628014 - Pop-up is blocked even when pop-ups are allowed

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[David Smith]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 SearchToolbar/1.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 SearchToolbar/1.2

I have used two sites so far that have had pop-ups blocked (one is my bank so I can't really show you that one; the other is a credit card application for Citibank).  I checked the Blocker and made sure it was unchecked.  I continue to receive the message:  "Firefox prevented this page from automatically redirecting to another page"


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to this website:     https://www.accountonline.com/cards/acq/Apply.do?app=UNSOL&sc=4T3ZJX50&m=ZCJKMDQ48ZW&langId=EN&siteId=CB&B=M&screenID=3000&uc=A95&t=t&link=Consumer_568416151&ProspectID=CEC6B324ED0F4974B34812F22D48B401
2.  It immediately shows the message "Firefox prevented this page from automatically redirecting to another page"
3.  Even after clicking on "ALLOW", it gives me the same message.
Actual Results:  
https://www.accountonline.com/cards/acq/Apply.do?app=UNSOL&sc=4T3ZJX50&m=ZCJKMDQ48ZW&langId=EN&siteId=CB&B=M&screenID=3000&uc=A95&t=t&link=Consumer_568416151&ProspectID=CEC6B324ED0F4974B34812F22D48B401

Expected Results:  
The pop-up should have been displayed.

Comment 1

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

This is not a security issue. Opening bug.

David, is this specific to this one site, or have you seen this elsewhere as well?

Comment 2

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Does this happen when using safe-mode? That will temporarily disable your add-ons in case they are interfering with this.

Comment 3

[David Smith]

(In reply to comment #1)
> This is not a security issue. Opening bug.
> 
> David, is this specific to this one site, or have you seen this elsewhere as
> well?

This also happens when I go to NetFlix.com (which is in my Allowed Sites Pop-up tab under Tools/Options).

Comment 4

[David Smith]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Does this happen when using safe-mode? That will temporarily disable your
> add-ons in case they are interfering with this.

It also is happening in Safe Mode.

Comment 5

[David Smith]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Does this happen when using safe-mode? That will temporarily disable your
> add-ons in case they are interfering with this.


I also tried the same sites while using I.E. and Google Chrome.  I had no problems with those browsers, so it does not appear to be a problem on my end.

Comment 6

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

David, what you're seeing here has AFAICT nothing to do with *popup* blocking. You're seeing Firefox prevent an automatic network redirect, and that AFAICT has nothing to do with *popup* blocking.

My guess is that this is a bad interaction between Firefox and some other software on your system, or a proxy setting, or something along those lines.

Comment 7

[JLR]

This happens to me as well when attempting to use the Amazon Web Services S3 Console.

Is it happening because the popup is loading a different URL? (Yes, URL, not URI.) The page is https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/home, but it's attempting to open a pop-up with a URI like https://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket/file.ext. Notice that the URL is different.

I'll attach screenshots.

Comment 8

[JLR]

Attachment: An example of when the pop-up blocker blocks when it is already set to allow.

Here I'm double-clicking a wile in the AWS S3 console, which opens the file in a new window (a pop-up). I had already told Firefox to allow pop-ups from the AWS S3 Console. This is apparent because the context menu now shows the option as "Block pop-ups..." Firefox should not be blocking these pop-ups.

Worse yet, it was allowing me to open quite a few without being blocked. Then after about ten pop-ups, it suddenly started blocking them, despite my having explicitly allowed them. This inconsistent behavior is confusing. Does Firefox use a threshold?

Comment 9

[JLR]

Finally,

Version: 	4.0
Platform: 	x86 Windows XP

Comment 10

[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 11

[John Howland]

I am using Firefox 12.0 and have received this problem with several web sites.

Currently I have the issue with both Insight Global time tracking (https://www.insightglobal.net/extern/cmain.php?command=list) and ADP. I have granted both domains permission to open windows/allow pop-ups and have restarted my browser several times since. With both sites, once the activity I am doing is completed, Firefox always blocks going to the next page until I click the status line at the top of the window.

