switch to existing tabs, but all existing tabs remain white. I use Tab Restore, so every time Firefox launches I have a bunch of existing tabs. Even my existing tabs which appeared in the switcher but which I had not switched to yet prior to backgrounding Firefox remain white.

If I switch to a white tab and then lock and unlock my screen, Firefox’s main UI will display the last non-white tab I had loaded but the tab switcher still points to a tab which is white.

Tab switcher showing a bunch of existing, unrestored tabs: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9WTxTWmwJDcQS8JB6

I tapped on the third tab shown, the first StackOverflow one. The screen after I tapped on that: 01-tab-switcher-existing-tabs.jpg https://photos.app.goo.gl/qJBw1ybzuBjABtdj9

This is what it looks like if I create a new tab and enter an address into it. It is a working tab: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jpojnS8CKWtXwcHdA

I run Firefox for Android on two of my phones. One of my phones, a Pixel 2, has always been on Android 9 and always exhibited this issue. My other phone, a OnePlus 5, was on Android 8 until yesterday. It never exhibited the issue. The moment I upgraded it to Android 9, I started experiencing this issue. Prior to that, I thought the issue might be specific to my one phone, but now I am convinced that something changed in something like Android’s app process lifecycle stuff between 8 and 9 which results in this issue.

I do not like to force quit applications if I can help it. Especially in Firefox, it is nice when I launch it the next day and do not have to wait for recent tabs I was visiting to reload back up. Prior to upgrading to Android 9 on my main phone, Firefox supported the backgrounding scenario perfectly. Now, on Android 9, the backgrounding scenario is broken.

Expected results:

Firefox should behave no differently on Android 9 than it did on Android 8. If I let the device sit for a long time and make use of other apps and switch back to Firefox before it has been fully exited by Android, it should restore to a working state instead of leaving all existing tabs in a stuck “white” state.

Comment 1

[Nathan Phillip Brink (binki)]

Attachment: 02-restored-tab-is-white.jpg

Comment 2

[Nathan Phillip Brink (binki)]

Attachment: 03-new-tab-functions-correctly.jpg

Comment 3

[Nathan Phillip Brink (binki)]

The white tabs persist even if I swipe Firefox away in Android’s app switcher. I have to go to Android’s App settings and Terminate the app entirely before it will launch again in a working state.

Comment 4

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

We think we have this fixed in Firefox 65 which will start being released on next Tuesday. If you continue to encounter this after the 65 release please comment on this bug.