872234 - Clearing your data does not remove bookmarks

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Metro Graveyard :: Firefox Start, defect)

Description

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

- There appears to be no way to remove bookmarks when you clear your personal data. 

- There also appears to way to remove an individual bookmark.

- We have to fix this before ship.

Comment 1

[Marco Mucci [:MarcoM]]

Hey Ally, can you tell me which story I can relate this defect to?

Comment 2

[Rodrigo Silveira [:rsilveira] [:rodms]]

Bookmarks are not an option when clearing personal data, even on desktop. I don't think we want/need that. 

You should be able to remove individual bookmarks from the start screen by selecting them and pressing the x on the context bar.

Comment 3

[Marco Mucci [:MarcoM]]

Hi Asa, please review comments to determine if this Defect should remain.

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

We should clear bookmarks when we clear private data. It should be one of the check marks under "other data" This is a break from desktop but we agreed at the work week table that it was important to deviate here because there's no bookmarks "manager" where you can delete everything with a click or two.

Comment 5

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

(In reply to Marco Mucci [:MarcoM] from comment #1)
> Hey Ally, can you tell me which story I can relate this defect to?

Bookmarks story?

Comment 6

[Rodrigo Silveira [:rsilveira] [:rodms]]

I think adding this option to "other data" can cause people to unwillingly delete their bookmarks. Specially because it will be selected by default when you check "other data". Having a top level checkbox (together with browser history) would make more sense to me.

Comment 7

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

(In reply to Rodrigo Silveira [:rsilveira] from comment #6)
> I think adding this option to "other data" can cause people to unwillingly
> delete their bookmarks. Specially because it will be selected by default
> when you check "other data". Having a top level checkbox (together with
> browser history) would make more sense to me.

We *could* have some or all of the items within "Other data" unchecked by default.  I'd suggest that transient, generated data (like Cookies and Cache) should be checked by default, but data the user has explicitly saved (like Bookmarks and Passwords) should not.

Comment 8

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck) from comment #7)
> (In reply to Rodrigo Silveira [:rsilveira] from comment #6)
> > I think adding this option to "other data" can cause people to unwillingly
> > delete their bookmarks. Specially because it will be selected by default
> > when you check "other data". Having a top level checkbox (together with
> > browser history) would make more sense to me.
> 
> We *could* have some or all of the items within "Other data" unchecked by
> default.  I'd suggest that transient, generated data (like Cookies and
> Cache) should be checked by default, but data the user has explicitly saved
> (like Bookmarks and Passwords) should not.

This sounds like the right approach.

Comment 9

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

This bug has turned out to a bigger can of worms than expected due to interactions with sync and disagreements about what deleting bookmarks on metro should mean. We have a couple of options.

Mbrubeck's recommendation is we kill this for v1. Uninstall remains the ultimate clear private data, and we can sort out what this will mean in the PICL, server-canonical world.

This is also my recommendation. I now don't believe the engineering effort is worth the user value.

1) Kill for v1 Move this to v2. (recommended)

2) Delete only the metro root (would not impact other bookmarks that sync or import may have brought in. A sync user would still see desktop bookmarks in the autocomplete but the metro folder would be deleted on his/her other devices.)

2.5) Wipe only the metro root (all other bookmark records remain untouched, the metro list wiped locally and the next sync restores them. I don't know why this would be a good idea, but it is an option)

3) Wipe all bookmark roots (this would not cause other devices to lose their metro folder or other other bookmarks. If a sync user on metro did this, it would reload the latest record upon the next sync to metro. This is behavior that looks like backup). This is what android currently does, iirc.

4) Delete the metro root, wipe all other bookmark roots (The metro folder is deleted on all other devices, all other bookmarks are removed locally, and reappear on next sync)

Comment 10

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

I'd suggest wontfix. Clear private data is more about personal data the browser collects during browsing. It doesn't have to be tied in with bookmarks. In in a future rev we plan to implement a better bookmarks management interface so we should rely on that. In the mean time users can mass remove bookmarks by multi-selecting them in the bookmarks panel and tapping delete.

Comment 11

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

Some comparative archaeology: In Fennec, the "Clear all private data" feature would delete all bookmarks *and* disconnect from sync, sidestepping the questions of whether the deletion would affect other devices, or get undone on the next sync.

Deleting bookmarks while remaining connected to sync is ambiguous, and likely to lead to unpleasant surprises no matter what we do.

Comment 12

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

this also suggests that we should wontfix and wait until the cloud is canonical
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=578694#c16

Comment 13

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

This is a problem with all data, basically Clear private data is a no-op when connected to sync since all your cleared data will come right back down on the next sync. 

Sounds like we need to take mbrubeck's suggestion and disconnect from sync (which would be odd if the user only chose one or two options in the checkbox list) or delete the data rather than clear, and trigger a sync so it propagates.

I'm now leaning toward the latter since that's the way I think sync should work.

Comment 14

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to :Ally Naaktgeboren from comment #12)
> this also suggests that we should wontfix and wait until the cloud is
> canonical
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=578694#c16

We would have to live with the current behavior for at least a year.. I'm not sure that's what we want to do. :/

How hard would it be to delete rather than clear the metro data? Doubt it would require much of a change.

Comment 15

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Mass close of bugs in obsolete product https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1350354