1697202 - Cannot reload some tabs, `TypeError: can't access property "requestSHistoryUpdate", this.browser.frameLoader is null`

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[juraj.masiar]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:87.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/87.0

Steps to reproduce:

Recently I've noticed some of my tabs can't be reloaded.
Pressing reload icon / F5 or using context menu, nothing works.
In the browser console I can see this error with every try:

 TypeError: can't access property "requestSHistoryUpdate", this.browser.frameLoader is null                               SessionStore.jsm:1024:11
    notifySHistoryChanges resource:///modules/sessionstore/SessionStore.jsm:1024
    OnHistoryReload resource:///modules/sessionstore/SessionStore.jsm:1062

I'm pretty sure this started only recently, probably regression in 87 (I should have reported it sooner...).

Anyway, I don't have steps to reproduce, most tabs works, only some not. I do have "Restore previous session" enabled so these problematic tabs can be from the previous session.

The only way to reload the tab is to close it and reopen it (Ctrl + Shift + T).

Comment 1

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

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Tabbed Browser' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[hjalte]

I see the same bug on Nightly on Windows, but only with Fission enabled. I'd say I started noticing it around a week ago.

For me, it affects tabs which have been dragged between windows. When I have the extension "Panorama Tab Groups" enabled, dragging a tab from one Firefox window to another a single time is usually enough to trigger the bug where the tab can no longer be reloaded. However, with this extension disabled I have to drag a tab back and forth between two windows somewhere between 4-12 times to trigger the bug.

Comment 3

[Andrei Purice]

Hey juraj,
I tried this issue on the latest versions of Firefox Nightly 88.0a1 (2021-03-10), beta 87.0b8 or release 86.0 but couldn't reproduce it (with fission on where applicable).

Can you test the issue while in Safe Mode? You can find helpful info here : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode .
Also a fresh new profile could help. You can find more about creating a new profile here : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems#w_6-create-a-new-firefox-profile .
If possible, you can test this issue on the nightly build as well. Download the build from : https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/nightly/all/ .

Comment 4

[juraj.masiar]

Hello Andrei,
I'm sorry but as I mentioned before, I don't have steps to reproduce as the bug appears to be random.
But the error message I've posted points 100% to a bug!!! So this should be more than enough to find it and fix it.
(it may be a good idea to start using TypeScript to avoid "null" / "undefined" related bugs :))

I'm running Developer Edition and Fission is indeed enabled.
There are some steps to reproduce in the comment 2, maybe that can help.

Comment 5

[hjalte]

Just to add to my previous comment (comment 2), I can reproduce the bug on a new profile on the latest Nightly (2021-03-10). I also see the same error message in the browser console as the OP. Some more concrete STR:

1. Open two windows, each with one tab (for example, wikipedia.org). It helps to have the two windows side-by-side so you can easily drag tabs between them.
2. In one of the windows, open a second tab with a different website so you can tell it apart (for example, twitter.com).
3. Drag the new tab to the tabstrip of the other window, and then back to the original window.
4. Test if the tab can still be reloaded.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 until the tab can't be reloaded.

For me, I usually have to do step 3 exactly 2 times, sometimes more, for some reason it seems inconsistent. Hope this helps.

Comment 6

[Andrei Purice]

Still not reproducible on my end. Since it has a component we will wait for the devs input and hopefully they will have more info on this matter.

Comment 7

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Hy there. I tried to reproduce this issue on Firefox RC 106.0 and Nightly 107.0a1 on Windows 10, macOS 12, Ubuntu 22 without success. Could you please re-test the latest release version of Firefox and the latest Nightly build to see if the issue is still reproducible on your end?
Thank you.

Comment 8

[juraj.masiar]

After 2 years I have no idea what was this about, but clearly some missing "undefined" check that was fixed in the meantime.

Comment 9

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Thank you for your confirmation!