1645182 - Uninstaller profile refresh does not restore tabs as linked doc states

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Content, defect)

Description

[Adam Gashlin (he/him) [:agashlin] (ex-moco)]

The uninstaller provides a link to SUMO (which redirects to the appropriate locale, in my case en-US), which was already in place for the in-browser "Refresh Firefox" option.

Currently this states that it saves "Open windows and tabs", however this is not the case when launched from the uninstaller. This was a deliberate decision, but the mismatch with the documentation could be misleading.

I'd like to reconsider showing the prompt for restoring tabs rather than changing the doc, as I think it is a useful option to have.

Comment 1

[Adam Gashlin (he/him) [:agashlin] (ex-moco)]

We'd decided not to restore tabs because the browser needs to be closed before launching the refresh from the uninstaller. This is different from hitting the button within Firefox, which restarts the browser without the user explicitly closing it. For users without "Restore previous session" (browser.startup.page != 3) there is no reason to prompt to restore tabs if the browser was already closed (I have heard numbers around 95% for this).

If session restore is enabled, removing all tabs and windows might come as a surprise with the current doc wording, as they are still "open" even if the browser is closed. But one of the effects of the refresh is to reset the startup page setting to default, which disables session restore anyway, so it would be somewhat incoherent to restore them in just this one case.

Changing the documentation, or pointing to a different page, is probably going to be the most appropriate response.

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Set release status flags based on info from the regressing bug 1633505

Comment 3

[Rachel Tublitz [:rachel]]

Joni, would you be the right person to ask about getting the docs updated here?

Comment 4

[Joni Chan]

Hi Rachel, that's me.

I've updated the SUMO article not to mention open tabs and windows: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings

For people using Refresh, the popup to restore tabs will be self-explanatory.

Comment 5

[Adam Gashlin (he/him) [:agashlin] (ex-moco)]

Thanks! I'm moving this over to SUMO, please correct it if that doesn't make sense.