354200 - Updating extensions on startup causes Firefox to lose session restore information

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[Derek Groothuis]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060821 Firefox/2.0b2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060821 Firefox/2.0b2

When FireFox asks to update Add-Ons on startup, it loses "session" information (i.e., "Restore Windows and Tabs From Last Time").  This appears to occur even if you do not choose to install the update when asked.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Open FireFox when there is an extension update, and you have a previously saved session.
2.  Either install or cancel the update.
3.  Your previous session will be lost.




As a note - I am marking this as Critical, because (as a heavy user of the former SessionSaver extension) I tend to keep my "top of mind" tabs always open in a few windows.  Losing these tabs is very disruptive, since they can be very difficult to reproduce (it's hard to find them in the browser history, since they could be several days old, or older). 

(As a note - one thing that Session Saver had that was *exceptionally* useful was an ability to restore the last couple of sessions even if SessionSaver itself didn't restore it on startup.  It would be great if that was eventually made available - either as an extension of the built-in functionality, or as an add-on.)

Comment 1

[Adam Guthrie]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 353592 ***

Comment 2

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

This is not a dupe of bug 353592. That bug is very specific to Mac (see comment #2).

Comment 3

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

I believe the best way to fix this is to fix Bug 347585. We shouldn't have windows open on startup if at all possible.

Comment 4

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I believe the best way to fix this is to fix Bug 347585. We shouldn't have
> windows open on startup if at all possible.
> 

Hey Rob, how would this fix the session-restore problem?

Also, this is not yet confirmed. I've been through extension updates before and WFM. I'll see if I can reproduce w/ the nightly.

Comment 5

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

(In reply to comment #4)
I misread updating extension as extension update (e.g. the window shown on startup when there are updates) *robert shouldn't comment in bugs at 3 AM*

btw: I've also been through extension update without losing session info.

Comment 6

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> I misread updating extension as extension update (e.g. the window shown on
> startup when there are updates) *robert shouldn't comment in bugs at 3 AM*
> 
> btw: I've also been through extension update without losing session info.
> 

i think you read correctly. i just don't know enough about the startup extension update process to know how bug 347585 would fix this problem.

Comment 7

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

The notification widget in bug 347585 would remove the need to display the available updates during startup and updates would be no different than using the restart button in the add-ons mgr. when installing a new extension.

Comment 8

[Jackie Liu]

I find using a current nightly build that the update system seems to broken in itself, which prevents me from testing this bug.  I have filed a bug about it: Bug 354408

Comment 9

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

This has to do with extension update and not software update so this should not prevent testing this bug.

Comment 10

[Simon Bünzli]

I've now tested this both with quit&start/restart and with installing/skipping the update, and in all cases the session is resumed as expected.

Derek: Can you reproduce this behavior on a clean profile? This might rather be due to an incompatible extension. In any case, please use Firefox 2.0 RC1 or a more recent nightly build for testing.

Comment 11

[Jackie Liu]

Somehow, Firefox asked me to update an extension on startup.  My session was restored as expected.  WORKSFORME.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

failed for me _big_ time - lost a lot of work, a dozen windows each with several tabs worth of sessions. 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20061017 Minefield/3.0a1

I picked "skip" when asked to update 2 extensions during start thinking that might be safer, less likely to bomb session restore, than picking update. Guess I was wrong.

Extensions - nightly tester tools

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Simon, what extension(s) did you use to test?

Comment 14

[Simon Bünzli]

(In reply to comment #13)
E.g. Adblock Plus, Download Statusbar, Fission, Greasemonkey, Mouse Gestures, Scrapbook - i.e. all extensions I happen to use and got updated during the past few months. That's however with Bon Echo nightlies, although I don't see why trunk nightlies should behave differently.

(In reply to comment #12)
> Extensions - nightly tester tools

And which else (i.e. for which 2 extension were you offered updates and what other extensions were you using at that point)?

Furthermore, are you able to reproduce this issue on a clean profile with only one extension installed?

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #14)
> (In reply to comment #13)
> E.g. Adblock Plus, Download Statusbar, Fission, Greasemonkey, Mouse Gestures,
> Scrapbook - i.e. all extensions I happen to use and got updated during the past
> few months. That's however with Bon Echo nightlies, although I don't see why
> trunk nightlies should behave differently.

*during startup* did FF specifically prompt you to skip or install?


> (In reply to comment #12)
> > Extensions - nightly tester tools
> 
> And which else (i.e. for which 2 extension were you offered updates 

*Aging Tabs 0.4.3
*NoScript 1.1.4.5.061030 [DISABLED]

> and what other extensions were you using at that point)?

Nightly TT Add-on compatibility checking is disabled

ChatZilla 0.9.75
Copy Links 0.1.3
Copy URL + 1.3.2
del.icio.us 1.1
DOM Inspector 1.9a1
Furl Tools 0.6 [DISABLED]
JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87
Linky 2.7.1
Nightly Tester Tools 1.2
Restart Firefox 0.3
superT 0.7.9 [DISABLED]
Tab Mix 0.1.2a [DISABLED]
Tab Sidebar 1.0.2 [DISABLED]
Talkback 3.0a1

Also I don't specifically recall getting the profile selection prompt during startup - though I wouldn't swear to it.


> Furthermore, are you able to reproduce this issue on a clean profile with only
> one extension installed?

I have not done a clean profile.  for me the key to this bug is the skip prompt and I have not been successful in getting that to appear on demand.  in my current config, extensions.update.enabled=true, extensions.update.notifyuser=false

how does one cause the skip prompt?  

Robert, do you have expertise in this area?

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

p.s. my method of shutdown for restart was to kill firefox.exe via windows task manager, which I have done numerous times with dozens of tabs in multiple windows. this simulates a crash of FF so I should get all my open tabs back. 

Comment 17

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

note: opened bug 366777 to track all bugs that would be fixed by moving extension update notification out of startup

Comment 18

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

reporter wrote 1/5/07 "I haven't seen it recently"

Comment 19

[Dmitry Semyonov]

I've just been hit by the issue :(

I usually right-click on the proposed add-on update and select 'Visit Home Page' before installing it. So I did today when FF asked me if I want to install an update before starting the browser. Then I examined add-on page, closed FF window with this page, and selected to install updated add-on. After that FF proposed to restore the last session - yes, of course, - and it restored add-on home page instead of the real session with multiple tabs.

As somebody noted above, no chance to find lost pages in history because they were opened a few weeks ago.

Comment 20

[Simon Bünzli]

Derek, Wayne: Have you ever again been able to reproduce this issue? If not, please resolve this bug as WORKSFORME.

(In reply to comment #19)
> I've just been hit by the issue :(

Probably not - that's rather bug 361129 which will be "fixed" for Firefox 2.0.0.8 (by preventing you from opening the extension's homepage).

Comment 21

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

i would not be in favor of closing unless there was a likely bug which fixed this.  I haven't run trunk for months so rarely crash and what extensions I do run almost never need update - a long way of saying I'm not a good candidate to say the problem went away.

Comment 22

[Jeremy Baron]

Likely dupe: Bug 413302.

Comment 24

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

FWIW, I think Derek (reporter) is gone

Comment 25

[Simon Bünzli]

Closing this bug as WORKSFORME as AFAICT it's never been reported on a release version at all, and without actual steps to reproduce it's pretty much impossible to do anything about it (no way to tell if it's been fixed).

Please reopen, should you ever happen to encounter it again on Firefox 3, and try to describe in more details what happened precisely.