1780213 - Default browser agent telemetry pings are no longer recorded

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1778754

(Toolkit :: Default Browser Agent, defect)

Description

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Note

• This issue is reproducible on Windows 7

Found in

• Firefox 103.0

Affected versions

• Firefox 103.0

Affected platforms

• Windows 7x32

Preconditions
Have latest FF installed(only installation, remove others) and Region set to en-us or else no ping will be sent.

Have latest version of Fiddler installed.
Have HTTPS traffic decryption option activated:

Launch Fiddler -> Tools -> Options -> HTTPS tab -> Tick the "Decrypt HTTPS Traffic"
(accept the next menus, they will install missing certificates if not already installed)

Go to View -> select Stacked Layout , to better see the information of the Fiddler event

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to Start-> Search -> search for Task scheduler and open it -> Extend Task Scheduler Library -> Select Mozilla .
2. Start Firefox and then close it
3. Change system time to 24h onwards(Note: On Windows 7 change the time before the run time with e.g 1 minute less to make the task run as expected. If it's set after the task will not run).
4. Wait until the Last Run Time is reached then right click and Refresh inside the task schedule area.
5. Go to Fiddler

Expected result

• POST is encountered in the Fiddler event list.

The correct url is displayed.

The POST has a unique ID.

The POST is sent by "pingsender.exe"

Actual result

• No "default browser agent" pings are recorded in Fiddler. Please see screenshot with the pings that are displayed after Firefox is opened.

Regression range

• no regression

Comment 1

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: image_2022_07_20T14_24_00_309Z.png

Comment 2

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to Ralu from comment #0)

The POST is sent by "pingsender.exe"

This part doesn't look right to me. I would expect this to come from default-browser-agent.exe, not pingsender.exe. Can you please retest with that in mind?

Comment 3

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to [e-mail] (:bhearsum) from comment #2)

(In reply to Ralu from comment #0)

The POST is sent by "pingsender.exe"

This part doesn't look right to me. I would expect this to come from default-browser-agent.exe, not pingsender.exe. Can you please retest with that in mind?

I need to correct myself here -- the WDBA actually calls out to pingsender.exe, so these instructions are correct. I was able to reproduce this, but only when Firefox was already the default browser.

Can you try again with Edge or Chrome as the default browser?

Comment 4

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

I verified with Chrome as default browser and I have the same results.

Comment 5

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

I'm still unable to reproduce this. I don't see a big change in Telemetry (which I would expect if this were truly broken in the wild), but perhaps you're hitting an edge case. Let's look at a few more things to get more details:

• Do you see any errors in the Event Viewer? These would show up as "Firefox Default Browser Agent" in the "Windows Logs" -> "Application" section.
• Can you confirm that the Scheduled Task is running? What is the "Last Run Result" for the task?
• Does it work if you run the WDBA by hand? (You can find the exact invocation the Scheduled Task uses in the "Actions" section of its details. It should be something like "C:\Program Files\Firefox Nightly\default-browser-agent.exe do-task "6F193CCC56814779", which you can then run through cmd.exe or powershell).
• Do you see any connections from defaultagent.exe or pingsender.exe in the Fiddler log? Maybe attach it here so I can have a look as well.
• An export of HKCU\Software\Mozilla\Firefox would be helpful to assess the current state of the WDBA.

Comment 6

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

I tried again with Chrome as default browser and this time I received pingsender.exe logs. I will attach here screenshots with the required information from comment 5.

Comment 7

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: pingsender1.png

Comment 8

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: pindsender2.png

Comment 9

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: pingsender3.png

Comment 10

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: lastruntime.png

Comment 11

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: eventviewer.png

Comment 12

[Raluca Popovici, Desktop QA]

Attachment: mozfx.reg