1526484 - Prevent downloads from being accidentally cleared

Status: ASSIGNED

(Firefox :: Downloads Panel, defect, P5)

Description

[Synetech]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:64.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/64.0

Steps to reproduce:

I had the Downloads window open (maximized) and went to close it, but the mouse-cursor didn't quite make it to the [x] button and I accidentally clicked the Clear Downloads button.

Actual results:

Firefox immediately went ahead and wiped out several years worth of download logs without prompting for confirmation.

Expected results:

There should have been a confirmation prompt. This is absolutely horrible design. It's UX-101 that you NEVER perform a destructive action without confirmation!

That log is useful for many reasons, so losing it incenses me to no end. 😒

Even better, just get rid of that button altogether since its functionality is already present in the Clear History dialog. There is no reason for it to be duplicated in the download window; it makes more sense to group similar functionality in one place.

(I don't hold out much hope of this serious data-loss–inducing error to get fixed since 537575 and 538798 already mentioned the issue of no confirmation a decade ago, yet it's still a problem. ¬_¬)

Comment 1

[Gingerbread Man]

(or at least add a confirmation prompt)

That's bug 537575; removing from the summary. See bug 537575, comment 1 for a workaround.

Comment 2

[Synetech]

I didn't realize the download window used markup (or that XUL was affected by user-stylesheets). 😲 Thank goodness Firefox still supports user-stylesheets (their removal is the reason I quit using Chrome and permanently switched to Firefox).

Thanks for the tip. Hopefully I can avoid losing my logs from now on.

(Though it's still concerning that even easy and obvious things like this can go for a decade without being fixed. Since Chrome is no longer an option at all, we really need Firefox to be reliable.)

Comment 3

[Synetech]

Nope. This is not a duplicate of bug 537575, and the work-around there does not apply. That bug and work around are about the button in the sidebar (where it definitely doesn't belong). This is about the Clear Downloads button in the Downloads window:

https://i.imgur.com/pf1BYWW.png

Comment 4

[Synetech]

(Besides the catastrophic lack of confirmation prompt, also notice how close the button is to the [x], so that when people go to click the [x] to close the window, they can easily click the Clear Downloads button by accident. That's what happened to me. 😒)

Comment 5

[Gingerbread Man]

(In reply to Synetech from comment #3)

This is not a duplicate of bug 537575

I clearly said one specific portion of the summary is that bug, which is why I removed it to keep this report unique.

the work-around there does not apply.

It's exactly what you're requesting in this report.

That bug and work around are about the button in the sidebar

There is no such thing as a downloads sidebar. Bug 537575 is about the Library window, Downloads section, same as this. If you're wondering why they're sorted in the Downloads Panel component, it's because that's where download UI reports belong (the only other download component is Toolkit :: Downloads API and that's for the mechanics of downloading).

Comment 6

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Aaron, this bug is about the placement of the "Clear Downloads" button in the Downloads Library window. It's specially bad on Windows where the window close button is nearby.

Some suggestions here:

• Add a Yes/No confirmation for when the user clicks it
• Just remove that button (after all, it's easy to select all downloads and clear them at once)
• Find a different placement for the button

What do you think?

Comment 7

[Jawad Ahmed [:jawad]]

I can work on it, Please assign it to me.

Comment 8

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

This bug should only get assigned when a patch is attached.

Comment 9

[Jawad Ahmed [:jawad]]

Attachment: Bug 1526484 - Prevent downloads from being accidentally cleared. r=johannh

Comment 10

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/message/reply/question/etc.)]

Can patch created by Jawad Ahmed [:jawad] get reviewed and maybe land, if it will get r+?

Comment 11

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/message/reply/question/etc.)]

No activity for over 1 year, so I'm clearing assignee.