Tab reverts to previous URL on race condition of Sync feature

Sstonekyx · Dec 17, 2023

How did it happen

Go to a URL: https://news.ycombinator.com
Disable sync in Settings: App menu ("Orion RC") -> Settings -> Sync -> Uncheck cross-device sync
Go to another URL in the same tab: https://www.amazon.co.jp
Enabel sync in Settings again.

What happened

Once sync is enabled again, the tab URL will be reverted back to https://news.ycombinator.com immediately, without any warning.

Note

If you want for too long between steps 3 and 4, the problem may not reproduce.
Sometimes the problem happens even without disabling/re-enabling Sync feature. Just normal browsing, and it can suddenly revert to previous page, or even reopen previously closed tabs, supposedly if background sync happens at a special timing.
I couldn't test this in a clean profile, because I don't know how to make another non-default profile synced to iCloud. In the profiles management window, there is no button to make a profile synced or not, and even if I make another profile default, it doesn't appear to be synced. Obviously, if a profile is not synced, this problem wouldn't reproduce.

What did you expect to happen

When sync is enabled again, newly opened URL should remain open.

0.99.126.4.1-rc (WebKit 618.1.2)

Sonoma (14)

Sstonekyx · Dec 17, 2023

On a side note, you should really have better QA for new versions, especially when the browser gets more complex and have more features as it grows. I understand that users need to provide detailed reproducing steps when reporting bugs (which I think I did above), but there are, and will be, very annoying bugs that's also hard to reproduce. Developers need to spend more time to test it yourselves, since you know more about the internals.

It's an early-stage produce for sure, and I'm glad to help, not just by reporting bugs but also by a small amount of money every month. But I honestly felt worried when a new RC version introduce new bugs together with new features. Sorry if you already spent a lot of time on regression tests. I hope the product can succeed!