1995621 - Enforce a maximum depth for native menu nesting on macOS

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: Widget: Cocoa, task)

Description

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

Let's limit how deep you can expand native menus. The hope is that this will address the hangs reported in bug 1979283.

Comment 1

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

Attachment: Bug 1995621 - Enforce a maximum depth for native menu nesting on macOS. r?#mac-reviewers

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/63275687e99f
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/d90b784390bd
Enforce a maximum depth for native menu nesting on macOS. r=mac-reviewers,spohl

Comment 3

[amarc]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d90b784390bd

Comment 4

[Phabricator Automation]

firefox-beta Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Users with recursive bookmark folders encounter browser hangs on macOS 26
• Code covered by automated testing: yes
• Fix verified in Nightly: no
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: Using the Library, copy the Bookmarks Menu folder and paste it inside the Bookmarks Menu folder, creating a recursive structure. Then open the Bookmarks menu in the menubar and keep traversing as deep as you can. With this fix, eventually there should be no more submenu (around 20 levels deep).
  Also try doing a Spotlight search on macOS Tahoe and check if Firefox starts hanging.
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: Relatively small fix
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 5

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

Attachment: Bug 1995621 - Enforce a maximum depth for native menu nesting on macOS. r?#mac-reviewers

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D269452

Comment 6

[Phabricator Automation]

firefox-release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Users with recursive bookmark folders encounter browser hangs on macOS 26
• Code covered by automated testing: yes
• Fix verified in Nightly: no
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: Using the Library, copy the Bookmarks Menu folder and paste it inside the Bookmarks Menu folder, creating a recursive structure. Then open the Bookmarks menu in the menubar and keep traversing as deep as you can. With this fix, eventually there should be no more submenu (around 20 levels deep).
  Also try doing a Spotlight search on macOS Tahoe and check if Firefox starts hanging.
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: Relatively small fix
• String changes made/needed: no
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 7

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

Attachment: Bug 1995621 - Enforce a maximum depth for native menu nesting on macOS. r?#mac-reviewers

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D269452

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/4289e611bcf6
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/88527f87db85

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/a7d024f00837
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/0735d900c60c

Comment 10

[Ada C.]

The issue is verified fixed with Firefox 145.0b6 and Firefox 146.0a1 on macOS 13 ARM and macOS 14.

Comment 11

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

Hello! I have confirmed that with Firefox 144.0, I can open over 24 submenus on the macOS bookmark menu. However, I cannot reproduce the hang by using Spotlight to open Firefox 144.0 or by searching with Spotlight while Firefox 144.0 is open.
I can confirm that I can no longer open more than 19 submenus bookmark folders using the macOS menu with Firefox 144.0.2, 145.0b7, and 146.0a1 (2025-10-27). I also opened all Firefox builds by searching for them in Spotlight and performed additional Spotlight searches while the builds were running, but I didn’t encounter any hangs.

Comment 12

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

Can you confirm which version of macOS you tested with? The hang with Spotlight only occurs on macOS 26 Tahoe. Thanks!

Comment 13

[Alexandru Trif, Desktop Test Engineering [:atrif]]

(In reply to Stephen A Pohl [:spohl] from comment #12)

Can you confirm which version of macOS you tested with? The hang with Spotlight only occurs on macOS 26 Tahoe. Thanks!

Sorry, I tested on macOS Tahoe 26.1. I forgot to add that somehow.

L.E.: I also asked two colleagues, using macOS 26.1 (aarch64) and 26.0.1 (Intel), and they couldn’t reproduce the hang issue while searching with Spotlight with Firefox 144.0 (affected) and with Firefox 144.0.2, 145.0b7, and 146.0a1 (2025-10-27)