Weekly common issues archive

Week of Oct 13th

Specific issues

Title	Lead	Status	Reports this week	Bug
Norton 360-like symptoms but not Norton 360	None	Needs Lead	8	none
Slow Loading Pages	Cww	Under investigation	4	none
prefs.js not saving	None	Needs lead	7	none
Printing random characters	zzxc	Under investigation	6	454532
Problems with Yahoo log-in	None	Needs lead	4	none

KB metrics

These are a weighted ranking of which knowledge base articles were most voted on as being helpful OR not helpful (an indication that people actually tried to use the steps to solve a problem). More details (and a link to even more details) are in this thread

Week of Oct 6th

Specific issues

Title	Lead	Status	Reports this week	Bug
Norton 360-like symptoms but not Norton 360	None	Needs Lead	8	none
Slow Loading Pages	Cww	Under investigation	4	none
prefs.js not saving	None	Needs lead	7	none
Printing random characters	zzxc	Under investigation	6	454532
Problems with Yahoo log-in	None	Needs lead	4	none

KB metrics

Week of Sept 29th

Numbers in parentheses from Hendrix, 659 messages from Monday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Specific issues

People stuck on looping "you've just updated" messages. Probably something stuck/wrong with prefs.js but REALLY common this week (14)
- Status: Need lead, possibly one extension or security software holding prefs.js
Related, a number of people are having an issue with the 3.0.3 update not "taking" as in it won't install and they're stuck on 3.0.2
- Could be Software Update Failed
- Status, on hold (May be resolved/not need resolution)
Also related, people are upset that we pushed an update and we're no longer asking permission for minor updates (13)
- Status: No action needed
Password issues in 3.0.3 (15)
- These may all be bug 457358
- Status: needs documentation update
Opening PDFs crash Firefox. This is Download Embedded Extension bug 444930 (5)
- Status, needs documentation
Print to PDF crashes OSX which is bug 451724
- Status, under investigation (Cww)
Norton 360 issues (7)
- Definite drop in frequency, with a few people reporting that the Norton 360 update worked
- Still have people affected
- Status: Pending fix by Norton (Follow-up meetings via Cww)
Slow loading pages (13)
- No verdict on Linked In extension
- Status: Need details
Crash when downloading
- Possibly AV software related
- Status: Need details
Flash-based videos and sound do not play correctly
- Status: Fixed, tracking
Yahoo cookies lost on restart (3)
- Could be corrupt cookie.sqlite or just that single cookie or caused by extensions (fixes vary)
- Status: under investigation (zzxc)

Common issue categories

Awesomebar (52)
- As always, it's #1
Bookmark UI (Sorting, Folders, Bookmarks Manager differences) (26)
Crashes

Startup/Firefox won't start (6)
Other/Crash on page/Crash on exit/General crash griping (49)
A few specific crash cases/causes are being identified in livechat
Status: need to break up the massive article

Loss of Bookmarks (11)
- A few lost bookmarks on update from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2/3.0.3
- Others lost "randomly"
Extension Compatibility (34)
- Still mostly Real Player Browser Download
- Also people want Google Toolbar, Firebug (exists but needs fresh download) and various other N=1

Knowledge Base Metrics

This section contains a ranked list of knowledge base articles where the most users tried to go to for help based on user votes adjusted for a variety of factors. It's generated completely automatically.

Previous posts have been moved to Weekly common issues archive

Week of Sept 22nd

New Issues

Password issue: Bug 454708 (1 on Hendrix, maybe a dozen on #firefox)
- in addition, 510 people found our page on this topic, 246 even found it useful (even though there was no real workaround)
- Still seeing some issues (bug 457358) and forum topic)
- Norton Privacy Controls can sometimes keep resetting the "Save passwords" preference.
- Status: resolved for now.
Can't save logins (loss of cookies/getting logged out of sessions when tabs/browser is closed) (3 on Hendrix)
- From Livechat and #firefox, some possible causes:
  - ZoneAlarm Privacy Protection? Norton Privacy Control?
  - Tor extension
  - Yahoo toolbar can sometimes interfere with log-ins to Yahoo.
- Status: More info needed
Firefox taking a long time to download/render pages
- LinkedIn extension possibly to blame
- Status: needs investigation by QA
New virus/malware
- Symptom: pages are rendered "doubled" as in the page will render and then render again below it.
- Happens on all browsers
- Status: more information needed, will try to get files for QA testing
Connection issues with firewalls
- Four people with Symantec Antivirus only have had Firefox blocked ater upgrading. All have uninstalled Norton products in the past.
- Several people (4 so far this week) with Norton/Symantec have reported that Firefox and other applications (including itunes and safari) have stopped connecting after a Firefox update. Norton 360 is the most common cause.
- Status: Unlikely to be Firefox-specific, pending
Threatfire3 "quarantines" xul.dll, preventing Firefox from running
- Status: Contacted Threatfire, should no longer be a problem. Threatfire added to list of AV vendors whom we contact before releases.

