1964240 - Can't disable private tab locking

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android :: Settings, defect)

Description

[Krishna Chittur]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 15; Mobile; rv:140.0) Gecko/140.0 Firefox/140.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open private browsing tab switcher
2. See modal asking to enable screen locking in private browsing
3. Dismiss, reopen tab switcher, see it again, dismiss, reopen tab switcher, see it again, repeat
4. Accept this time to make the modal go away
5. Go to settings with the intention of removing the screen locking

Actual results:

I couldn't find any settings for removing the screen locking in private browsing.

Expected results:

There should be a setting, ideally under Private Browsing, to toggle the screen locking.

(Also, the original pop up in the tab switcher should go away after being dismissed once, but that feels less urgent. I decided not to bother making a separate bug report for that.)

Comment 1

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

It looks like it should be in the Private Browsing settings, but currently is only displayed for debug (self-built?) versions. I would guess that's either a different choice to the prompt, or the prompt doesn't have a channel selection.

Comment 2

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

Attachment: Bug 1964240 - Don't show private mode lock prompt in nightly

Comment 3

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

hi, :krishna,

Thanks for the reporting this bug. Actually, two bugs :)

I will be fixing the more urgent one within the scope of this ticket, and create a follow up about handling the dismiss button click properly. Thank you for reporting it, it helps a lot.

Comment 4

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

Found a user created bug about the second issue, will be using that one.

Comment 5

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

The fixes in this bug and the other linked bug still leave the question open as to how the people who have enabled the feature can disable it.

Comment 6

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/068fac7010fc
Don't show private mode lock prompt in nightly r=android-reviewers,gmalekpour

Comment 8

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

139 is unaffected since only strings were uplifted to beta under Bug 1962614

Comment 9

[Narcis Beleuzu [:NarcisB]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/068fac7010fc

Comment 10

[Krishna Chittur]

This bug was fixed until today and has now returned. When I open private browsing I receive a pop-up for the fingerprint unlock. I don't see any setting for disabling this.

Should I file a new bug for this?

140.0a1 (Build #2016090567), hg-6994db615d7f+
GV: 140.0a1-20250512213630
AS: 140.20250509050400
OS: Android 15

Comment 11

[:Gela]

Could you try clearing your cache and let me know if the issue gets resolved? It sounds like the feature is being cached in shared_preference.

1. Long press the app icon
2. Click on ( i )
3. Go to Storage and cache
4. Tap clear cache

Comment 12

[Krishna Chittur]

Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried clearing the cache as you described. (Not the storage, just the cache.) I then reopened the browser. The issue persists.

Comment 13

[:Gela]

Could you also try clearing your storage (or even uninstall and reinstall the app)? I'm not able to reproduce what you're seeing on Nightly 140.0a1. Sorry about the trouble :(

Comment 14

[Krishna Chittur]

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but fair enough...

I cleared storage and sure enough that fixed the issue! Now I just need to redo all my settings and extensions and whatnot.

Thanks!

Comment 15

[:Gela]

We appreciate you using Nightly. I do want to highlight that while we do our best to create stable changes, Nightly is our platform for testing and experiments before it goes into Release, this makes the app inherently less stable. It's because of users like you that we can alpha test new features before rolling it out to Beta and Release.