When switching tabs, newly active tabs always reload

[Lorinet]

If I were to do a Google search, open a new tab, visit any website, then switch back to that first tab, that oroginal Google search would then reload completely, regardless of the fact that it was loaded previously and not cleared from memory. Also, when I push the app into background, and then go back to it from the Recents screen, the page that was open would have to load again completely, even though the app wasn't erased from memory, and this loading time is much longer than a simple page navigation. Chrome does not do this and that's why it is better. Fix these issues instead of playing around with silly UI changes.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[madb1lly]

Hi @Lorinet,

Thanks for raising the issue. #9039 and other similar issues have been closed for some reason even though it's clear that browsing experience in this respect is still not good enough. In my qualitative experience Fenix keeps no more than 2-4 tabs in memory and often this is reduced to 1, with Fenix reloading every time I switch tabs. This is far from the slick browsing experience I had with Fennec which could keep 10s of tabs loaded easily.

If Fennec was still being developed I'd still be using it and this tab reloading is one of the reasons why.

Cheers 🙂

[eliserichards]

@Lorinet @madb1lly what devices and version of android are you using?

[madb1lly]

Hi @eliserichards,
I'm using Nokia 8 with Android 9.
Cheers 🙂

[lindongbin]

#9979 not fixed
79.0.0 (Build #2015753315)
AC: 48.0.7, fd0087500
GV: 79.0-20200720193547
AS: 61.0.10

[madb1lly]

Hi @lindongbin,
It's not fixed on latest nightly either so those of you on beta probably still have long time to wait 😕
Cheers 🙂

[Namit-Nayan]

Okay with some hit and trial:

1. this bug starts to happen even if i access about:config and change nothing. (if you change some flags then this will definitely happen).
2. i uninstalled and then reinstalled the nightly, installed all my addons, did not open about:config, And i am not facing the bug for now.

The addons I use:
uBlock Origin(thus disabled ETP), Decentraleyes, video background playback fix.

How I tested?
(Do a clean install of the browser.)

1. load two tabs with any website.
2. press home button.(or swipe up, if using gesture navigation)
3. Open fenix and check those tabs.
4. if the tabs reloads, the bug is there.(least recently opened tab never reloads)

Version:
Nightly 200903 06:04 (Build #2015761715)
AC: 58.0.20200901190136, 478151899
GV: 82.0a1-20200831091558
AS: 61.0.13

Device:
Asus Zenfone max pro m1(X00TD)
3gb ram
running lineage OS 16.0 ( Android pie)

[madb1lly]

Hi all,

If I switch tabs back and forth quickly by swiping on the address bar I can keep 2-4 tabs in memory, but they quickly disappear if I stay on one tab too long. In fact this quick swiping back and forth also causes Fenix to slow down significantly, so it's not a workaround in any sense.

Cheers 🙂

[Namit-Nayan]

It happened again. And if I exit(press back button) after going to home screen of fenix(the screen you get when opening new tab) then the bug stops.
So it's totally random, and i really hope it is fixed soon. (because this bug nullifies all the advantages fenix provides in terms of speed and mobile data savings.)

[ShintoPlasm]

I can confirm this is still ongoing in Firefox Stable 81.1.1 - it's driving me crazy, and undermines the entire purpose of a multi-tab browser. An enormous regression from the Fennec versions, which really should have been picked up during the prolonged Preview stage.

[Namit-Nayan]

An enormous regression from the Fennec versions, which really should have been picked up during the prolonged Preview stage.

It was fixed here for a while

[ShintoPlasm]

An enormous regression from the Fennec versions, which really should have been picked up during the prolonged Preview stage.

It was fixed here for a while

I don't understand what you mean. Clearly this issue is still ongoing in the latest Stable version, and even the issue you linked to hasn't been resolved. The current issue (#12731) is still very much Open.

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1379699

[LightxHope]

Still hasn't been fixed. It's really annoying.

[serj-kzv]

I am sorry for not exact technical comment. But the bug becomes stranger by day after day. The bug makes Firefox for Android for Developers fully not usable in real world cases. Especially it is strange because developer version is the only way to use a lot of Firefox extensions and about:config advance configurations that are not available in usual Firefox for Android.

And as we all know Firefox extensions are only reason to choose Firefox instead of Chrome because the last one works smoothly with almost no bugs.

And the bug even more strange because desktop version (including Linux version) do not has the bug despite the fact that both versions use the same engine that means there is a little chance of using different code for tabs or web content processing.

[lazymonkey2]

@serj-kzv you can try in fennec from f-droid: it's a firefox fork that enables about:config and custom extension collections .
it's compiled from stable branch (not from beta like firefox developer, or worse nightly) so it has the latest bugfixes.
you can find fennec here:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/

note: to auto update fennec you have to install f-droid, which will take care of updates automatically.
without f-droid you have to manually install new releases.

[maranov]

@424344 do you know whether Fennec suffers from this reload bug too?

[LightxHope]

I tried fennec and the problem still exists.

[Mikaka27]

It also got much worse for me, starting with version 102 stable. 😞

[Mikaka27]

Does anyone know what this PR means: Experiment? Does it mean that content process priority fix is effectively reverted for version 102, and only lucky ones get it via this experiment? Just curious.

