618236 - The first tab occasionally refuses to close and does not change the icon in the tab title

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike D.]

User-Agent:       Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.6.30 Version/10.63
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0E)

The first tab in Firefox does not indicate it is loading a new page with the spinning circle icon at the top. It also will not close. It doesn't matter if I refresh the page, go to a different site. I click the 'X' button or right click and say to close and it just stays there like I didn't do anything. The tab stays until I close Firefox. There are no error messages that I have seen.

It is difficult to say if this always happens from the instant it starts or if it happens a bit after because I often leave the first tab open and I don't always notice if it shows the page is loading. It also doesn't happen every time and I haven't been able to figure out the common circumstances. Though I know for a fact I have seen it have the issue from the instant I opened it.

I think I may have started noticing this when I began using a SOCKS5 proxy setup, but again I'm not completely positive of that. I only use firefox with the proxy these days, but if I get a chance soon I will try to test it without the proxy to see if that is really a mitigating factor.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start Firefox
2. Homepage loads. Click to go somewhere.
2a. May have to browse a bit?
3. Tab does not indicate page loading and will not close until all of firefox is closed.
Actual Results:  
Everything browses normally. It is just disconcerting not to see the page loading, sometimes I am unsure if I have mis-clicked and missed the link or something. (yay whiskey.) It is also VERY annoying that I cannot close it. All other tabs show their loading icons and close like normal.

Expected Results:  
The tab to show a spinning circle loading icon and to be able to close the tab.

Again, it may have something to do with using a proxy. I am using a SOCKS5 proxy (no authentication) that is really an SSH tunnel setup locally (on the loopback) in PuTTy. The proxy does not seem adversely effected by this situation (e.g. it doesn't die or slow down when this happens).

Comment 1

[Jay]

I experienced the same symptoms today (unable to close tab, no loading indicator) after updating to 3.6.13.  In my case, it was the tab that showed the release notes that was not working properly.

Comment 2

[Mike D.]

More info:

It isn't actually the case that it refuses to show the loading icon (spinning dots) on the tab window that refuses to close (always the first one). I have no experienced it showing the error icon (the yellow triangle with an exclamation point) and also showing the loading icon (spinning dots) even when the page is not loading. It appears it simply is not changing the icon at all.

I know the error icon happened after my proxy had died and I got a "proxy refused connection" error. Once I reconnected to the proxy the error symbol never went away from the tab title. I am not sure what happened to make the loading icon never go away.

Comment 3

[Mike D.]

Also, when the icons didn't change (error & loading ones I mentioned in the previous comment) the tab still would not close leading me to believe it is all part of the same bug.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, Firefox 4.0.1 has been released, and it features significant improvements over previous releases. Can you please update to Firefox 4.0.1 or later, and retest your bug? Please also create a fresh profile (
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles), update your plugins (Flash, Java, Quicktime, Reader, etc) and update your graphics driver and Operating system to the latest versions available. 

If you still continue to see this issue, please comment. If you do not, please close this bug as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME

filter: prefirefox4uncobugs

Comment 5

[Ursan Marius Bogdan]

Windows XP SP2 running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0a2) Gecko/20120307 Firefox/12.0a2, i don`t experience tab issues with this version. You should upgrade your browser Mike and try again.