No user accounts available - Lost custom store location due to firefox extension update

[petzsch]

Hi,

I noticed this morning that the browserpass firefox extension wouldn't show any of my accounts. After some digging I noticed that in the extension configuration the "Custom store locations" where empty.

Setting this again to my nextcloud location, fixed the issue for me.

Hope this helps whoever is looking for a solution for this.

[max-baz]

Uhh that's quite a big thing we've totally overseen 🙈 cc @patgmiller @erayd , it looks like we lost local storage of the background script, i.e. all extension settings & recency data.

I'm not really sure if there is any way we could have saved them, but at the very least this warranted an update notification.

I'm thinking to release 3.10.1 with a notification, unless you think there is any way to have saved the data, for those who haven't updated yet?

Thanks @petzsch for letting us know!

[max-baz]

I opted to act fast and have released 3.10.1 that notifies users about this issue. I can see that it is in theory possible to migrate data, by showing an html page that is auto-opened during update, which would send the settings to new storage, but I don't feel I have the time to do this fast, while the 3.10.0 continues to rollout to other users.

[erayd]

Yikes! I removed & rebuilt the extension when testing during code review, so I was expecting it to happen to mine. Didn't realize there was an actual bug there 😞

Good call on the hotfix!

[AnrDaemon]

In other words, it is better to wait for some future release with migration feature, if you depend on complicated storage configuration?

[max-baz]

I'm open for criticism, but I don't think we will be doing the automatic migration now, with the rollout already happening I think this ship has sailed, and many people would have updated their preferences by hand now... Shipping a new release that will overwrite the current settings with some older ones might be more counterproductive than helpful...

There isn't much complicated storage, most valuable is the preferences that you can put in extension settings -> custom stores, theme, path to gpg binary, etc. And if you haven't changed extension options before, there's nothing to do.

[AnrDaemon]

Yeah, I realized that now. In 99,(9)% configurations, the extension update happens automatically.

[petzsch]

Saw the notification for a short moment on my Mac, not really enough time to read it. was gone in a blink of an eye.

Not sure there is anything that can be done about that. i.e. show it for a bit longer?

[patgmiller]

I'm checking my firefox setup now, though it's on 3.9.0 and when I check for updates says there are none.

Update: I had to remove the "temporary extension" as FF calls it before I could install the published one. When I did get the updated plugin I also lost the settings. I am sorry for the oversight there, were I on the receiving end I would be irritated for sure 😞 . I'll look to see if the api documents anything about loss of existing storage values, not to excuse myself but to see if there was anyway we could have foreseen it.

[patgmiller]

I'm sorry I screwed up big time, this was my mistake. All of these changes, switched to Extension Storage, when I thought it was just an api change and not a storage change. I am truly sorry for the inconvenience.

-    localStorage.setItem("recent", JSON.stringify(settings.recent));
+    chrome.storage.local.set({ recent: JSON.stringify(settings.recent) });

localStorage

chrome.storage.local (Extension Storage)

[max-baz]

Not sure there is anything that can be done about that. i.e. show it for a bit longer?

I just tried a few things, but looks like it's out of our control, it's left to the OS to handle this. I believe on Mac you have an option to see recently dismissed notifications, that might be the only way...