1991243 - [HNT] Search results in private browsing mode after a cold start take place in regular browsing

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android :: Homepage, defect)

Description

[Jonathan Almeida [:jonalmeida]]

Attachment: screen-20250926-200426~2.mp4

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a tab in private mode with web content (e.g. search for 'cat').
2. Swipe the app away
3. Open Fenix again and observe the browsing mode you are in.
4. Search for something here (e.g. 'cat' again).

Expected behaviour

• At step 3, observe that you are in private browsing.
• At step 4, your search should happen in private browsing.

Actual behaviour

• At step 3, observe that you are in private browsing.
• At step 4, your search is a regular tab (also with no indication that the mode was switched).

Device information

• Firefox version: 145.0a1 (Build #2016116295), e0c3190130f016554a7c41fee5b70832d74327c1
• Android device model: Pixel 8a
• Android OS version: Android 16

Any additional information?

• Ensure you have enabled "Homepage as a new tab" in Secret Settings.

Comment 1

[csnybot]

Is this a duplicate of Bug 1969252?

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

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

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 3

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

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

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 5

[Gabriel Luong [:gl] (ΦωΦ)]

Attachment: Bug 1991243 - Always add a homepage tab for the current browsing mode on startup

• Replaces StartupMiddleware with HomepageTabBinding, which adds a homepage tab whenever there are no tabs for the current browsing mode on startup once the previous session has been restored.
• StartupMiddleware ran on RestoreCompleteAction, which is only dispatched once on cold startup. This caused intermittent issues with adding private tabs when starting up in private mode because warm relaunch would have tab restore already completed.

Comment 6

[Gabriel Luong [:gl] (ΦωΦ)]

The fix here is to ensure that opening private mode will always have a private homepage tab available.

Comment 7

[Gabriel Luong [:gl] (ΦωΦ)]

For QA, ensure on startup that we always have 1 tab for the browsing mode that we are opening into. This applies for Normal and Private browsing mode. If there's existing tabs in normal browsing and we are restarting the app in normal mode, then don't add a new homepage tab. Repeat this a few time with force closing the application.

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/85f99df78cc4
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/40c5ec01cf73
Always add a homepage tab for the current browsing mode on startup r=android-reviewers,jonalmeida

Comment 9

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/40c5ec01cf73

Comment 10

[Adina Petridean QA [:apetridean]]

Attachment: screen-20260807-115634-1786092956702.mov

Verified as fixed on the latest Nightly 155.0a1 08/06 with Pixel 10 (Android 16) and Motorola G72 (Android 13).

Comment 11

[Lorand Janos]

Attachment: Recording_20260807_103701.mp4

Verified as fixed on the latest Nightly build (155.0a1 from 2026-08-07).

As asked on Comment 7, on startup we always have 1 tab for the browsing mode that we are opening into. This applies for Normal and Private browsing mode. If there's existing tabs in normal browsing and we are restarting the app in normal mode, then don't add a new homepage tab. Repeated this a few time with force closing the application.

To address the expected in the description: the page opened in PB after restart is opened in PB.

Devices used:

• Google Pixel 9 Pro XL (Android 17);
• Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (Android 16);
• OnePlus Pad 3 (Android 15).

Marking 155 as verified.