712786 - Clicking on a link from any application when Firefox is not running does not load the URL

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

I'm on Mac 10.7.2 and noticed this recently.

STR:

1) Make sure Firefox is not running and is set as default browser via Safari pref
2) From any application (I tried Mail, Adium, Colloquy), click on a URL and it should launch Firefox and take you to that page
3) Instead, it load Firefox and the default home page set by me

Restarted my machine and set the default browser for Fx8, Fx9, Fx10, Fx11 and UX branch.  Same behavior for all versions -- maybe it's an issue with my machine?

Comment 1

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

Well, I would think setting Firefox as the default browser via a Safari pref and it not behaving as the default browser would be a safari bug.

I would set Safari to the default browser via the safari preference and then launch Firefox and set it to be the default browser via the Firefox preference.

Then redo your test.

Comment 2

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

To clarify, it is behaving as the default browser.  However, to ensure there wasn't a bug behind the default browser setting.  I followed your steps and the issue still persists. 

I set Firefox as the default browser via the Firefox pref manager and clicking on this bugzilla link from Mail launches Firefox, but loads my home tab instead of the URL.

Comment 3

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

OK. That had fixed issues for me in the past when I had used the Windows OS setting to select Firefox as the default browser and it really didn't pan out.

I am not a MAC person so I will leave this to others.

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Hrm, I've seen this too, though usually when there's a pending update. I just figured we didn't know how to pass the URL along through the updater.

Does it still happen when your browser is already up-to-date (ie no updates pending when you exit before reproducing)?

Comment 5

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

Yes, happens both when there is a pending update and after I updated to the latest build.

Comment 6

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

Looks like I found the cultprit:

The 'Mozilla Labs App Runtime 0.5.1" was triggering this behavior.  

+ Ragavan so the Apps team is aware of this.

Comment 7

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

If it wasn't clear in comment 6, the add-on from the Apps Developer preview was causing this to happen.

Comment 8

[Florian Bender]

This happens to me, too, in Firefox 22b5 (it didn't work in previous versions, either). Doesn't matter if Firefox is up to date or not. Firefox is set as the default browser. 

Although, there are two "preconditions" in my case (I did not test it yet without either of those "preconditions"): 
– Firefox is launching into the profile manager. 
– Firefox is restoring a provious session. 

I will check if this has something to do with the profile manager, though I remember it not working even before I used the profile manager.

Comment 9

[Florian Bender]

Ok, sorry, my problem was probably tied to the profile manager. Clicking on Links from other applications works as expected now.