1728163 - FF 91.0.2 restores my session while configured not to

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[stephan-dev]

Unusual settings : First party isolation.

STR :

• disable session restore
• update to FF 91.0.2
• close FF (quit)
• launch FF from taskbar

what happened :

• my last session is restored

what should have happened :

• default FF for Mint homepage is opened in a new session.

My inquiry :

• Quit with Ctrl+Q or from menu : same.
• quit FF again, start again : session is still restored
• I deleted my browsing history. Quit. Start. "Sorry, we're having trouble getting your pages back"

Fix : Go to settings, tick "startup : restore previous session", then untick. Quit FF. Start. Session is not restored, as intended.

Comment 1

[stephan-dev]

(I use a master password, not sure if belongs to STR. I wasn't prompted for it, but I think 91.0.2 is a fix related to master password prompt at startup)

Comment 2

[Andrei Purice]

Hey Stephan,
I followed your steps and tried to reproduce on the latest version of Firefox release 91.0.2 alongside Nightly 93.0a1 (2021-08-30) and beta 92.0 but the session was not restored for me.

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 3

[stephan-dev]

Hi Andrei, thanks for trying to reproduce the likely bug,

I can't reproduce the bug even on my actual profile. idk how to rollback to 91.0.1 .

Actually my "steps to reproduce" don't mean that I myself was able to reproduce the bug.
Another possible suspect is that I have ETP activated for all windows (this was important for the bug that 91.0.2 has fixed).
Please understand that the problem is fixed for me, and I wanted to contribute for others. I'm sure there's a bug because this has never happened before and I didn't do anything recently on my part that could have changed the "restore session" behavior. I read the bugzilla thread about the bug fixed by 91.0.2 . Though the fix is not clearly about session restore, I gathered it's about not asking for the primary password at startup, so I thought someone who can read the new code would immediately understand why the change (possibly) could be related with the session restore setting, mysteriously changed on my computer (the restore session tick didn't mysteriously appear, but FF behaved as if it was ticked).

To make it clearer, the fix (for this suspected bug) was to tick and untick the "restore session" option. So it's as if the update had forced session restore on users (only me?) who don't want it. But I see that nobody showed up to say they had the same problem.

The severity for the user who doesn't want his/her session restored is of course minimal (just a big annoyance until the user finds the tick/untick trick, maybe by doing a search leading here!), but I thought it could have deeper implications, as the behavior was quite weird, never happened to me in years of FF.
I will admit that my motivation to inquire further is small, because I found a workaround. But if someone explains how to rollback to 90.0.1 on linux Mint (and if it doesn't sound too risky, like "just uninstall your current Firefox bro"), I'm ready to test, including on another profile.

Comment 4

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

Thanks for the report. Can you re-open this if it ever happens again?

Comment 5

[stephan-dev]

Sure. (never happened since)