428784 - Session Restore always fails to do anything until second new window is opened, then it restores the session. - (OSX 10.2.8)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[elliot smith]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080311 Firefox/2.0.0.13
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080311 Firefox/2.0.0.13

Please note that I marked this bug as 'security' because it results in the previous session being unexpectedly and suddenly restored right when the user is in the middle of browsing the web.  This could potentially allow an unauthorized user to view the session of a previous user.  E.g. let's say I'm surfing porn on the internet and then later on my pet cat is surfing the web and suddenly my net-fap session is restored right in front of him.  That could be awkward.

When launching the Firefox program, it will give the "session restore" prompt as appropriate.  If you choose not to restore the previous session, the behavior is normal and OK.  If you do choose to restore, what happens is all you get is a single blank new window like you always get, with no tabs. (I have my "home page" set to nothing.) Unfortunately, the session is not restored.  However, if you open a second new window, then all the tabs of the previous session suddenly populate the new window, and the session is restored into that new window.  If you had several windows open in the previous session, then upon restoring the previous session then you must manually open a new window for each window of the previous session to get back all the windows of the previous session.  

When you choose the option to restore the previous session, like I said the previous session is not restored until you open a new window;  you can browse normally for quite a while, and then suddenly when you open a new window - bam - your session starts to restore in that new window.  It is quite confusing and surprising until you figure out why it is doing this.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. open one or more windows and some tabs, load up some web pages in each tab
2. force-quit fire fox with cmd-option-esc
3. re-launch firefox
4. choose the option to restore the previous session
5. nothing happens
6. still nothing
7. nada
8. now open a new window
9. ta da!  there's your session.
Actual Results:  
I cried.

Expected Results:  
not that.

* this has happened for several months since I first noticed it, so, it's been doing this over several different firefox updates.
* could be related to having home page set to about:blank and having 'when firefox starts' set to 'show my home page.
* could be related to having the three 'remember' options unchecked under Privacy.

I also have the following settings:
* new pages should be opened in: a new tab
* when opening /closing multiple tabs, warn me
* always show the tab bar, when I open a link in a new tab switch to it, both not checked.
* also please note that G.W. is currently president in the country where I live I don't know if that is related maybe God just hates me because I almost voted for him last election.

Comment 1

[Simon Bünzli]

Does this still happen, even if you update to the latest version of Firefox 3? If so, does it also happen when launching Firefox in Safe Mode?

Comment 2

[Mark Adams]

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1b2pre) Gecko/20081028 Minefield/3.1b2pre

I tried the procedure below with no issues:
1) Opened several (6) tabs on different web pages.
2) Force quit Firefox
3) Reopened
4) Chose to restore my session

All of my tabs reopened no problem.

WORKSFORME

Comment 3

[Simon Bünzli]

Resolving as INCOMPLETE due to the lack of an answer from Elliot to comment #1.