Open Bug 1796106 Opened 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Freezing (without bluescreen) and restart causes Firefox profile being heavy corrupt!

Categories

(Core :: General, defect)

Firefox 91
x86_64
Windows 7
defect

Tracking

()

UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: drago-yoshisabel, Unassigned)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/91.0

Steps to reproduce:

Error occurs only when any Windows error leads to frozen/crashed computer:

  1. Start my computer
  2. 3th-party-software and autostart programs loaded and desktop appears (normal)
  3. I open Firefox or Thunderbird (so they are opened when step 4 happens)
  4. In rare cases within 10 minutes after starting my computer freezes as consequence of probably drivers interfering with each other (finding the culprit isn't possible at the moment but thats not the matter as freezes cause can happen and the reason isn't the same)
    -> After restart all of my programs behave normal, except Firefox/Thunderbird.

Actual results:

  • Firefox and Thunderbird load without profile error but all settings/addons/favorites/cookies/etc. are gone-
  • In Thunderbird not the whole profile is destroyed but in the menu bar buttons like "Answer" and so on missing
  • Here comes the mystery: I took a look in "%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles" and "AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles" - there is still my primary default profile (so no new one got generated like Firefox tends to do when detecting errors)
  • File "compatibility.ini" isn't the culprit as I didn't change Firefox version and -LastVersion- fits to my program version
  • All my profile files/folders are still there with my personal favorites, cookies, addons in them! So technically Firefox should load them correctly (instead the profile appears like when you did a reset)
  • My profane solution was each time to restore an older profile folder from windows build-in function shadow copy from before the crash, starting Firefox again leads to my profile works like a charm again
  • I know that this error happens only when during crash Firefox/Thunderbird are open
  • It happens in Windows 7/10 as like with Mozilla Firefox v.91, v.108 and Mozilla Thunderbird v.38.8.0 (I'm using outdated version for mails for more than 10 years since newer version consume very much ressources, addons stopped working and so on).

=> If I may so bold to suggest a possibility: Maybe it has to do with Mozillas technique locking the profile folder during whole session. Everytime when you try to copy your Firefox/Thunderbird profile for backup it fails because of some files/folders can't been copied (as long the program is active). So can it be that windows beared a crash leads to Mozillas profiles in a state where files are still locked and after restart won't be unlocked when Firefox/Thunderbird starts? That would give an answer to why the programs doesn't complain about corrupt profile and soesn't create a new one. It uses the correct existing one but without actually read its content so the environment appears like resetted.

Expected results:

Firefox should be able to handle a frozen (and then pluugd-off) pc and after restart load the existing profile correctly. Therefore no files/folders shouldn't allowed to get locked as soon you open Firefox or Thunderbird session.

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Toolkit::Startup and Profile System' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Component: Untriaged → Startup and Profile System
Product: Firefox → Toolkit

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

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Flags: needinfo?(dtownsend)

Does about:profiles still list your old profile?

Severity: -- → S3
Flags: needinfo?(dtownsend) → needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)

(In reply to Dave Townsend [:mossop] from comment #3)

Does about:profiles still list your old profile?

Yes, but I restored it with a folder from an earlier time (file version), so it's not the corrupt profile anymore...

Flags: needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)

Is it possible to see what the profiles.ini file looked like before and after the problem occurred?

Flags: needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)

I'm afraid, like I said, I restored the folder.
But indeed I took a look into profiles.ini by myself to that time - and I can say all entries were OK and should lead to my primary profile.
Even when firefox -p called, the correct profile was highlighted and set as default.

Both Firefox and Thunderbird (because both programs are vulnerable to this situation) didn't comlain about anything either. It seems rather possible to me that several single files from subfolders are the problem - and always when something caused Firefox/Thunderbird closed unexpectedly (something like a frozen PC).

Flags: needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)

(In reply to drago-yoshisabel from comment #6)

I'm afraid, like I said, I restored the folder.
But indeed I took a look into profiles.ini by myself to that time - and I can say all entries were OK and should lead to my primary profile.
Even when firefox -p called, the correct profile was highlighted and set as default.

Ok this doesn't sound like a profile manager issue then.

Component: Startup and Profile System → Untriaged
Product: Toolkit → Firefox

This is such a specific issue, I tried to reproduce it by Crashing Firefox multiple times and restarting the computer but I couldnt reproduce the actual issue, and I cant freeze my Computer, I did use the reset button on my computer a few times but I didnt have any issues with the profiles on my side. I'm adding the qa tag for this issue.

Freezing and restarting a computer could corrupt multiple files not just on Firefox but other apps as well.

QA Whiteboard: [qa-not-actionable]

(In reply to Rares Doghi from comment #8)

This is such a specific issue, I tried to reproduce it by Crashing Firefox multiple times and restarting the computer but I couldnt reproduce the actual issue, and I cant freeze my Computer, I did use the reset button on my computer a few times but I didnt have any issues with the profiles on my side. I'm adding the qa tag for this issue.

Freezing and restarting a computer could corrupt multiple files not just on Firefox but other apps as well.

Yes, but none of my other apps showed this behaviour. I know it must sound incredible to you that Firefox/Thunderbird continue their work after that without complains but with missing functions, but indeed that happened.
And yes, when it comes to 'clean' crashes with bluescreen or power failure the error never happen. It happens after permanent frozen computer state only.
E.g. in Thunderbird some of my main buttons like "Reply" to E-Mail were missing after that (they also were nowhere to found when I opened the customizations for the symbol bar) - that was the first time I actually related this issue to the frozen PC. I checked all other programs, everything fine, escept for Firefox - here were random some of my addons, settings and favorite websites gone. But not all. That left me very confused.

Component: Untriaged → Performance
OS: Unspecified → Windows 7
Product: Firefox → Core
Hardware: Unspecified → x86_64

Thanks for updating the issue infos.

btw: The issue happened again a few weeks ago. Same like the last time - and again after frozen PC (Firefox is 102.10.0esr). The error this time could be seen in connection with my addon (or extension) "Adguard Adblocker". Adguard wasn't able any longer to save my settings and loaded its standard profile after every launch of Firefox (my settings were gone).
I had to use a recent profile state from my backup to get back to work (Luckily making a full backup on a regular basis).

So the error is still there.

I don't blame anyone for my PCs sometimes freezing, but that the issue only happens in Firefox and Thunderbird (Mozilla products) plus on different computers with different Windows versions leads me to hope for a solution from Mozilla hopefully soon.

oh, I forgot to mention:
I made a complete new Firefox profile a few month ago. And the same error happended after that. So I assume, this cause can also be discarded.

This bug was moved into the Performance component.

:drago-yoshisabel, could you make sure the following information is on this bug?

  • For slowness or high CPU usage, capture a profile with http://profiler.firefox.com/, upload it and share the link here.
  • For memory usage issues, capture a memory dump from about:memory and attach it to this bug.
  • Troubleshooting information: Go to about:support, click "Copy raw data to clipboard", paste it into a file, save it, and attach the file here.

If the requested information is already in the bug, please confirm it is recent.

Thank you.

Flags: needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)
Attached file FirefoxLog.txt
Flags: needinfo?(drago-yoshisabel)
Component: Performance → General
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