1982269 - [app icon picker] Customizing app icon fails to restart app and causes it to disappear from drawer along with home screen shortcuts with older Android versions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android :: Settings, defect)

Description

[Walter K.]

Steps to reproduce:

• Run Nightly in Private mode
• Opened Settings->Customize->Select App Icon and tried changing app icon to another in the latest Android Nightly.

Actual results:

• Upon selection of a new icon, a dialog appeared with Cancel and Restart Now options
• When Restart Now is selected, nothing happened
• Tried a couple of other icons to see if the result would be different
• Used Back arrow to get to the Customize screen
• Observed the last icon that was selected is now shown as the Selected App Icon
• Closed Firefox and swiped it from the list of the running apps
• Now both Firefox app icon and the Private browser shortcut are gone from my launcher. Device reboot did not help. When checking Firefox Nightly on the Google Play Store, the only action button shown is Uninstall; other working apps show both Uninstall and Open buttons.

Expected results:

• New icon should be set and the browser restarted per instructions in the dialog
• If errors occur, destruction of the whole app should be prevented

Firefox version: 143.0a1, Nightly from August 8, 2025
Android OS version: 9

Comment 1

[Walter K.]

After trying a few things, I found a way to restore the browser icon back to launcher:

• Open a link from another app in the browser (Google, Gmail, etc.). For that you either need to have the Nightly as your default browser or have no default browser selected at the OS level. Or you can Share a link with the Nightly.
• If needed, switch to normal mode, not PBM. This may be an optional step at this time.
• After browser starts, go to Settings->Customize->Select App Icon and choose the default icon. Press Restart now.
• Close Firefox and swipe it from the list of the running apps. After a short 1-3 seconds delay, Firefox icon can be found again in the launcher.

Observations:

1. After going though the process and restoring the default icon, changing icons now works for other icons as well. The Restart now button still does not restart the browser.
2. Private browser shortcut always gets removed when a new icon is selected.
3. After Nightly icon is restored in the launcher, the Play Store shows both Open and Uninstall buttons for the browser again.
4. Even after the app restart, the default icon for the Nightly in the list of the running apps on my device does not change to the selected icon.

Comment 2

[Kestrel]

STR:

1. Start latest Android Nightly 143.0a1 on a device with Android 8.0 or 9.0.
2. Add a shortcut to the home screen.
3. Customize > "Select App Icon" and change it to "Blue".
4. Tap "Restart now".

Expected:
App restarts and app icon changes. Shortcuts remain on home screen.

Actual:
Nothing happens, app remains open. App icon disappears from drawer and shortcuts disappear from home screen.

Search widget can be used as a fallback to launch app.

Workaround:

1. Change icon and tap "Restart now".
2. Switch to home screen app drawer and back to app twice until app icon appears/background changes.
3. Switch back to app and tap "Cancel".
4. Restart app to make settings reflect the new chosen color if desired.
   Home screen shortcuts still lost.

Android 8.0 and 9.0 affected.
Android 11.0 unaffected.

Comment 3

[Adina Petridean QA [:apetridean]]

I was able to reproduce this issue on Google Pixel 3 XL (Android 9) and Samsung Galaxy S9 (Android 8) using the latest Nightly 143.0a1 (13.08.2025) with the following steps:

1. Select a different icon on the App icon selection page.
2. Tap "Restart now" on the confirmation dialog.

This is a blocker for this feature, as it does not work on Android 8 and Android 9 devices.

Comment 4

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

Attachment: Bug 1982269 - Close the app restart confirmation dialog immideatly

And reflect the newly applied selection immideatly in the list.

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/525c51fa6625
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b5128bcced7d
Close the app restart confirmation dialog immideatly r=android-reviewers,twhite

Comment 6

[Serban Stanca [:SerbanS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b5128bcced7d

Comment 7

[Kestrel]

It still doesn't restart when tapping "Restart now" but otherwise it works as expected, the prompt disappears, the setting is updated and the app icon is updated about 10 seconds later. Home screen shortcuts are still lost (Bug 1983768).