528856 - Copy Url & Close Firefox. Paste does not work

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Private Browsing, defect)

Description

[Roy Hawker]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091016 Firefox/3.5.4 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091016 Firefox/3.5.4 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

When copying the URL from the address bar, then closing the firefox window, then attempting to paste - whether its a text document or Internet Explorer, nothing happens - it is as if Firefox somehow cleared its entries from the clipboard.

I noticed this in Linux a while ago but thaught this was standard behaviour because it happens with other apps too. I don't remeber having this problem with Firefox 2 on Windows though.

BTW This also applies to xp64.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
From Windows XP x86:
1. Open Firefox
2. Type http://www.mozilla.org in the address bar
3. Press enter (if you want)
4. Select all the text in the address bar and copy (ctrl+c)
5. Close Firefox
6. Create and open a text document from your Desktop (use the right-clic k context menu and navigate to "New" -> "Text Document")
7. Paste the copied text (ctrl+p)
Actual Results:  
Nothing - the text copied earlier has gone.

Expected Results:  
The copied text successfully pastes into the new text document.

Note that the copy and paste works OK as long as the Firefox browser has not closed.

I've also tested this with multiple browser windows open - all browser windows have to be closed for the paste to fail.

Comment 1

[Kevin Brosnan]

Works for me - Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091114 Minefield/3.7a1pre

The Linux bug is bug 327294.

Comment 2

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Do you see the same with a new profile: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Comment 3

[Roy Hawker]

It works when after creating and using a new profile.

I consistantly have this problem on all 3 machines I use at home and the 1 at work.

Two things it could be:

 - Firefox update is corrupting the profile.
 - Firefox settings - maybe it is the privacy settings

I will mess around a little more and comment again if I can work out what the problem is.

Thanks for the comments.

Comment 4

[Roy Hawker]

Hi,

It is the "Automatically start Firefox in private browsing session" checkbox under privacy settings causing the issue - I think this feature should clearly indicate copy-paste is cleared as well as history or just have a seperate option.

It should be documented too - http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Private+Browsing

Cheers.

Comment 5

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091124 Minefield/3.7a1pre

Confirmed, I can reproduce this.

Comment 6

[(no longer active)]

Yes, this happens by design, because Firefox is clearing the clipboard after the private session is finished (e.g., by closing Firefox), in order to prevent the copied data to be able to get abused without the user's knowledge.