1973441 - Saved tab groups not actually saved if browser crashes

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect, P2)

Description

[RT]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:139.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/139.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a tab group
2. Right click and select "save and close"
3. The name group will appear in "List all tabs menu
4. At this point if you close Firefox normally, the group will persist. But if Firefox crashes, it will be lost.

Actual results:

Tab groups are not really saving when you click "save and close". They are added to a list that is kept in memory and only saved when you close Firefox.

Expected results:

If a user wants something to be saved it's better not to loose it.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox::Tabbed Browser' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Monica Chiorean]

I was able to reproduce the issue on Win11x64 using Firefox build 141.0b1. I do not have the "Open previous windows and tabs", option check and after a crashparent the saved group did not appear after a session restore. With the option checked I did not reproduce the issue.
Marking issue as new.

Comment 3

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

Generally speaking, all changes to a user's session state get staged in memory and then flushed to disk later, usually within 15 seconds. Recent user activity can be lost in the event of a crash.

I believe that saved groups act the same as other data (e.g. opening a new tab right before the browser crashing), but I will validate that.

Comment 4

[RT]

It's normal to expect a 15 second delay, but I've had Firefox open for hours after saving tab groups, then random crash (probably out of memory), multiple times.

Comment 5

[BMO Github Automation]

Attachment: [mozilla-firefox/firefox] Bug 1973441, 2055879, 2063477 - Restore saved tab groups after crash or unexpected shutdown. (#332)

Comment 7

[Yeet]

Attachment: Bug 1973441 - Restore saved tab groups after crash or unexpected shutdown. r=#sessionstore-reviewers,sfoster,sthompson

Comment 8

[Yeet]

Attachment: Bug 1973441 - Include saved tab groups on session restore.

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/35741618a339
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/77e8f055ea09
Include saved tab groups on session restore. r=sessionstore-reviewers,sthompson

Comment 10

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/77e8f055ea09

Comment 11

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

Attachment: Bug 1973441 - Include saved tab groups on session restore.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D327558

Comment 12

[Phabricator Automation]

firefox-beta Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined/Reason for urgency: Medium. In the rare cases where users crash multiple times and get directed to about:sessionrestore to recover their session, a user's saved tab groups will not be retained. This patch fixes that. There is not a broad reach for this fix, but it prevents data loss for those users.
• Code covered by automated testing?: no
• Fix verified in Nightly?: yes
• Needs manual QE testing?: no
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing:
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: There is no automated test for this scenario, but the patch is a very straightforward fix to include a missing property from the state that we pass into about:sessionrestore.
• String changes made/needed?: No
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 13

[Pascal Chevrel (relman team) -> :pascalc]

Comment on attachment 9646863 [details]
Bug 1973441 - Include saved tab groups on session restore.

We are ending our beta cycle and have had this bug for a year, we ship a major release every two weeks, let's have it ride the 158 train, thanks.