Common Stuff

All of these are Firefox 3.0.1 and 3.0.2, numbers are from a 200-post sampling (100 pre-3.0.2, 100 post-3.0.2) from Hendrix Sorry about the smaller sample this week

Bookmarking UI (18)
- First week where Awesomebar isn't #1
- This includes people complaining about:
  - Difficulty accessing Bookmark folders
  - Can't sort bookmarks as before
  - Confusion regarding Bookmarks Manager
Awesomebar (12)
- As before
Crashes (8)
- Most of these are crash on page. Visiting the pages when they're given suggests that Java is a possible link.
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=434403 is still being reported by Livechat, and there are a few Google Desktop Search crashes.
Loss of bookmarks (8)
- Likely Norton/Zonealarm deleting bookmarks (not the Norton 360 issue): 3
- Likely restoring a places.sqlite from a beta of FF3: 2
- Loss of data on update (reason unclear, but they say it happens with every dot release): 3
Site-specific: (7)
Hang on exit (6)
- Definitely Norton 360: 3
- Possibly Norton 360: 3

Top KB articles
These are preliminary stats generated using data from Sunday 9/21 to Tues 9/23.

Week of Sept 15th

Common Stuff

Almost all of these are Firefox 3.0.X, numbers are from a 653-post sampling of Hendrix. Issues are indicative of things seen on livechat and #firefox as well.

Awesomebar: (57)
- Easily #1 on the list
- The main issue seems to be that people don't understand how the Awesomebar works. People frequently report issues like "can't clear browsing history." or "Inconsistent results when typing in address bar"
- How can we make the new behavior more intuitive so users know what Firefox is doing? The user expects just the url history but is served bookmarks, url history, browser history (pages visited but never typed).
Crashes:
- Crashes while using pages (41)
  - This is all the cases of "Randomly crashes" and "Crashes when I go to X" or "Crashes many times a day in the middle of X"
- Crashes that prevent Firefox from loading (7) This is a drop in number, may reflect stability patches from 3.0.2
Bookmarks
- Loss of Bookmarks/Data on update: (15)
  - Some of these may be previously installed beta.
- Dislike new Bookmark Folder system, UI (31)
Other complaints about UI (Keyboard shortcuts, menu, icons, buttons, theme): (22)
Hang/Slowness (33)
- Usually a variety of issues that are all lumped: most commonly, Firefox 3 loading pages very slowly or hanging on various pages.
Site-specific (22)
- This is tough to categorize but if the user emphasizes that a single specific site doesn't work with Firefox and it's not immediately obvious that it's one of: corrupt cookies, bad plugin, malware, it got put here.
Extension Compatibility: (22)
- By far the most commonly requested one is still Realplayer video download.

New issues or highly specific issues

OSX loads pages slowly: (8). This also happens quite a bit in windows but given the usual OSX/Windows ratio, it's unusually common in OSX.
- Forum thread with a few additional users experiencing this: http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&forumId=1&comments_threshold=0&comments_parentId=86464
EULA in Linux (15). The new EULA sparked a lot of angry feedback.
NoScript breaks Ebay. (4)
Norton 360-related (12)
Firefox kills/hangs entire computer (livechat transcript can be provided on request) Hendrix: 1 2 3
- Filesystem, can't delete files in Firefox folder, may not be Firefox related at all
Yahoo Toolbar causes windows to jump (livechat transcript can be provided on request)
Windows OS integration (Outlook links not opening in Firefox, links on desktop not opening in Firefox, can't save links to desktop, links in IE DO open in Firefox)
Passwords not populating/saving in Firefox 3.0.2, bug 454993, support article

Comments

For Hendrix, we have an experimental database built now that sorts each post into a category so it'll be easy to pull up the raw data now and collect information with a simple SQL query. I'll be putting in all the info from the support forums as well pending bug 455790. Once this is done, I'll have a form where you can look up everyone who has a certain issue.

-- Cww
__

Week of Sept 8th

Common stuff
All of these are Firefox 3.0.1, numbers are from a ~ 200-250 post sampling of hendrix taken at various times during the week (not counting ones that are more feature requests or general comments than support issues), links are mostly from the forums.

Crashes, crashes, crashes. 62
- Startup crashes: 1,2, could be bug 401513 or bug 434403 or an extension
- Non-startup crashes: 1,2,3
Feature changes
- Awesomebar (or things like clearing private data which imply awesomebar) 82
  - This one seems to result in the most angry/vicious/threatening posts/e-mails
- Bookmarks 33
  - Can't find folders in New Bookmarks dialog is the top complaint: 1,2,3,4, filed a bug
  - Also some people ask about sorting bookmarks
- Back/forward navigation 10, but this doesn't include people whose primary complaint was awesomebar
- Security/certificates
Lost bookmarks 19, but this doesn't include people who are asking about importing bookmarks who may have lost them
- 80%-ish have Norton 360-like symptoms
- Here are some others: 1
Extension compatibility
- Real Player Browser Record Plugin 8: 1,2,3

New issues that aren't necessarily the most common but I'm following them since they're new/unexpected.

Slowness on OSX. Firefox is PAINFULLY slow at rendering pages/tabs (like 1-2 min/page, not an issue with Firefox 2 or safari, no extensions.) Also sometimes happens on other OSes but it's unusually common in OSX: 1,2,3 could be bug 443632 or bug 453031
Flash objects lose sound (or Youtube loses sound) 1,2,3 See also: the Adobe KB article
#firefox reports that Java pages, esp Yahoo games won't load for some people, or Java crashes Firefox on some pages (esp Pogo)
Livechat reports that people losing their data/missing data is also common. This is lost bookmarks or sometimes they're randomly in a new profile.

Comments
Can I get feedback as to how I can present this better/make it more useful? Also, I'm lumping a lot of issues together when I go through the forums or hendrix (like all site-specific stuff or all plugin-related stuff.) If there are specific things you think I should be looking for or not lumping together, I'd like feedback.