1768070 - Can't show top sites without "shortcuts"

Status: RESOLVED MOVED

(Fenix :: General, defect, P4)

Description

[dubrowgn]

Attachment: actual.png

Firefox for Android

Steps to reproduce:

Upgrade to Firefox Android v100

Actual results:

"Top sites" are no longer visible on the "new tab" view without also showing "shortcuts" (specifically recently viewed sites).

Expected results:

The new tab view should show only pinned "top sites" as previously configured.

Comment 1

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

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::New Tab Page' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[taoberly]

I don't suppose my comment here "confirms" anything, but I just encountered this with 100.1.1. "Top Sites" are invisible on the homepage/ new tabs without enabling Shortcuts in Settings -> Homepage -> Shortcuts. As this bug apparently crept in just days ago, I am hoping for a quick resolution.

Comment 3

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

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:daleharvey, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 4

[Laurentiu Apahidean]

This is the intended behavior please see https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/24271#issuecomment-1067149304 for further information.

Comment 5

[dubrowgn]

Thanks for the update, Laurentiu. Is there a process for revisiting this decision? The new behavior is annoying enough that I've simply just stopped using pinned tabs on mobile altogether.

Comment 6

[taoberly]

It's annoying enough for me that I switched to Iceraven.

If I toggle Shortcuts on in 100.1.1, with no sub-options enabled, what does that do? If "Sponsored", "Jump back", "Recent", "Recently", and "Pocket" are all disabled, what's left? There are still unwanted icons on new tabs that I can't remove. They're definitely not user-defined "Top Sites".

One difference you may be overlooking is that screen real estate is vastly different between desktop and mobile. I don't use Shortcuts on desktop at all (technically I use Waterfox for desktop, which may also be addressing the problem), preferring lovely, blank new tabs. ("Blank is beautiful.") Instead I use the "Bookmark Toolbar" for this functionality. All those Shortcut options may work okay on a large desktop/laptop screen, but on mobile it quickly becomes an unmanageable mess.

What can I say to stop the developers from changing legacy behaviors that nobody is complaining about?

Comment 7

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

This is not tracked in bugzilla.

Comment 8

[dubrowgn]

Is there a place for users to raise these concerns outside of bugzilla?

Comment 9

[dubrowgn]

This is also being discussed on Mozilla connect: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/android-v100-history-update/m-p/25251#M10190