516450 - "import" option is disabled during private browsing

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

Description

[Daniel Desira]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20090820 Minefield/3.7a1pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20090820 Minefield/3.7a1pre

The "Import" and "Clear Private Data" option cannot be clicked if private browsing mode is activated.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Press Ctrl+Shift+P in order to activate private browsing mode.
2.Click the "File" or "Tools" menu.
3.You`ll notice that both "Import" and "Clear Private Data" won`t work.
Actual Results:  
"Import" and "Clear Private Browsing" cannot work.

Expected Results:  
"Import" and "Clear Private Browsing" must be usable during a private browsing session too.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

I don't think import should be usable.

about CRH there is Bug 463607, so this could be duped there if import behavior is expected.

Comment 2

[Daniel Desira]

Sorry for the double bug report then, but the import function can still be useful.

What if the user sets Firefox to automatically start private browsing?

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

you are trying to import things into an ethereal space, that's why i'm not sure if it's a useful case to support.

Comment 4

[(no longer active)]

Morphing to only cover the Import case.

I also don't think that the Import menu item is much needed inside private browsing mode.  We could implement it if we need it, but let's first hear Alex's point of view on this.

Comment 5

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>Sorry for the double bug report then, but the import function can still be
>useful.
>
>What if the user sets Firefox to automatically start private browsing?
>
>>you are trying to import things into an ethereal space, that's why i'm not sure
>>if it's a useful case to support.

Private browsing mode impacts history that is implicitly collected, while import is about a mixture of everything, including bookmarks (user data that explicitly created), so it's hard to make a clear logical determination of it we should block it or not.

Overall I'm fine with keeping things the way they are.  It seems like we should fall on the side of less data being added into Firefox (including history from other browsers) when the user is in private browsing mode.

Comment 6

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

I think this bug can be closed out based on Comment 5.