Waterfox Current initially can not use (but can downgrade, or import from) a profile that was used by a superior build of Waterfox Current

[grahamperrin]

From https://old.reddit.com/comments/dnmecu/-/f5fbxyk/:

As far as I know:

• for as long as Waterfox Current will be based on Firefox ESR 68, it should be possible for an inferior version e.g. 2019.10 (20191022131008) to use a profile that was touched by a superior version

Logically – given (a) the Waterfox Current user base; (b) soft launch scenarios; and so on – it should be possible. Desirable, sooner or later.

Actually it's not (or not yet) possible.

A fluffy example:

• Waterfox Current 2019.10 (20191015121210) can not use a profile that was used by Waterfox Current 2019.10 (20191023104314).

– "fluffy" because I can think of no reason for _anyone_ to prefer 20191015121210.

Inherent protection; the Mozilla code base. A sane base, but it's likely to be perceived as troublesome in a future Waterfox scenario, so it's worth raising this issue (meta, tracking: #538) – maybe to be closed WONTFIX, but let's have a record.

With Waterfox Current alone, there is no easy workaround. False! Sorry. See https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/1241#issuecomment-547165604 below.

---

A workaround does exist, however it's as _ugly_ (potentially troublesome) as it is _easy_ so I'll make it a separate comment, to be voted down.

[grahamperrin]

Here's a screen recording of the ugly workaround.

(I just realised, there's an alternative workaround that's sane, but I'll go ahead and share what's below as an example of an approach that's bad; likely to be troublesome.)

Attention to the command lines:

• https://put.re/player/e9pwa2zV.mp4
• Waterfox Classic as a bad workaround to profile protection in Waterfox Current.zip

In a nutshell:

• this workaround involves Waterfox Classic
• end users of Waterfox Classic are not may be likely to fall into this trap; Waterfox Current profile must be explicitly chosen #1246
• ugly because there may be unknown negative consequences of non-supported downgrade actions.

[grahamperrin]

Sane workaround

At the command line:

--migration

[MrAlex94]

https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/commit/96d1f39987b16d86555302c3c7351c7825ca4412

So that was the change - I’ll see if I can reproduce that bug; I have no
idea why the builds would do that - there were no changes in the toolkit
code for this. Thanks!

On Mon, 28 Oct 2019 at 21:43, Graham Perrin [e-mail]
wrote:

From https://old.reddit.com/comments/dnmecu/-/f5fbxyk/:

As far as I know:

• for as long as Waterfox Current will be based on Firefox ESR 68, it
  should be possible for an inferior version e.g. 2019.10
  (20191022131008) to use a profile that was touched by a superior
  version

Logically – given (a) the Waterfox Current user base; (b) soft launch
scenarios; and so on – it should be possible. Desirable, sooner or
later.

Actually it's not (or not yet) possible.

A fluffy example:

• Waterfox Current 2019.10 (20191015121210) can not use a profile that
  was used by Waterfox Current 2019.10 (20191023104314).

– "fluffy" because I can think of no reason for anyone to prefer
20191015121210.

Inherent protection; the Mozilla code base. A sane base, but it's likely
to be perceived as troublesome in a future Waterfox scenario, so it's worth
raising this issue (meta, tracking: #538
https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/538) – maybe to be closed
WONTFIX, but let's have a record.

With Waterfox Current alone, there is no easy workaround.

A workaround does exist, however it's as ugly (potentially troublesome)
as it is easy so I'll make it a separate comment, to be voted down.

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[grahamperrin]

Reopening this as a documentation issue – #582 – I imagine a single-sentence, single-paragraph answer amongst FAQ with a link to a separate page about:

• supported downgrades e.g. from Waterfox Current to Waterfox Current
• non-supported downgrade scenarios e.g. to Waterfox Classic
• import/migration.

@MrAlex94 probably not a bug.

Gut feeling: let's not attempt to override the protection.

[grahamperrin]

@MrAlex94 PS (no rush) if you can remove the quoted text from your comment, doing so will probably cease the link with bug tracking issue #538. I mean, I no longer see this as a bug :-)

[grahamperrin]

Inherent protection; the Mozilla code base. A sane base,

For readers who may be unfamiliar with this approach to protection: two screenshots borrowed from https://www.reddit.com/comments/dnmecu/-/f5gl7r0/?context=1.

In this case (without showing any build ID):

• www/firefox 70.0_2,1 could not use a profile that was used by 70.0_3,1.

---

In as few words as possible:

• both installations were of the same version of Firefox
• whilst one is recognisably 'older' than the other, the recognition is not time-based
• protection is a good thing.

[laniakea64]

@grahamperrin Did you try just starting Waterfox Current with --allow-downgrade command-line option?

[grahamperrin]

@laniakea64 even better! Thanks. Sorry I didn't think to check available options.

https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Command_Line_Options#User_Profile

Confirmed: the option is effective.

[grahamperrin]

Reopening solely for documentation purposes. Not a bug.

https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/1241#issuecomment-547168365 above is expanded to three bullet points.