1750705 - Users can not change Nimbus rollout behaviors using fallback preferences if the desired behavior is the preference default

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Nimbus Desktop Client, defect)

Description

[Maria Heres, inactive, contact Ecosystem QA]

Attachment: fallback preference change nimbus 2.gif

[Affected Versions]:

• Firefox Beta 97.0b4 (Build ID: 20220116190254)
• Firefox Beta 98.0a1 (Build ID: 20220116095124)
• Firefox Beta 97.0a1 (Build ID: 20220110093702)

[Affected Platforms]:

• Linux Mint 20.2
• macOS 11.6
• Windows 10

[Prerequisites]:

• Be enrolled in a Nimbus Stage rollout which sets behaviors that have fallback preferences (e.g. https://settings-writer.stage.mozaws.net/v1/admin/#/buckets/main-workspace/collections/nimbus-desktop-experiments/records/firefox-desktop-rollout-test-final/attributes, which sets newFooterSection to true) to a behavior different from the fallback preference default.

[Steps to reproduce]:

1. Open “about:config” and attempt to reset the fallback preference to the initial behavior (e.g. browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.discoverystream.newFooterSection.enabled to the false behavior).
2. Observe the feature controlled by the preference (e.g. Open a "about:newtab" page and observe the footer section).

[Expected result]:

• There is a way to change the feature behavior to the one the fallback value has as default.

[Actual result]:

• Since fallback preferences keep their default values, they can not be used to modify the behavior to the default one from before being enrolled in the rollout.

[Notes]:

• The behavior can be changed while enrolled in a rollout if the user changes the fallback value to something different from both the preference default and the Nimbus default (recording).
• While Nimbus experiments display the same behavior, users have the option to unenroll from them, which returns them to the preference default behavior.
• Included is a recording of the issue.

Comment 1

[Jared Lockhart [:jlockhart]]

This is working as intended, closing as WONTFIX.