517383 - Firefox forgets log-in credentials, passwords, and so forth without being told to when "never remember history" is set under Privacy

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Gavin Stokes]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

Firefox has ceased to retain form data such as log-in credentials.  This appears to be a new problem caused by SnowLeopard.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Do some browsing and visit sites where you log in.
2. Quit Firefox.
3. Relaunch Firefox and return to those sites' log-in pages.
Actual Results:  
None of the fields are ever populated.

Expected Results:  
My credentials should be in those fields.

"Remember passwords" is ON.  This is happening on multiple systems, all separately wiped with a fresh SnowLeopard installation.

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.12 or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
Also, please consider using the most recent Firefox 4 beta build, your bug may be resolved there.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.13 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.

Comment 3

[Gavin Stokes]

This problem persists.  I filed this, but I also filed a later one for credentials never being retained under OS X Lion.

I've now seen this on two out of two systems that had a fresh Lion install.  The systems were totally wiped, set up with Lion, and had Firefox installed.  They never remembered credentials, even when told to.

I let the last bug lapse because the computer itself went bad and my other one (which was updated SnowLeopard -> Lion) doesn't have the problem.  But I just bought a new system, wiped it, and now encounter the same problem.

Comment 4

[Gavin Stokes]

This problem persists under version 8.0.  I filed this, but I also filed a later one for credentials never being retained under OS X Lion.

I've now seen this on two out of two systems that had a fresh Lion install.  The systems were totally wiped, set up with Lion, and had Firefox installed.  They never remembered credentials, even when told to.

I let the last bug lapse because the computer itself went bad and my other one (which was updated SnowLeopard -> Lion) doesn't have the problem.  But I just bought a new system, wiped it, and now encounter the same problem.

Comment 5

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

What sites are logins not being saved for? We need more details on exactly what you're seeing happen -- plenty of other people are using Lion without this issue, so we need to figure out what's happening for you.

See also https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox:Password_Manager_Debugging, and attach output here.

Comment 6

[Gavin Stokes]

Log-in info wasn't saved for any site.  GMail, Hotmail, forums... whatever.

BUT: I discovered what the problem is.  If you select "never remember history" under Privacy, Firefox invisibly activates "private browsing mode".  It doesn't show the user that this mode has been activated, and it goes beyond not remembering history.  This probably accounts for a great many of these bug reports.

The chosen settings are only shown if you select "use custom settings"; activating "remember search and form history" solves the problem.

It's really a UI bug; I'll file a new one and refer back to this one.  The settings should always be shown, regardless of what the user selects in the History drop-down list.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Is this bug and bug 701246 still needed?

privacy options description is
"Nightly will remember your browsing, download, form and search history, and keep cookies from websites you visit"


(In reply to Gavin Stokes from comment #6)
>...
> It's really a UI bug; I'll file a new one and refer back to this one.  The
> settings should always be shown, regardless of what the user selects in the
> History drop-down list.

this was filed as bug 701246, but for some odd reason the "see also" field was not populated

Comment 8

[Javi Rueda :javirid]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, use Needinfo for questions) from comment #7)
> Is this bug and bug 701246 still needed?
> 
> privacy options description is
> "Nightly will remember your browsing, download, form and search history, and
> keep cookies from websites you visit"
> 
> 
> (In reply to Gavin Stokes from comment #6)
> >...
> > It's really a UI bug; I'll file a new one and refer back to this one.  The
> > settings should always be shown, regardless of what the user selects in the
> > History drop-down list.
> 
> this was filed as bug 701246, but for some odd reason the "see also" field
> was not populated

I have just commented in bug 701246, Wayne.

On the other side, I have not experienced this particular issue with my own installation of Firefox on Mac OS X.

(In reply to Gavin Stokes from comment #6)
> 
> BUT: I discovered what the problem is.  If you select "never remember
> history" under Privacy, Firefox invisibly activates "private browsing mode".
> It doesn't show the user that this mode has been activated, and it goes
> beyond not remembering history.  This probably accounts for a great many of
> these bug reports.
> 

See my comment in bug 701246, Gavin. I think it has been fixed.

Comment 9

[Gavin Stokes]

Thanks for the info.