1824581 - Firefox shows the old open tabs above when you open the tab menu

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Fenix :: Tabs, defect, P2)

Description

[smkbey]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 13; Mobile; rv:109.0) Gecko/112.0 Firefox/112.0

Steps to reproduce:

Firefox Beta 112.b3 but it did happen since at least from FF 100. Maybe even earlier.

It happens randomly. I didn't recognize a pattern when it happens.
When pressing the Tab Button, Firefox shows the oldest Tabs. It shows the tabs at thevery top, like if you scroll all the way up.

Actual results:

When pressing the Tab Button, Firefox shows the oldest Tabs. It shows the tabs at thevery top, like if you scroll all the way up.

Expected results:

It should show the newest Tabs (all the way down)

Comment 1

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

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

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 2

[lensi]

I've had this issue for years, finally taking the time to report. Currently on Mozilla/5.0 (Android 12; Mobile; rv:109.0) Gecko/114.0 Firefox/114.0

Just tried to find a way to consistently reproduce, but it really just seems to happen randomly when opening the tabs list. If I repeatedly open and close the list from a tab one or more pages down the list then half the times it opens with the current tab in view and the other half it opens scrolled to the very top of the list.

I have 40 open tabs and hundreds inactive. I can't reproduce when I open 40 private tabs - then I consistently get the active tab in view as wanted.

Comment 3

[smkbey]

Exactly like lensi said, the problem is annoying.

Any updates?

Also closed tabs sometimes open again when Firefox is closed. Sometimes all 3-4 closed tabs.

Comment 4

[Noah Bond [:007]]

Hi :smkbey, thanks for filing this! I can confirm I see this on my side with 32 tabs (5 of which are inactive).

Just to start some information gathering, do you have inactive tabs turned on?

Also, the Tabs Tray is actually in the middle of a rewrite (we're migrating the UI from XML to Compose), so this (could) be resolved as a part of that rewrite (I'm currently not able to reproduce it on there with some quick prodding). We're hoping to get that into Nightly soon (tm).

Comment 5

[smkbey]

(In reply to Noah Bond [:007] from comment #4)

Hi :smkbey, thanks for filing this! I can confirm I see this on my side with 32 tabs (5 of which are inactive).

Just to start some information gathering, do you have inactive tabs turned on?

Also, the Tabs Tray is actually in the middle of a rewrite (we're migrating the UI from XML to Compose), so this (could) be resolved as a part of that rewrite (I'm currently not able to reproduce it on there with some quick prodding). We're hoping to get that into Nightly soon (tm).

Hi, so yes, I have enabled the inactive Tabs setting.

Comment 8

[Djfe]

I also experienced this. it went away when I switched from grid view to list view. can anyone confirm that this helps?
if not then it just got better because my inactive tab list somehow got deleted just now at the same time.
OT:
tabs tray undergoing a rewrite sounds awesome. Hopefully that improves performance and stuff. opening inactive list made my 12gb ram phone lag quite a bit (2300tabs ^^)
just an idea maybe give us a way to select all open tabs (not just manual selection), and an option to move inactive tabs into a collection

Comment 9

[l4143-github]

This is quite a showstopper when using lots of tabs. Also duplicate of 1812946.

Comment 10

[l4143-github]

I disagree with the expectation that the newest tabs should be shown. In my opinion it should be the current focussed one as correctly happens once in a while.

Comment 11

[Djfe]

Update from my side:
this also happens in list view with just 64 tabs open
it opens the list at the oldest tab instead of at the selected one..
i have to reopen the tab view multiple times till it scrolls for me. is this due to some kind of timeout? (does it only wait for x milliseconds or a need a variable to be set for it to scroll to the selected tan?)

Comment 13

[gitta.hubner]

From just closed 1812946:

By now I can reproduce the issue on a freshly installed Firefox Android 109.1.1 like this:

open a couple of tabs (internet connection not necessary)
wait for two weeks (tabs will be moved to "inactive tabs")
with the "inactive tabs" expanding button at the top of the tab overview open about 10 tabs so that you can scroll
repeat: open tabs overview and select the tab at the bottom
after 1-25 times the tab overview will scroll to the top

There seems to be a (timing?) issue with the inactive tabs button hiding before the tabs show up. With the bug the tabs show faster, so the delay the animation is causing is anoying by itself even if it would work properly. There is a related issue about this: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/13293 If I could disable animations maybe it would work properly, but how?

Basically this issue makes archived tabs unusable for me.

Comment 15

[Djfe]

this is the only bug in Fenix I've been consistently experiencing for over a year now and it's quite annoying. It's the biggest hindrance that keeps me from closing tabs regularly. having to scroll > 100 tabs for closing one is not worth it most of the time.

I would appreciate it a lot of if anyone could take a look at this ☺️

Comment 16

[Noah Bond [:007]]

(In reply to Djfe from comment #15)

this is the only bug in Fenix I've been consistently experiencing for over a year now and it's quite annoying. It's the biggest hindrance that keeps me from closing tabs regularly. having to scroll > 100 tabs for closing one is not worth it most of the time.

I would appreciate it a lot of if anyone could take a look at this ☺️

Hey Djfe! Thanks for hanging with us all this time! Not a direct fix to the issue you're facing, but we're in the middle of a UI rewrite for the Tabs Tray! This is live on Nightly, if you'd be interested in giving that a try and seeing if the issue is reproducible there.

