838663 - Remove support for browser.download.panel.removeFinishedDownloads

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Downloads Panel, defect)

Description

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

See bug 836271. This preference should be removed.

Comment 1

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Patch v1

This patch removes the pref, and always overrides browser.download.manager.retention with 2 (always keep completed downloads).

Comment 2

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Comment on attachment 710785 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v1

Review of attachment 710785 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks!

Comment 3

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/54a885e14465

Comment 4

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/54a885e14465

Comment 5

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Comment on attachment 710785 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v1

[Approval Request Comment]
Bug caused by (feature/regressing bug #): downloads panel feature
User impact if declined: nonsense preference with unpredictable behavior
Testing completed (on m-c, etc.): m-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): minor, just removes a pref and ignores it
String or UUID changes made by this patch: none

Comment 6

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-aurora/rev/8800ea54630e

Comment 7

[Willy_ Foo_Foo]

having per-window private browsing fixes the issue

Comment 8

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Verified as fixed on Firefox 20 beta 1 - as default the preference browser.download.panel.removeFinishedDownloads is not present in about:config and browser.download.manager.retention is set to 2.

Verified on Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.04 and Mac OS X 10.8:
Build ID: 20130220104816
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0

Comment 9

[Ace Strife]

Firefox 20 does not have an option within the UI to remove completed downloads from the new download manager.

Additionally, due to this change, there is no config option to force the removal of finished downloads from the download manager.

There needs to be a replacement option for users that do not want to store download history at all; regardless of if it is cleared once the session ends.

See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=836271#c1 in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=836271 for an explanation.

Comment 10

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to Ace Strife from comment #9)
> There needs to be a replacement option for users that do not want to store
> download history at all;

While I understand that such users exist (and I was one of them), we are still missing a valid use-case for which such option is actually useful for anything other than "I like empty lists".
If you have some use-cases where clearing downloads history on shutdown helps your productivity please report them in bug 838681.

Comment 11

[FireFoxFan]

A valid use-case ? Are you serious ? Would you like someone who has access to your computer to see everything that you have downloaded with a simple click ? That's what "Autoclear download history" is made for. It was a TERRIBLE choice to have removed it !!

Comment 12

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to FireFoxFan from comment #11)
> A valid use-case ? Are you serious ? Would you like someone who has access
> to your computer to see everything that you have downloaded with a simple
> click ? That's what "Autoclear download history" is made for. It was a
> TERRIBLE choice to have removed it !!

That same person can just open your Downloads folder in the file system, or look at the history popup instead of the download manager. He would get the same exact data, even if the downloads manager is empty.
Btw, please notice replying to a 2 years old closed bug it's not the best way to bring up your concerns.