449707 - Selecting "clear private data" freezes browser

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[mike hudick]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

In privacy tab of "options" I have selected "clear private data when closing" and "always ask me before clearing". Upon closing browser, dialogue box appears to clear private data. Clicking on "Clear now" freezes the browser (FF3)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Close browser by clicking "X" in upper right of screen
2.browser closes, "clear private data" dialogue box appears
3.click on "clear private data" and browser freezes
Actual Results:  
All windows freeze. Cannot open "task Manager" or close windows by selecting "cancel" of by clicking "X". Eventually, if left alone, the windows will work themselves out but that takes 5 minutes or more

Expected Results:  
In versions 2 of FF, clicking "clear data" did just that. Data was cleared and dialogue box closed

Comment 1

[jecm88]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092417 Firefox/3.0.3

Am having exact same issue. I had set Firefox to clear private data at exit without asking and I thought it was a hang-on-exit problem at first. I followed the standard diagnostic and found that Firefox, as well as my entire operating system (XP SP3), froze for several minutes once I cleared the private data. The same thing happens when I clear the cache.


Steps to reproduce:
1. Tools -> Options -> Privacy
2. Select "Always clear private data when I close Firefox"
3. Make sure "Ask me before clearing private data" is not selected.
4. Close browser by pressing "X"

or 

1 Tools -> Options -> Privacy
2. Hit "Clear Private Data now"

or 

1. Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network
2. Under the "Offline File Storage" section, press "Clear now" to clear the cache.


Expected Results: whatever offline storage is deleted instantly.
Actual Results: Firefox hangs, entire operating system resources are consumed for up to four minutes. Firefox will eventually close, but the system is deadlocked until it does.

Comment 2

[jecm88]

This bug, I believe, actually lies with the COMODO Firewall Pro. I assume that Mike has COMODO Firewall Pro installed on his machine. It turns out that COMODO can collect thousands of invalid files related to Firefox that it keeps in a list of pending files for the user to review. Apparently, this can cause serious problems with the firewall whenever Firefox's cache is cleared using Firefox itself. A solution has been found to this problem at this link:

http://forums.comodo.com/empty-t26409.0.html

If the developers could please suggest that Mozilla research the issue and list COMODO Firewall Pro among a list of programs that can cause problems with Firefox, I'm sure some frustrated users would appreciate it. Feel free to e-mail me if you have comments or questions.

Comment 3

[duanedesign]

This bug was submitted on Launchpad:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/firefox/+bug/311622

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Informal description:
By using the auto-cleaning of personal information feature upon exit in Firefox, sometimes the program cannot terminate correctly. When you click on the close button ("X") the main window closes and the information cleaner window pops up. If you continue with the cleaning procedure there are times when this small window freezes. You have to end the process through Ubuntu's non-responding app dialog in order for the program to exit.

Normalized bug format:
Summary:
Auto-cleaning personal information (cookies, temporary files etc) upon firefox's termination using the built-in feature makes the program to go into non responding state at random times (as it seems by now).
Steps to reproduce:
Bug happens randomly, after browsing for a while, exiting the program and after clicking the confirmation button for clearance of the private information (pop-up window), so no real steps here.
Expected result:
Information are cleared, pop-up window and the program in general ends normally.
Actual result:
Firefox gets into non-responding state, and the pop-up window freezes in place, sometimes the text and buttons disappears and the window becomes just a white rectangle. All of this, after clicking on the confirmation button (ie, when the cleaning process is supposed to be executed).

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to jecm88 from comment #2)
> This bug, I believe, actually lies with the COMODO Firewall Pro....

Mike, is this true? 
And we should mark this as not a firefox bug?

Comment 5

[Phoenix]

Suppose typo in Whiteboard and closing