264209 - Installer should provide options if an old profile is found

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Aaron P]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10.1

When installing FF, it will automatically use an existing profile without even
mentioning that this was done. Many times, users who have problems will
reinstall FF only to find that the exact same problem occurs again (because the
problem was in the profile).

If the installer sees an existing profile, it should pop up a message saying
something like:
"A previous user profile was found. This profile includes personal settings like
bookmarks, passwords, and extensions. Do you wish to use it?"

On that same screen, some options should be given:
1. Yes, use current profile (including extensions, themes)
2. Yes, use current profile (without extensions, themes)
3. No, create new profile

Currently, #1 is what is done automatically without warning.

Personally, I think #2 should be default in that it would copy the important
stuff like bookmarks, passwords, etc without exposing most of the problems
associated with extensions and themes. 

Option #3 should either rename the old profile or simply delete it. I personally
like renaming it since it would keep people from accidentally deleteing their
bookmarks.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install FireFox. 
2. Change a setting or add an extension.
3. Uninstall it.
4. Run installer again.
5. Setting or extension is still there.
Actual Results:  
Installer uses previous profile without asking

Expected Results:  
Installer should give user warning and provide option to not use that profile

Comment 1

[Nitin (vfwlkr)]

This would make it more tedious for upgraders (having to select - yes, use my
existing profile). A better option would be for the uninstaller to offer
deleting the profile.

Comment 2

[MechCommanderRei]

(In reply to comment #1)
> This would make it more tedious for upgraders (having to select - yes, use my
> existing profile). A better option would be for the uninstaller to offer
> deleting the profile.

Hence Bug 234680.

Comment 3

[Aaron P]

vfw: I believe FireFox is moving towards a built-in upgrade process (in which
the user does not have to manually download and install the next version). In
this case, the only people who will need to run the installer are 1) people
installing FF for the first time (which would mean no old profile), 2) people
having problems, or 3) people testing different versions. I'd have to say that
95% of the time, people in #2 and #3 would want to know if it is using a
previous profile.

Comment 4

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

confirmed rfe.

Comment 5

[Mihai Bazon]

I think this is not an uninstaller problem, but not an installer problem either (see bug #234680).

I think Firefox/Mozilla should simply check the profile when started and detect if the last time that profile was used it was with an older browser version, in which case the end-user should be provided with these options:

1: remove the old profile and create a brand new one, or
2: backup (copy?) the old profile and try to use it with the new version

Comment 6

[privacy]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I think Firefox/Mozilla should simply check the profile when started and detect
> if the last time that profile was used it was with an older browser version, 
It would be important to recognize situations where the same version of Firefox is uninstalled and then immediately reinstalled since it is common user pattern when problem occurs.

Comment 7

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

*** Bug 358587 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Firefox and Thunderbird uses a profiles.ini file to determine which profiles are on a system and the installer isn't and doesn't need to be involved in any of this... it can be done entirely by the application just as reading the profiles.ini file is done by the application. Moving to a more appropriate component.