533456 - With closeWindowWithLastTab set to false a window with only a blank tab open will not be added to the "Recently Closed Windows" menu

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Menus, defect, P3)

Description

[iwill]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; zh-CN; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; zh-CN; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5

Set closeWindowWithLastTab = false and then close all the tabs, close window and open again, then the "Recently Closed Tabs" will be empty. 
But if there is any tab is not closed when I close the window, it will not happen. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set closeWindowWithLastTab = false; 
2. Close all the tabs; 
3. Close the window; 
4. Open the Firefox again. 
Actual Results:  
The "Recently Closed Tabs" will be empty. 

Expected Results:  
The "Recently Closed Tabs" should not be empty.

Comment 1

[iwill]

I disabled all the addons and used the default theme, but it still occurs.

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

The real problem we face here is that when closing a window with only a blank tab open it doesn't get added to the "Recently Closed Windows" menu under history. When you have had only one window open and restart Firefox you will not get the same window for sure and that's why you cannot reopen recently closed tabs.

Updates steps:
1. Set closeWindowWithLastTab to false
2. Open two windows
3. Press Ctrl/Cmd+W in the second window
4. Close the second window by clicking the close button
5. Check the history menu

I will raise the severity to critical because doing those steps will cause dataloss. But due to it can only be reproduced after modifying a hidden pref I will not ask for blocking3.6. CC'ing Paul who worked on the implementation of that feature.

Comment 3

[Paul O'Shannessy [:zpao] (not bugmail, email directly)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I will not ask for blocking3.6.
Definitely not blocking.

For reference, this is due to bug 490040. We really just need to refine what we classify as a window that is eligible for reopening. One of my patches in bug 490040 has windows with closed tabs being eligible, but that came out.

Comment 4

[iwill]

(In reply to comment #2)
> The real problem we face here is that when closing a window with only a blank
> tab open it doesn't get added to the "Recently Closed Windows" menu under
> history. When you have had only one window open and restart Firefox you will
> not get the same window for sure and that's why you cannot reopen recently
> closed tabs.
> 
> Updates steps:
> 1. Set closeWindowWithLastTab to false
> 2. Open two windows
> 3. Press Ctrl/Cmd+W in the second window
> 4. Close the second window by clicking the close button
> 5. Check the history menu
> 
> I will raise the severity to critical because doing those steps will cause
> dataloss. But due to it can only be reproduced after modifying a hidden pref I
> will not ask for blocking3.6. CC'ing Paul who worked on the implementation of
> that feature.

I always use only one window, I think this is a familiar habit. 
Open a window, close the window, open a window: Now, I do not know which this window is, I know it is Firefox only, the only Firefox. 

So, the following two behaviors are very strange to me. 
A. 
1. Open a window; 
2. Open some tabes; 
3. Close some tabs but retain the some other tabs; 
4. Close the window; 
5. Open Firefox. 
Then I can get the "Recently Closed Tabs". 
B. 
Change the step 3 only, "Close all the tabs and retain a blank tab". 
Then I can not get any thing.

Comment 5

[iwill]

(In reply to comment #3)
> (In reply to comment #2)
> > I will not ask for blocking3.6.
> Definitely not blocking.
> 
> For reference, this is due to bug 490040. We really just need to refine what we
> classify as a window that is eligible for reopening. One of my patches in bug
> 490040 has windows with closed tabs being eligible, but that came out.

A window, without any not-blank tab, without any closed tab, with only a blank tab and the tab has not history. 
I think ONLY this kind of window can be lost.

Comment 6

[Paul O'Shannessy [:zpao] (not bugmail, email directly)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> A window, without any not-blank tab, without any closed tab, with only a blank
> tab and the tab has not history. 
> I think ONLY this kind of window can be lost.

So your proposing that we expand the list of eligible windows from:
* windows with more than 1 tab
* windows with 1 non-blank tab

and add in:
* windows with 1 non-blank tab with closed tabs

I think I agree but the UX get's a little tricky. I brought this up in bug 490040 and it's why I didn't do it. Does that window get restored blank? Or do we reopen the last closed tab?

There's also bug 495123 where it's argued that if you close all tabs but a blank one, it's expected that you're done with that window.

And then another point I brought up in bug 490040 (which is more tangentially related) - what happens when you attach a the lone tab (from window X) into another window (window Y). You just lost all the recently closed tabs from window X. Do we merge them with window Y?

Comment 7

[iwill]

(In reply to comment #6)
About these, maybe it is not strict: 
> * windows with more than 1 tab 
    but may be all the tabs are blank, they can be lost 
> * windows with 1 non-blank tab 
    this should be "windows with any non-blank tab", maybe more than one 
> * windows with 1 non-blank tab with closed tabs 
    this should be "windows with ANY BLANK tab with closed tabs" 
AND 
* windows with any blank tab which has history 
    eg: browse some pages in a tab, and then type "about:blank" in the address bar, 
    it is a blank tab, but it has history, so maybe it is useful 

But, the rules are really intricate, I think simple is very important. 

When Firefox starts: 
If I set "Show my home page", just show the home page every time; 
If I set "Show blank page", just show a blank page every time; 
In these two cases, when I close the window with some non-blank tabs, I will be asked whether save the tabs, 
you are afraid I loss something important, that is fine. 

But, actually I set "Show my window and tabs from last time". 
So, I would like that, when I open a window I can see what I have closed last time, 
although maybe it is only a blank tab, I will not surprised. 

Besides, you consider a window can be lost and then give me a new window with the home page in a tab .... 
you have made lots of judgements to do this, thanks for your hard working :) 
But, it is really not helpful to me, and I lost my Recently Closed Tabs, they are imoportant sometimes. 

> Or do we reopen the last closed tab?
Yeah! Just what I closed, because I set "Show my window and tabs from last time". 

> Do we merge them with window Y? 
Yeah, I think that is the best solution, because I will not loss any thing -- although I have never and will never use this function. 

What do you think about?

Comment 8

[Karma]

Hi. I'm pretty a newbie here at bugzilla, so please forgive me if I don't know very much how it works. I experienced this bug, here my footsteps:

1. Set closeWindowWithLastTab to false
2. Open two windows
3. Open some tabs in window 2, then close all these tabs
4. Close the window 2 by clicking the close button
5. In the history menu of window 1 there is no reference to the recently closed window 2

It seems just the same you are talking about. Is anybody working on a fix, to date?

Comment 9

[Andrei Purice]

Hey Paul,
Does this bug still stand? Is the issue here not somewhat expected? I tried testing this with and without the pref set and the recently closed tabs show no links because after doing all the steps required you basically close an empty tab at the end which can't be shown as recent activity or am I mistaking?
Also once you close Firefox and re-open it, doesn't it count as a new session in which you didn't view any of said tabs. As long as FF isn't closed the tabs can be seen in recently closed tabs and the windows as well.

Comment 10

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Redirect a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user to the triage owner.
:jaws, since the bug has high severity, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 11

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Setting severity to N/A, since this is hit via a non-default setting that can only be set via about:config.

Comment 12

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:mhowell, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.