672107 - Add configuration option to treat web cookies and flash shared local objects (LSOs) differently; destructive upgrade from older Firefox versions

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[Claudio Fontana]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:5.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0.1
Build ID: 20110707182747

Steps to reproduce:

upgraded firefox to later 3.x versions (and also tested with v4 and 5)


Actual results:

I play flash games online: I lost all my flash saved games.


Expected results:

The upgrade should have considered the changed semantic of "Clear all cookies on firefox exit" to avoid the destructive change.
A new configuration option for handling proper web cookies and flash shared local objects differently should be created.
The upgrade procedure should then have asked for clarification or should have defaulted to a setting of "Clear all web cookies on exit" checked and "Clear all flash shared objects on exit" unchecked to avoid user loss of data.

Comment 1

[Claudio Fontana]

I use a workaround available here to disable this new firefox behaviour:

http://www.niceties.it/flash_LSO/flash_LSO.html

Comment 2

[Vlad [QA]]

Considering comment1, can you change the status of this bug to Resolved WFM or Invalid.
Thanks

Comment 3

[Claudio Fontana]

I don't think that the patch I have done makes the bug either resolved or invalid: a revised configuration mechanism for handling proper web cookies and flash shared local objects differently should be created.

The upgrade path from adobe flash 10.2 -> 10.3 / firefox 3.6.x -> later is still plagued by user data loss, which I would consider a quite serious issue.

Comment 4

[Corr]

I suffered the same situation as Claudio (the bug poster) and completely agree with him. 
I have seen a lot of forum entries about this topic by baffled and angry users. 
Cookies are mostly used for session data, and for the health of the browser should be cleared on a regular basis. By contrast many Flash games and apps depend on Flash shared objects to be kept for a longer duration. And they can depend on that reliably given the grand precedent of browser behavior. This new behavior breaks precedent and so breaks functionality. I understand that Flash shared objects and cookies are conceptually similar but because of the great many users of (now) legacy apps depending on precedent behavior, browsers need to have an option to handle Flash shared objects separately from cookies. 
I implore you to swiftly implement this and make everyone's lives easier. 
Thank you.

Comment 5

[Claudio Fontana]

I just rebuilt the patched omni.jar for firefox-6.0, waiting for a real solution from mozilla:

http://www.niceties.it/flash_LSO/flash_LSO.html

Comment 6

[Claudio Fontana]

Updated patched omni.jar for firefox-7.0:

http://www.niceties.it/flash_LSO/flash_LSO.html

Comment 7

[Claudio Fontana]

Updated patched omni.jar for firefox-7.0.1:

http://www.niceties.it/flash_LSO/flash_LSO.html

Comment 8

[Claudio Fontana]

Updated patched omni.jar for firefox-8.0:

http://www.niceties.it/flash_LSO/flash_LSO.html

Comment 9

[collins_436]

This is a problem for me. I delete my cookies, cache, history, etc. regularly. Then recently I noticed that all my save games from flash games on websites such as Kongregate and Newgrounds were gone because of this. I still want to be able to clear my cookies without deleting my flash save games.

Comment 10

[Claudio Fontana]

Unfortunately my workaround does not work anymore with latest firefox (tested firefox-14.0.1).

Firefox seems to ignore sanitize.js in omni.ja completely now.

Probably some other mechanism is being used, of which I am unaware. Help would be appreciated to be able to hook to the "cookie" cleanup event again.

Comment 11

[u597032]

Flash is no longer supported