388239 - Restart of Firefox after Yahoo mail signout = error saying Firefox did not close properly

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Luke]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

I sign out of Yahoo mail properly, using Sign Out option, and close Firefox by clicking on the 'x' at top right of browser. Later (even after turning off computer) when I restart Firefox, I get a Windows error message (sorry, text unavailable) and a Firefox window saying Firefox did not shut down properly last time, which is not true.
I'm given two options: new Firefox session or restart last session. Many times upon clicking the 'restart session' button I end up BACK INSIDE MY MAIL INBOX, and this has happened when someone else was using my computer, twice giving them access to my private webmail.
Please fix!!! This is a serious bug!
Thanks.

Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use mail.yahoo.ca
2. Sign out of mail.
3. Close firefox, then restart.
Actual Results:  
Appears to happen randomly; can't reproduce.

Expected Results:  
Expected a crash, but when I try to reproduce it behaves normally.

I would expect it to return either to the Yahoo mail signup page or my preset browser home page.

Comment 1

[Luke]

UPDATE:

Firefox is error is entitled:
Firefox - Restore Previous session
- Gives two options as described in original report (restore tabs/windows or start new session)


Windows error reads:
Windows cannot find [very long URL of internal Yahoo mail link]. Asks if I typed everything properly and says: To search for a file, click the Start button and then click Search.

P.S. This bug-reporting process is very tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating for non-tech types.

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Storing session cookies as part of session store is intentional (see bug 345345), but it sounds like something's going wrong with Session Store in general for you:

- When the session is restored, it's restored to some point much earlier in your session than when you eventually quit.

- When you start Firefox, it doesn't realize that Firefox exited normally; it thinks Firefox crashed.

Perhaps session store stops recording information at some point?  That would account for both issues.  I don't know what would cause that, though -- perhaps a full disk or an issue with a remote profile?

This bug report doesn't need to be security sensitive because (1) it's at worst a local exploit and (2) it's more likely to cause privacy problems accidentally than intentionally.

Comment 3

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> P.S. This bug-reporting process is very tedious, time-consuming, and
> frustrating for non-tech types.

Yes it is. We tried to head that off with the big yellow "Got a problem?" box on the bugzilla.mozilla.org front page that links to more appropriate resources such as http://www.mozilla.org/support/ -- nine times out of ten they'll tell you your problem has already been reported and have suggestions on how to work around it or fix it, and if it's new they'll be able to file the bug for you.

When the cause is unclear, as in this case, they can ask the questions to get more information.

The "bug" here is that for some reason Firefox thinks it crashed when it didn't. As Jesse notes this probably has something to do with the sessionstore.js file stored in your profile.

The first thing I'd try is to delete those two files when Firefox is not running. Information on finding your "profile" is at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Actually, if you don't mind maybe you could rename them instead -- that way if that solves the problem we still have the evidence of the problem to look at.

If that doesn't clear up the problem you can disable the session restore feature entirely. It involves tweaking internal settings so if you're at all uncomfortable ask for help from the support links. DO NOT change ANY setting other than the ones described below, they can have non-obvious and bad effects if you don't know what you're doing
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore

Comment 4

[timeless]

the easiest way for this to happen is if firefox actually didn't close when you clicked the close button, but instead got stuck and stayed around in memory. that'd result in the failure case you're experiencing.

mote that there's a clear private data option in the tools menu. if you're more paranoid than interested in helping us solve the problem, you should try it. (if it doesn't work, definitely mention that here, if you are still able to semi regularly reproduce this problem w/o that item and never with that item, please indicate that here as swell).

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

I wouldn't expect Clear Private Data to help here given comment 2 paragraph 4.  Bug 389126 also suggests that Clear Private Data won't help.

Comment 6

[Simon Bünzli]

One known reason to cause this is bug 351551. To rule this out, please make sure that there are no numbered sessionstore-#.js files in your profile folder.

(In reply to comment #1)
> Windows cannot find [very long URL of internal Yahoo mail link].

That's bug 371031, probably in combination with bug 342885 resp. bug 333907 (which could even be responsible for some of the unexpected crashes).

(In reply to comment #5)
> Bug 389126 also suggests that Clear Private Data won't help.

That's fortunately a pretty much unrelated issue.

Comment 7

[Nnamdi]

I have a similar problem, when i sign out of yahoo mail beta from my firefox 1. browser, most times i get a windows message that tells me that windows is closing a non-responsive program, send or don't send message. This i have noticed happens arbitrarily.

Comment 8

[Nnamdi]

I have a similar problem, when i sign out of yahoo mail beta from my firefox 2.0.0.11 (with firebug, IE, web developer and fire-ftp extensions) browser, most times i get a windows message that tells me that windows is closing a non-responsive program (firefox), send or don't send message. This i have noticed happens arbitrarily and somethings after a signout from my yahoo box and i visit my box it opens to my inbox straight.

Comment 9

[Simon Bünzli]

There's nothing Session Restore related in this bug that isn't already covered by different bugs (see comment #6). Moving to Firefox:General for retriaging the remaining crash issue.

Comment 10

[u88484]

This bug was reported using a version of Firefox that security and stability updates are no longer provided for.  All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3 by selecting 'Check for Updates' in the Help menu or by going to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

If you can no longer reproduce this bug using the latest Firefox 3.0.x version, please change the status of this bug to 'RESOLVED' 'WORKSFORME'.

If you can still reproduce this bug, please provide additional details to help resolve this issue.

Comment 11

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please reply if you can still reproduce this bug with Firefox 3.5.3 or later in a new profile with the latest plugins (flash, quicktime, java, etc.).