I don't have this issue with either IE or Chrome so it's not my system. Other sites I have also granted permission to open pop-ups will typically briefly show the Firefox blocked a pop-up window and then opens the window blocked before I can do anything.

Comment 12

[John Howland]

(In reply to John Howland from comment #11)
> I am using Firefox 12.0 and have received this problem with several web
> sites.
> 
> Currently I have the issue with both Insight Global time tracking
> (https://www.insightglobal.net/extern/cmain.php?command=list) and ADP. I
> have granted both domains permission to open windows/allow pop-ups and have
> restarted my browser several times since. With both sites, once the activity
> I am doing is completed, Firefox always blocks going to the next page until
> I click the status line at the top of the window.
> 
> I don't have this issue with either IE or Chrome so it's not my system.
> Other sites I have also granted permission to open pop-ups will typically
> briefly show the Firefox blocked a pop-up window and then opens the window
> blocked before I can do anything.

Seems to be connected to PHP pages executing scripts as that is a common factor between InsightGlobal and ADP.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I don't see item 2 of comment 1 using current nightly build

can you reproduce using current version or current nightly build?

Comment 14

[JLR]

I can no longer reproduce the defect from my comments 7-9. I'm using FF 16.0.2 on XP SP3 x86.

Cheers.

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to John Howland from comment #12)
> (In reply to John Howland from comment #11)
> > I am using Firefox 12.0 and have received this problem with several web
> > sites.
> > 
> > Currently I have the issue with both Insight Global time tracking
> > (https://www.insightglobal.net/extern/cmain.php?command=list) and ADP. I

page is gone

John, have you seen this issue in recent years?

Comment 16

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard

Comment 17

[WBT]

I am encountering this issue again. To test the high-load behavior of a web application, where the bar for what triggers a "high load" condition has been set intentionally low enough to be overcome by one browser, I have a script that generates a whole bunch of popup windows. This script is embedded in a page which is specifically on the popup blocker whitelist, AND the popup blocker is then turned off completely. When run, most popups are permitted, but a small fraction of them do get blocked, with the information bar alert saying that the browser prevented the site from opening <n> popup windows, similar to what was shown by OP. Each popup waits for the page to load, then waits some additional time (e.g. 1 sec) and then closes itself, so the total number of open tabs does not get too high (remains <100). The fraction of blocked popups is small - I haven't measured but I think it's <1%. In most cases, there is a time-gap (built into the script) between opening new tabs, but processing delays sometimes lead to two tabs opening in quicker succession and this seems to increase the probability of a block. If there are a higher number of dead tabs open (page did not load correctly due to non-robust high-load behavior, so the tab did not close itself) and/or if the script has been running for a longer period of time, this also seems to increase the probability.

Unfortunately I can't share the original script set here, but it should be replicable with the description.

Somewhere in the code, there is definitely still pop-up blocking happening even when the pop-up blocker is disabled and all popups should be allowed.

Comment 18

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

In the process of migrating remaining bugs to the new severity system, the severity for this bug cannot be automatically determined. Please retriage this bug using the new severity system.

Comment 19

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hi WBT,

I think the original reporter may have been confusing redirect blocking with popup blocking - at least, based on the original comment 0 and screenshot. What you're reporting in comment 17 sounds different from the original report, and should probably get filed as a new bug.

Also, it is unfortunate that you cannot provide the example script that reproduces the issue - are you able to provide some small pieces of it?

Comment 20

[WBT]

@MikeConley I unfortunately cannot provide that example script that led to observing the issue, but think it is described in sufficient detail so as to permit re-creation. Note that all the spawned popups are from the same server so it's not like it's blocking some sites and permitting others; it's blocking a small percentage of popups for one site while still permitting most of the others for the same site.
While it is possible OP may have been confusing popup blocking with redirect blocking, the issue summary is exactly correct and it seemed like filing this separately would've resulted in closure as duplicate. The main point is that some pop-up blocking is still happening somewhere in the code that these controls don't apply to.