1538471 - Ghost device shown in sync devices

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1325304

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Android Sync, defect)

Description

[Terry]

Attachment: Firefox Android synced devices and Firefox account devices manager

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 8.1.0; Tablet; rv:65.0) Gecko/65.0 Firefox/65.0

Steps to reproduce:

Disconnect mobile device in Firefox Android sync parameters.
ReConnect mobile device in Firefox Android sync parameters.

Actual results:

In history/synced devices/ the previous sync of the mobile device is shown.

The ghost device doesn't appear in Firefox account device manager neither in desktop Firefox.

Expected results:

The mobile device shouldn't be shown as a synced device in Firefox Android synced device.

Comment 1

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Thanks for the report Terry. To make sure I understand, is "Tab A" the name of the device from when it was originally connected, and "Tab A 2" the name of the device after disconnecting and reconnecting?

Comment 2

[Terry]

In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #1)

Thanks for the report Terry. To make sure I understand, is "Tab A" the name of the device from when it was originally connected, and "Tab A 2" the name of the device after disconnecting and reconnecting?

Hi Ryan,
I confirm Tab A is the name of the device before the disconnection and Tab 2 the new name I gave it after reconnection.

Comment 3

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

What I think is happening here, is that the old device does not delete its list of synced tabs from the server when you disconnect it, but it does delete its authentication tokens and device record from the accounts server. When Desktop shows the synced-tabs list, it hides any items that to not have a corresponding device record on the accounts server, but IIRC Firefox for Android does not.

As a "workaround" of sorts, the synced tabs record from the ghost device should expire from the server after a few days and stop appearing in the list.

Comment 4

[Terry]

(In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #3)

What I think is happening here, is that the old device does not delete its list of synced tabs from the server when you disconnect it, but it does delete its authentication tokens and device record from the accounts server. When Desktop shows the synced-tabs list, it hides any items that to not have a corresponding device record on the accounts server, but IIRC Firefox for Android does not.

As a "workaround" of sorts, the synced tabs record from the ghost device should expire from the server after a few days and stop appearing in the list.

Hi Ryan,

Just to update the post, the ghost device is still there after 12 days.
Is that still in the "few days" laps of time of your precedent response ?

Comment 5

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Just to update the post, the ghost device is still there after 12 days.

Thanks for the update. Taking a look in the code, it appears the time-to-live on these records is 21 days:

https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/bdaf1b36c44275dd4f027b4a4c30afed86cdfe13/mobile/android/services/src/main/java/org/mozilla/gecko/sync/repositories/domain/ClientRecord.java#19

Which is actually longer than I thought, sorry; "21 days" is a lot more than "a few days"!

Comment 6

[Terry]

(In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #5)

Which is actually longer than I thought, sorry; "21 days" is a lot more than "a few days"!

No problem, I will update the post in 10 days if the ghost device is gone or not.

Comment 7

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Thanks, I appreciate your persistence in checking on this!

Comment 8

[Diana Rus]

Hi Terry,

Have you been able to see whether the ghost device is still present?

Thank you,
Diana

Comment 9

[Terry]

(In reply to Diana Rus from comment #8)

Have you been able to see whether the ghost device is still present?

Hi Diana,

Sorry for the late update.
I had to deal with a re-install of my Firefox for Android app that led me to a new sync bug, not reported yet.

Meanwhile, I can confirm Ryan's guess : the ghost device was still there after re-install but did disappear after 21 days.

Comment 10

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Based on the most recent comment, can this bug be closed? Thanks in advance.

Comment 11

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Sounds like bug 1325304