[Gabr-F]

I don't think there's any point on insisting on this, Mozilla is clearly just trying to make everyone switch to Chrome. We should just go to a well-funded non profit organization and ask them to fund the development of a mobile browser (based on Gecko).

[mmwelt]

FWIW, this problem has gotten a lot better in the recent releases. I'm using F-Droid Fennec 102.1.1.

[Error-user]

I'm using 104.1.0 and have just started having this problem after updating. Before I could leave tabs item for weeks with no issue. I agree, this is a major bug which needs to be fixed or I'm going to find another browser. A browser without working tabs is not a working browser.

[realpixelcode]

Logging into my Nextcloud has become almost impossible using mobile Firefox.

When copying the TOTP code beforehand, entering the password and loading the 2FA page takes longer than the TOTP code is even valid.

Also, when leaving the 2FA page to copy the TOTP code from the 2FA app, Firefox reloads the login page when returning, so I have to re-enter the password, making the TOTP code expire yet again.

Only using split screen is a half-working work-around.

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1387322

[DetroitLibertyPenguin]

Clearly no one with Mozilla is trying to get folks to switch to Chrome. Most of the work is done by users just like you and me. If you know how to fix it, please do and submit a pull request . If you don't, please don't be mean to others for also not being able to. Yes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, it is good with each major release to retest and provide feedback particular if performs is different. Developers are people too. Just like your friends being less likely to invite you over if everytime they do you complain how their house is messy, I would be less likoto spend my free time fixing a bug that doesn't personally bother me particularly the guys it does effect are mean to me.

[robsmith11]

I don't think people are expecting these bugs to be fixed by volunteers in their free time. Mozilla still receives millions in revenue from Google, but they don't seem to be spending it on developers to fix bugs in Firefox, which is what frustrates people. The money doesn't seem to go anywhere except the pockets of ineffective Mozilla executives.

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1387390

[echuber2]

I bet the various issues with the app reloading things are related. It sounds like cookies are also reloaded somehow even if they're cleared (#25478). Maybe the entire session store is being saved and reloaded at the wrong times. Also, it seems that if you click a URL in another app, and you already have a FF tab open to that URL, then FF takes you to the existing tab rather than opening a fresh tab. So, could it be that the session reload has implemented focusing the most recent tab as simply navigating to that URL?

This might also explain why closed tabs mysteriously reappear or recently opened tabs vanish. This just happened to me again, actually: open tab A to url A1, tab A forwards me from A1 to url A2, close tab A, open a new tab B to a different site, go to home screen, remove FF from recent app switcher, open FF again. Tab A is back on page A1 and tab B is gone. It's like the last 30 seconds of activity hadn't happened.

[Gabr-F]

I don't know if it's the session store but absolutely, positively many things are saved and reloaded... I wouldn't say at the wrong times, I'd say at completely random times.
Ever since I began using Fenix I've always had dozens of tabs disappear or reappear most of the times I'd go back to it from another app or relaunch it.

When they get closed they are usually not even remembered under the recently closed list, but usually for some reason they are present in the history, even though in strange positions, from what I recall.

The "Jump back in" then very rarely jumps back to the last active tab, in most cases she offers me to jump back in time to some random past visited page (usually of the relatively recent past).

A lot of times it's a specific point of time that keeps getting "restored", even for days at a time.

I just now discovered that there is a whole series of UX studies at Mozilla about "task continuity". Do I need to say anything? 🙄😒🤦

By the way, bugs of this kind seem extremely likely to also be hiding security vulnerabilities (the above-mentioned cookie restoration can of course be considered a huge such one).

This on an Oppo with aggressive app killing and usually with thousands of tabs open, because:

• with the current UI it's way too tiresome and slow to close them
• most of the times they reappear in any case, even if I spend fifteen minutes to clean them
• and I don't use the "close after x days" feature because there is actually stuff that I'd like to go back to or bookmark at some time, however old it might be.

edit: Ah, maybe this might have some relevance as well, I also do not use sync, I haven't logged-in to it in months.

The tabs grouping feature (that has been removed?? 🤨) would help a little if it set somewhat correctly the scrolling position in the tabs list and if it were possible to delete all of a group's tabs (which I seem to remember it wasn't possible, but maybe I'm wrong).
(anyway all that would be needed would be such a complex and futuristic feature as the ability to make "tab" groups manually, aka windows... 🙄)

And yes, it is masochistic to use Fenix notwithstanding all this, I can feel him kicking me in the teeth every few minutes. It's like being I don't know a martir, a saint, all just in the hopes of preserving a degree of privacy and open web...

[Ghasan]

This is so sad, I was such a huge fan of Firefox, but not on mobile anymore. I am still using it as my daily driver for desktop, but for mobile, no.

It is basically unusable, I am using it on my phone just as a password manager to sync my logins.

This issue has been reported like since two years, and no progress at all. I wish the old days of Firefox v68 are back :(

[DriftVR56]

Ghasan highlights a good point that this bug forcing users off Firefox Android renders useless FF's account integration features as well, as for most people that's about linking their computer and their phone profiles. On this basis, Mozilla should treat this bug not just as a deal-breaker for Android users, but also as a bug that gives many people a good incentive to cease use of Firefox on all platforms.

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1388449

[cpeterso]

Moved to bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1807364

Change performed by the Move to Bugzilla add-on.