2019267 - Firefox Enterprise crash automatically restarts browser along with the crash reporter

Status: NEW

(Firefox Enterprise :: Client, defect)

Description

[Peter Magyari (Desktop QA)]

Attachment: auto-restart-post-crash.mp4

Found in

• Firefox Enterprise 149.0a1 (2026-02-21)

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: Windows 10/11, MacOS 15.7.4, Ubuntu 24.04

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Firefox Enterprise and log in using valid credentials.
2. Crash Firefox Enterprise by navigating to "about:crashparent".

Expected result

• Firefox Enterprise crashes, and the user is presented with the crash reporter.

Actual result

• Firefox Enterprise crashes and the crash reporter appears but the browser is also automatically restarted.

Additional notes

• If you click restart from crash reporter it opens a new window. Clicking quit won't close the window that opened automatically post-crash.

Comment 2

[jmendez]

Attachment: Proposed UI for crash reporter in Firefox Enterprise with Ok button instead of Restart Firefox and Quit Firefox

Regarding expected behavior, Firefox Enterprise currently has intentionally implemented behavior to automatically restart in case of a browser crash. I've implemented a change to the dialog to have an "Ok" button instead of "Restart Firefox" and "Quit Firefox". Tagging :gerard-majax in case he has information on the decision to restart Firefox Enterprise.

Comment 3

[:gerard-majax]

(In reply to jmendez from comment #2)

Created attachment 9549293 [details]
Proposed UI for crash reporter in Firefox Enterprise with Ok button instead of Restart Firefox and Quit Firefox

Regarding expected behavior, Firefox Enterprise currently has intentionally implemented behavior to automatically restart in case of a browser crash. I've implemented a change to the dialog to have an "Ok" button instead of "Restart Firefox" and "Quit Firefox". Tagging :gerard-majax in case he has information on the decision to restart Firefox Enterprise.

I am not sure exactly what you are asking here. Do you think we should reconsider the automatic restart by FELT on crash of the browser?

Comment 4

[:gerard-majax]

If we let crash reporter restart the browser, I think that the FELT code that own/tracks the browser's execution will just loose it.
Said otherwise, we would have the browser running, I am not sure this browser would have the correct -felt xxx socket for communicating with FELT, and all the code https://searchfox.org/enterprise-main/rev/99a46e7a0f14cedf810ba2e8ef375e884d3dc4bf/browser/extensions/felt/content/FeltProcessParent.sys.mjs#286-366 would not have control over that re-executed browser from the crash reporter

Comment 5

[jmendez]

(In reply to :gerard-majax from comment #3)

(In reply to jmendez from comment #2)

Created attachment 9549293 [details]
Proposed UI for crash reporter in Firefox Enterprise with Ok button instead of Restart Firefox and Quit Firefox

Regarding expected behavior, Firefox Enterprise currently has intentionally implemented behavior to automatically restart in case of a browser crash. I've implemented a change to the dialog to have an "Ok" button instead of "Restart Firefox" and "Quit Firefox". Tagging :gerard-majax in case he has information on the decision to restart Firefox Enterprise.

I am not sure exactly what you are asking here. Do you think we should reconsider the automatic restart by FELT on crash of the browser?

No, I was hoping that you would be able to point to a bug/decision, because this bug was filed by QA with outdated expected behavior; my hope was to document the new expected behavior for QA to be updated. It may be that there is no "official" documentation via a bug or document, but I guessed if there was, you would know about it. Otherwise, our comments here will have to suffice?

Comment 6

[:gerard-majax]

I cannot remember a document, but it does not means there is none. We discussed it for sure with Matthew during the workweek, maybe he has a better recollection of that?

Comment 7

[Enterprise UX]

My understanding is based on the criteria written in the scope document.

If a crash occurs and we are able to open the browser again, we reveal a lightly modified version of the Crash Reporter which will by default send a crash report (but this "mandatory send report" behavior will be controlled by an Admin policy). Even though we auto-send the report, it was agreed that something should be shown to the user to explain what would otherwise look like an impromptu restart with no explanation.

If we are unable to get the browser back due to constant crashes, then we take the user back to FELT where we see the "Firefox Enterprise can’t be launched at this time." Critical messaging over the FELT interface.