Cookies not sent with fetch requests for some Firefox users

[erikdesjardins]

Causing these issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/69l3gx/res_and_saved_posts_not_loading_all_posts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/69m9iy/account_switcher_not_working_since_560_update/
https://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/69n2v6/never_ending_reddit_on_frontpage_shows_wrong_subs/

Apparently using a fresh Firefox profile fixes this, so I suspect it is the same/similar sandbox bug as toolbox-team/reddit-moderator-toolbox-legacy#788, in which case there's nothing we can do about it, AFAIK. 😢

[erikdesjardins]

FWIW this is not the same as #4158, since that would affect all users across all browsers.

[BenMcGarry]

Tested the potential fix mentioned on a user experiencing the issue, new profile did resolve the issue.

[monk-time]

I seem to have the same issue on Firefox v53.0.2: starting with the update to 5.6.0, never ending reddit doesn't load anything beyond the first page on /r/new, and it loads posts from default subs for the second page on 'home'. I am able to reproducibly fix this by going into FF settings and switching Privacy > Accept third-party cookies from Never to Always or From visited; the bug reappears when switching back to Never. Curiously, disallowing them was never an issue before the update.

Why would this setting influence anything though, aren't reddit cookies not third-party on all reddit pages?

edit: got a couple of confirmations on the thread in /r/RESIssues as well.

[azizLIGHT]

@monk-time your solution worked on my regular Firefox profile. I had to change my setting in Privacy -> History from "Firefox will: remember history" to "Firefox will: use custom settings for history" for the additional settings to show up where I selected to accept third party cookies "From visited".

What's interesting is that the fresh Firefox profile has "Firefox will: remember history" selected by default as far as I can tell and didn't need that setting change for third party cookies, nor is it visible, when remember history is selected.

[BenMcGarry]

Related Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322113

[erikdesjardins]

^ I'm almost certain that that's the bug, it's exactly what we're seeing

[BenMcGarry]

"To workaround this bug, user may add the target host in the cookie exception list, which set Firefox to always allow the cookies from the said origin."

Anyone able to verify this?

[monk-time]

@BenMcGarry: See here. And for me too adding 'https://www.reddit.com' as an exception fixes this issue.

[Epholys]

@BenMcGarry @monk-time I'm maybe doing something wrong, but I can't resolve the issue, even adding 'https://www.reddit.com' as an exception in the Cookie Exception List. My case seems to be the exception, however, as it worked for many users.

[BenMcGarry]

@Epholys whats your current cookie settings?

[Epholys]

"Use custom settings for history" ; "Accepts cookies from site" ; "Never accept third-party cookies"

Exceptions :

• http://www.reddit.com
• http://reddit.com
• https://www.reddit.com
• https://reddit.com
  
  

[BenMcGarry]

@Epholys Hmm, we know another fix is to try it on a fresh FF profile. Are you able to try this and report back?

[Epholys]

@BenMcGarry Everything works on a fresh profile. Surprisingly, switching back to my main profile seems to have fixed whatever black ritual was going inside Firefox, RES is behaving correctly now!

[erikdesjardins]

FTR I can reproduce this in exactly the same way with the fetch backend replaced with XHR, so it's not fetch-specific.

[apastuszak]

Switching to a new profile and switching back also corrected the issue for me.

[apastuszak]

To further comment. The switching profiles "fix" only works on Windows. On my Linux laptop, even creating a new profile and deleting the old one does not fix the issue.

[Epholys]

@apastuszak The switching profile fix worked on my Linux laptop, so I don't think this is tied to a platform.

[monk-time]

I think it's obvious that switching to a new profile "works" only because it resets all browser settings, including limitations to third party cookies. By default they are allowed in Firefox. @apastuszak, your Linux distro may have custom default settings that tighten security and privacy, which can explain why resetting doesn't work. Try toggling that setting manually.

[erikdesjardins]

Read carefully--they're not talking about staying on the new profile but switching to it momentarily and then switching back to their main profile.

[monk-time]

@erikdesjardins: but switching to and fro by itself AFAIK can't possibly change anything in the old profile, can it? It may be the case that simply restarting the browser after adding exceptions instead of doing what you describe would have fixed it as well.

@Epholys, does your main profile still have above-mentioned cookie exceptions and third-party set to disabled? Does the issue re-appear if you remove them? Does it disappear if you re-add exceptions or allow third-party cookies? If the last step doesn't work, does restarting the browser help?

[Epholys]

@monk-time I think you're right, I switched profile after I added the cookie exceptions but I don't think I tried to restart Firefox just after that. I restarted Firefox several times, so I assumed it would not change anything.

Anyway, here's what you asked:

• Main profile with exactly the same parameters as above : OK
• Removed the cookie exceptions : ISSUE
• Re-added cookie exceptions : ISSUE
• Restarted Firefox : OK

So, sorry, no black ritual inside Firefox, just my imagination!

[erikdesjardins]

I've dealt with enough crazy behaviour from Firefox that I wouldn't be surprised if creating a new profile could affect existing ones. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But evidently that isn't the case here, yeah.

[Amndeep7]

Hey just wanted to mention that if you try to use the "Never-Ending-Reddit" feature to scroll down your list of upvoted posts (https://www.reddit.com/user/$username/upvoted), you end up with an error along the lines of XHR 403 error as opposed to getting a page with random posts on it like you get if you scroll down the frontpage. It gets fixed as well when you do the set cookies to never, add exceptions for the various reddit domains, and restart firefox trick, so I figure it's related.

[apastuszak]

I launched Firefox with the -p option on Arch Linux. I delete my profile, exited Firefox.

Launched Firefox with -p and created a new profile. Ran with new profile. Went into preferences and turned off third party cookies. Installed RES and went to reddit and logged in. Never Ending Reddit still shows subreddits I am not subscribed to on page 2.

Any other arch users out there?

[monk-time]

@apastuszak: Have you tried adding cookie exceptions and restarting the browser after that as described above?

[apastuszak]

@monk-time I don't want to add cookie exceptions. I don't need them on Chrome. I should not need them on Firefox. I block third party cookies for a reason, and I did not need to allow them prior to this update. Is there a way to go back to the old version and prevent it from updating?

[Forty-Bot]

Also an Arch user, the aformentioned process does not work, and I'd rather not have to add exceptions.

[apastuszak]

Is there a way to roll back to a version that doesn't require third party cookies?

[Tain101]

I would also like to roll back.

[erikdesjardins]

All versions of RES require third-party cookies; the older Jetpack-based versions were simply allowed to violate your privacy settings to use them (it's now more secure!).

Since RES is a third-party (it runs in a special chrome-extension: or moz-extension: domain), there isn't another option, i.e., if you want no third-party cookies, you'll have to uninstall.