Firefox app spontaneously fails to access history, bookmarks, saved passwords, etc
Categories
(Fenix :: Accounts and Sync, defect)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: connor24nolan, Unassigned, NeedInfo)
References
Details
(Whiteboard: [fxdroid][group1])
Attachments
(1 file)
55.88 KB,
image/jpeg
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Details |
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 14; Mobile; rv:123.0) Gecko/123.0 Firefox/123.0
Steps to reproduce:
I was using my phone like normal, then Firefox started acting "weird" spontaneously.
Actual results:
The first thing I noticed was when I went to a login page, Firefox failed to autofill credentials. Then when I went to the ssved logins menu, it was stuck at a loading stage. This was the same for bookmarks and history. Then when I went to the Firefox Account menu, it said it was currently syncing and it was last synced two days ago. Apart from that the menu was unresponsive.
I tried to resolve the issue by logging out, which appeared to succeed. But the issues were still occurring. I tried to log back in, but the "use email address to login" button was also broken.
I then restarted Firefox. Everything was completely restored to the state it was in 2 days prior. This included logging my account nack in and losing two days worth of tabs (which I am quite annoyed about).
This is the second time I have experienced this bug.
Expected results:
Literally none of that.
Comment 1•10 months ago
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Connor, thanks for reporting this bug. Have you experienced this problem again? This sounds like this is a problem with Firefox Sync's local data. You might try clearing Firefox's app cache in the Android system settings.
Comment 2•10 months ago
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Mark, this looks similar to another recent report, Bug 1887065. Is this a better indicator that something might be going on with Sync, or should we investigate from the Fenix side?
Comment 3•10 months ago
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I don't think this is going to be related to Sync - it's not possible for Sync to cause the state of currently open tabs to revert to what they were days ago as that state is managed entirely by the browser. Similarly, the accounts menu being completely unresponsive isn't going to be caused by Sync. If there's something causing the profile folder to be read-only and/or restored to a previous version, then Sync (and FxA) is definitely going to have a bad time, but I don't see how Sync could cause these symptoms - even if Sync was somehow clobbering or destroying bookmarks, history or logins, we'd still expect the app to function correctly but just fail to show any logins/bookmarks/history etc.
Sadly I don't have any ideas for getting to the bottom of this with just the info above and in that other bug.
Comment 4•10 months ago
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:connor24nolan, sorry to hear about these issues you're experiencing. Are there any any reproduction steps you can think of to help us debug this? Could you also report how much storage space your device has remaining, and what specific device it is?
In terms of resolving the issue, it may help to re-install the app completely. Signing in to sync should retrieve your history/bookmarks/etc from at least the last time the app was functioning well.
Updated•10 months ago
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Updated•10 months ago
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Comment 5•9 months ago
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Clearing Priority so we can reprioritize these bugs relative to our ux-fun-2024 bugs.
n.b. For fellow noobs, Fenix = Firefox for Android = FxA
Hi all, I'd like to add that I'm suffering this exact issue.
I'd currently describe it as 'spontaneous loss of connection to sync data that may or may not be a spontaneous logging out'.
The fault does seem spontaneous (occurs without warning or obvious cause during a session) and involves loss of access to synched data (passwords, as well as history and synched devices) plus it stops updating 'saved state' so closing then starting FxA restores the session when last synched, causing the loss of recent activity changes (
I'll try removing cache to see if that works.
It still looks like I'm signed in but things clearly are not synching. This suggests high seriousness/priority.
Closing FxA then immediately restarting does not help. The immediately closed session IS restored including disconnected or logged out sync state.
Partial Workaround: Close FxA then wait a few minutes before restarting. This returns to previously synched state (whenever that was), with FxA actively connected to sync data (upload, bookmarks, logins, devices etc) with any postsync changes lost (new tabs that you opened just before restart.
Today, it's happened 3 times and, from memory, first happened in the 3 weeks or so. I rarely exit the app or reset the phone unless something goes wrong.
Device: OnePlus 7T Pro
OS: /e/OS 1.17
FxA ver: 121.0.1 (Build #2015995071)
Not good for diagnosis, but I've both deleted cached images and files, plus closed 225 inactive tabs. I now have 100 tabs in total (some inactive, some active).
I'll report back if it happens again.
Additional info... it also prevented PDFs from downloading. The PDF would open in a page but wasn't downloadable (it just kept trying but not getting anywhere).
Anyway, no repetition of error so far after deleting cache and closing over 200 tabs (I feel better though).
Since those posts, I've not encountered the issue...
So, either too many tabs, excessive or dysfunctional cache, or some perfectly corrective update.
My money is on number of tabs. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Comment 10•6 months ago
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We're unable to reproduce this. Feel free to reopen if this problem is still occurring.
Description
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