[Bug] Fenix reloads every page after being backgrounded

[Cheap-Skate]

Steps to reproduce

Restart phone so plenty of free memory
Close all Fenix tabs
Open arstechnica.com in Tab 1
Open mozilla.org in Tab 2
(mozilla.org page is visible)
put Fenix into background using Android home button
bring Fenix to foreground by tapping its icon
(mozilla.org page is visible)
switch to arstechnica.com tab by tapping tab counter & arstechnica tab
blank screen, arstechnica.com tab reloads which takes ~1-2 seconds
---> incorrect behavior, IMHO tabs should not need to reload when there is plenty of spare memory, they should be instantly visible

Device information

• Android device: Galaxy A40, Android 9
• Fenix version: Today's

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[mattcoz]

I've been noticing this also.

[Mentis]

I have the same issue.
Android 10, Pixel 3 XL

[ekager]

cc @pocmo could this have anything to do with mozilla-mobile/android-components#6170 ?

[Mentis]

Moreover, it happens to me on switching between tabs also.

[itzXian]

still having the issue, it really bugs me :-/

[ekager]

cc @pocmo I don't think mozilla-mobile/android-components#5529 / mozilla-mobile/android-components#6381 are related here since those were specifically tab collections. Is it possible we aren't restoring correctly somewhere else? And that this problem could have started with mozilla-mobile/android-components#6170?

[liuche]

@sblatz adding this to AC top 10 - not sure what's causing this but seems likely something from AC, and needs some investigation.

[Maxnor]

Having the same issue on Samsung Note 10+ with plenty of memory available. The problem doesn't happen instantly when switching tabs.
What I did notice is that Firefox Preview is already using over 2 GB memory although only a few tabs are open.

[jonalmeida]

I see this in r-b as well. Seems like the page is getting unloaded when I'm switching between many tabs.

[bayasdev]

Experiencing the same problem on my SM-G970F with OS 10, it works fine on incognito mode.

[joelocandol]

I have the same bug with Android 7.0 Oukitel c5 firefox nightly

[ccboxes]

Have the same bug.
In fact, there are similar problems when fenix being used in the foreground. When a tab is placed in the foreground for a long time, switching to another tab will cause a reload. Change 'browser.cache.memory.capacity' to -1 seems to help. But it doesn't work after being background.

[andreicristianpetcu]

same. one plus 5t

[Mentis]

This bug is quite annoying and makes multitasking between multiple tabs impossible. Hope this will be fixed once Fenix will be promoted to stable

[pocmo]

@psymoon Have you already looked into this? Otherwise I can help too. We landed a patch in AC that correctly restores the engine session. But I assume this is a different bug if it still reproduces in the latest Nightly.

[psymoon]

@pocmo I haven't had the chance to look at this yet. Feel free!

[bayasdev]

The Google Play "Nightly" is more like "Some build from this week 🤞". The real Nightly builds are from Mozilla servers.

My Nightly is updating every day from the Play Store

[ghost]

@victor-bayas Yes, the situation is okay recently.

[lobontiumira]

Verified as fixed on the latest Nightly build from 5/29 with:

• Google Pixel (Android 10),
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (Android 7.1.1), and
• OnePlus 5T (Android 9).

[pocmo]

Thank you all for verifying and providing steps to reproduce early. That was helpful for figuring out the problem.

Regarding Nightly builds: Whenever a Nightly build shows up on taskcluster that build also gets published to Google Play. It takes a while until they show up for end users as an update though. So there are no hidden builds on taskcluster! The whole process just takes some time and well, sometimes there's also something broken in the pipeline. :)

[ghost]

@pocmo I'm not saying that the builds themselves are hidden, what I'm saying is that the links to the Taskcluster aren't found easily anywhere.

[hkaancaliskan]

@pocmo hey dev, does this patch included in new beta update? I think this is deal breaker without it.

[ghost]

@hakkikaancaliskan I have 5.1.0-beta.3, and it still reloads the webpages.

[bayasdev]

@hakkikaancaliskan I have 5.1.0-beta.3, and it still reloads the webpages.

Can confirm in my SM-G970F, issue persists in Fenix 5.1 (non-nightly)

[liuche]

Since this just landed, it won't be in the 5.1 release, but will be part of the 5.2 release. Our QA process takes a few days, so this missed the cutoff.

[ghost]

@liuche Is it available in the 77.0.0-beta.1?

[bayasdev]

@liuche Is it available in the 77.0.0-beta.1?

I downloaded the 77.0 beta 1 from here https://firefox-ci-tc.services.mozilla.com/tasks/index/project.mobile.fenix.v2.fennec-beta/latest and it still discards backgrounded tabs

[ghost]

@victor-bayas then we need to wait another 2 weeks before it gets included in 5.2. I think there's no difference between Firefox Preview and Firefox Beta; they both have the same codebase if you are keeping your build up-to-date from the Taskcluster.

[pocmo]

77.0.0-beta.1 is the same as 5.1.0-beta.3 - The only difference being the versioning for different channels (Firefox Beta 77.0 vs. Firefox Preview 5.1)

[madb1lly]

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure this bug is still present, I can't keep anywhere near as many tabs live in Fenix as I can in Fennec.

Shall i raise a new issue?

Cheers 🙂

[lindongbin]

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure this bug is still present, I can't keep anywhere near as many tabs live in Fenix as I can in Fennec.

Shall i raise a new issue?

Cheers 🙂

Sometimes switching tabs or open new website in the foreground will also cause other tabs to reload

[ghost]

I also have this issue on latest nightly. And it is made worse by #12664. Please reopen this issue.

[ghost]

#12731

[madb1lly]

Hi all,
Since this issue is closed it's probably best to post in @Lorinet's new issue #12731.
Cheers 🙂