save your tabs don't work during an update

[davide]

Binary package hint: firefox

This is firefox 3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.2 in Ubuntu 8.04.2.

I had my browser open with many tabs. It was still firefox 3.0.7
The update to 3.0.8 was published and I agreed to download and istall it (while I was doing my business with the 3.0.7)
The "browser restart required message" appeared, thus I closed the browser (there were still many open tabs). The message "Do you want Firefox to save your tabs for the next time it starts?" didn't appear, and after the restart the tabs were gone.

Note that:

a) if I close the browser now that the update process is complete, the message appear and if I answer yes, the tabs are correctly saved for the next session, thus is sort of "one time bug"

b) it is not exactly "one time" because it has occurred ALWAYS when updating firefox (I have always firefox open with many tabs and I always want them to be saved, so I encountered it already)

It might not seem a big deal, but sometimes it is, thus I recommend to fix it. If you cannot fix it, you should at least add a dialog in the update windows, stating that the current tabs will be gone, and warning the user to save URLs and "back button status" if needed.

Thanks

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Firefox asks you by default when closing tabs if you would like to save session. You might have clicked the box that says dont ask me again. Please make sure that you have it set to ask you each time. It should be in preferences somewhere.
Closing bug due to it being a setting user set.

[davide (davide-del-vento)]

John,
I understand that you might have to deal with dumb users who open non-existent bugs related with their setting. I know firefox settings very well. This is *not* a setting in firefox. This is a real bug which occur as I described.
I also understand that it might be hard to reproduce, because it occur *only* during the update process, but this is not a good reason to close it.

[davide (davide-del-vento)]

The event occurred again with the 3.0.9 update. I suspect that during the update something happens and prevents the old instance to close properly. Indeed also the "Clear Private Data" dialog does not appear. Note that I took the time to download, install and test the update on the original firefox binary provided by mozilla.com
It works flawlessy, the problem is probably due to the change in the update strategy made by ubuntu.

[davide (davide-del-vento)]

Same behavior for the current update, 3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
I changed the title, to make it clearer.
Let me restate what happens.

I have firefox open, with many tabs.
My firefox settings are such that it always asks me to save the tabs and to clear private data on shutdown.
The update manager finds a new version of firefox and proposes to download it.

If I close firefox and only after that I agree with the update, it works as expected (namely: it ask for saving the tabs, for clear private data and after the update it re-creates the tabs).

If I agree with the download keeping firefox open, the following bugous behavior occur.
Sooner or later the "old" firefox should be closed. At this time it does NOT ask to save the tabs NEITHER to clear private data.
Later, when the "new" firefox is open, the first thing that appears is the dialog asking to clear private data. Note that the browser is not visible yet! When the user close the dialog the browser comes, without the tabs previous open, which are lost.

After this "one time" bug, everything work correctly again. As I already wrote, this is an ubuntu-specific bug. It does not happen in the "original" firefox, probably because the update procedure is completely different.

If this bug cannot be fixed, I strongly recommend that a notification will be added, warning users to NOT install a firefox update while firefox itself is running (even for other users, I also tried that), otherwise the open tabs will be lost.

Thanks

[davide (davide-del-vento)]

Why did you set "This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 351253"?
They are exactly the same?

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 11:23, michael perigard<email address hidden> wrote:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 309656 ***
>    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/309656
>
> ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 351253
>   Firefox (update) lost my open tabs
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 309656
>   Firefox does not restore session after update
>
> --
> save your tabs don't work during an update
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/351759
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox-3.0” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: firefox
>
> This is firefox 3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.2 in Ubuntu 8.04.2.
>
> I had my browser open with many tabs. It was still firefox  3.0.7
> The update to 3.0.8 was published and I agreed to download and istall it (while I was doing my business with the 3.0.7)
> The "browser restart required message" appeared, thus I closed the browser (there were still many open tabs). The message "Do you want Firefox to save your tabs for the next time it starts?" didn't appear, and after the restart the tabs were gone.
>
> Note that:
>
> a) if I close the browser now that the update process is complete, the message appear and if I answer yes, the tabs are correctly saved for the next session, thus is sort of "one time bug"
>
> b) it is not exactly "one time" because it has occurred ALWAYS when updating firefox (I have always firefox open with many tabs and I always want them to be saved, so I encountered it already)
>
> It might not seem a big deal, but sometimes it is, thus I recommend to fix it. If you cannot fix it, you should at least add a dialog in the update windows, stating that the current tabs will be gone, and warning the user to save URLs and "back button status" if needed.
>
> Thanks
>