Requiring a new profile after downgrade is more destructive than what it tries to protect you from
Categories
(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)
Tracking
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People
(Reporter: nate, Unassigned)
Details
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:82.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/82.0
Steps to reproduce:
- Test a newer version of Firefox from an AppImage (https://github.com/srevinsaju/Firefox-Appimage/releases/download/stable/Firefox-83.0_20201112153044-x86_64.AppImage)
- Complete the test and then return to the older system-installed version
Actual results:
A dialog appears which warns of the potential for data corruption and prompts you to create a new profile or quit Firefox.
Expected results:
The user should be allowed to risk it. :)
The purpose of this feature is to prevent the possibility of data loss, but the only option it provides is to create a new profile, which makes that data loss a certainty! The medicine is worse than the disease. :)
Because losing my browsing history and bookmarks was unacceptable, I found a workaround online and ran firefox --allow-downgrade with no visible negative effects.
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Comment 1•5 years ago
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Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.
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Comment 2•5 years ago
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This has been gone over a couple of times and while we've relaxed the criteria somewhat this is how we intend it to work.
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Reporter | |
Comment 3•5 years ago
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Then the intention is incorrect. :)
As I pointed out, the thing it does to protect you is worse than what it's trying to protect you from.
Keep in mind that if you are receiving a large volume of complaining about this, it may be another sign that something isn't right and the decision should be revisited. :)
Since there is in fact a hidden CLI option to take the risk, perhaps the GUI dialog could expose this option with a big warning on it that you're on your own if there are any problems.
Description
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