Comment 19

[Pierre]

(In reply to Noah Bond [:007] from comment #16)

(In reply to Djfe from comment #15)

this is the only bug in Fenix I've been consistently experiencing for over a year now and it's quite annoying. It's the biggest hindrance that keeps me from closing tabs regularly. having to scroll > 100 tabs for closing one is not worth it most of the time.

I would appreciate it a lot of if anyone could take a look at this ☺️

Hey Djfe! Thanks for hanging with us all this time! Not a direct fix to the issue you're facing, but we're in the middle of a UI rewrite for the Tabs Tray! This is live on Nightly, if you'd be interested in giving that a try and seeing if the issue is reproducible there.

Hi Noah,

I've also been experiencing this issue for more than a year and it finally drove me to create a bugzilla account and do some testing.
I can easily reproduce the issue in the emulator after a few modifications.
Changing the inactivity time to 2 minutes in BrowserState.kt:

/**
 * The time until which a tab is considered in-active (in days).
 */
const val DEFAULT_ACTIVE_DAYS = 2L

/**
 * The maximum time from when a tab was created or accessed until it is considered "inactive".
 */
//val maxActiveTime = TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(DEFAULT_ACTIVE_DAYS)
val maxActiveTime = TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(DEFAULT_ACTIVE_DAYS)

Disabling compose tabs tray in FeatureFlags.kt:

/**
* Enables compose on the tabs tray items.
*/
val composeTabsTray = false // Config.channel.isNightlyOrDebug

Then following the same process explained by gitta.hubner:
Open a couple of tabs, wait for them to be inactive.
Open 6-10 more tab until you can scroll.
Switch between a tab and the tab overview a few times and it will go to the top after a few tries.

When setting composeTabsTray back to true the problem does not happen.
So it looks like the rewrite fixed the problem.

Comment 20

[Noah Bond [:007]]

Thank you everyone for your patience with this.

I have upgraded the bug to P2, and I'll be investigating a fix this week. A PR will be posted here once a fix candidate is available.

Comment 22

[BMO Github Automation]

Attachment: [mozilla-mobile/firefox-android] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab (#4168)

Comment 23

[BMO Github Automation]

Authored by https://github.com/MozillaNoah
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android/commit/1889bee069cb087199d754b90743d80d8166b1fc
[main] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab

Comment 24

[Noah Bond [:007]]

Note for QA: This patch should be validated with the Tabs Tray to Compose rewrite secret setting disabled, as this patch is for the original version of the Tabs Tray.

Comment 25

[Delia Pop (Android QA)]

Verified fixed on latest Nightly 121.0a1 from 10/26. The selected tab is always in focus when opening the tabs tray, even with the Inactive tabs displayed. To confirm the fix, I was also able to firstly reproduce the issue on the latest Release 119.0 and Beta 120.0b2 and then apply the same steps on Nightly.
Tested with:

• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G (Android 13)
• LG G7 fit (Android 8.1.0)

Comment 26

[Noah Bond [:007]]

Hey Chris, could we consider this patch for an uplift to Beta? This has been an issue in Release for a while, and I'm still working on getting the Tabs Tray rewrite into Beta.

Comment 27

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

SGTM! Please request uplift to Beta 120.

Do you recommend we also uplift it to the 119.1 dot release we have planned for next week? The deadline for 119.1 uplift requests is EOD Friday Oct 27.

Comment 28

[Noah Bond [:007]]

I'm certainly not opposed to it, and I know our users would appreciate it getting some escalation. The change just hasn't had time to bake yet, and can really only bake in Beta/Release, since this is a fix for the XML tabs tray, which is disabled by default in Nightly.

It is a small patch though, and fairly low risk overall.

Comment 29

[BMO Github Automation]

Attachment: [mozilla-mobile/firefox-android] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab (backport #4168) (#4261)

Comment 30

[Noah Bond [:007]]

Comment on attachment 9360689 [details] [review]
[mozilla-mobile/firefox-android] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab (backport #4168) (#4261)

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Users with Inactive Tabs enabled and enough tabs to have the Tabs Tray to scroll will continue to have paper cuts in the experience, as the Tabs Tray non-deterministically does not scroll to their active tab.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: No
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: Steps listed above.
• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Change is small and isolated
• String changes made/needed:
• Is Android affected?: Yes

Comment 31

[BMO Github Automation]

Authored by https://github.com/MozillaNoah
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android/commit/59a286dd6f4f6f1cdbb1b6f50e34f49476e3a48f
[releases_v120] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab

Comment 32

[Dianna Smith [:diannaS]]

Comment on attachment 9360689 [details] [review]
[mozilla-mobile/firefox-android] Bug 1824581 - Fix bug causing the XML Tabs Tray to not scroll to the selected tab (backport #4168) (#4261)

Approved for Mobile 120.0b4

Comment 33

[Delia Pop (Android QA)]

Verified fixed on latest Beta 120.0b4 with Poco F5 Pro (Android 13).

Comment 34

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Thanks for uplifting to Beta 120. This fix can ride the trains with 120. We don't need to uplift it to a 119.2 dot release.

Comment 37

[Nicholas Poon [:Nick]]

QA, can we please verify if this issue still exists, there was a bug report 3 days ago (Bug 1908104) reporting the same issue? Thanks

Comment 38

[Noah Bond [:007]]

clearing the QA request as this is the wrong ticket referenced