Hotmail quirk, X-n 4.1.7 & Firefox 57.0.1 x64

Submitted by dafunk on Thu, 11/30/2017 - 10:50

Forums:

Tobwithu,

Thank you for sharing your work for all these years & putting in the new work to accomidate the Firefox WebExtension API changes.  I find your add-on quite helpful.

I am using X-n 4.1.7 & Firefox 57.0.1 x64 on Windows 7 x64.  I have configured Firefox to clear my cookies & cache when Firefox is closed.  I've noticed that the check of my hotmail accounts fails when Firefox is first opened.  If I click one of the accounts I am taken to the login page, https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=13 ....  This creates cookies for 3 domains, live.com, login.live.com, & outlook.live.com.  I do not need to login & can close the tab.  After the login page is visited X-n can check my hotmail accounts without issue.

I didn't see this issue posted elsewhere & I suspect most people are not clearing cookies on close as I am.  I can reproduce this issue in a new Firefox profile and manually adding (not importing) a few hotmail accounts to X-n.  Let me know if there is additional inforation I can provide.

Thank you again for sharing your work.

RpD

Thu, 11/30/2017 - 15:32

I set my cookie clearing on Firefox exit, and got the same initial results as you... red accounts and clicking them resulted in login page.  However...

You can either simply click 'Check now', or... wait for the check interval period to timeout ...and the accounts will be checked.  At least, that's how it works for me.  Even before setting this exit expiration (I wasn't clearing cookies), I had an anomaly where my primary gmail would be checked, but my secondary gmails would initially be red... but using either 'Check now' or simply waiting the default check time interval showed that the accounts would be checked and return to a black status, or bold black for new emails.

dafunk

Mon, 12/04/2017 - 08:20

Hello RpD, I see you post frequently, are you part of the official support / developement staff or just a helpful user?

Using the check now option or waiting for the check interval only works if you have already visited the login page & the 3 live.com cookies have been received.  I'm sure the add-on is capable of making an http get request, perhaps the dev would make this part the process so the manual visit to the login page is not required.

I'm sorry to hear about your gmail issue but am unclear how it pertains to this thread.

Thanks

RpD

Mon, 12/04/2017 - 08:35

No, I'm not official.

Well... for me, Check now or the timeout period DOES work when I have cookies set to clear when I close Firefox.

My gmail is an example of how an account shows red, but is inconsequential since it is checked anyway within minutes in the next periodic mail check or anytime one does a manual 'Check now'.
I guess you've tried clicking 'Check now'... to see if it is checked.
Good luck with your situation.

dafunk

Thu, 12/07/2017 - 08:34

Go it, thank you for the reply.  I'm perplexed that it's working differently for you.  After seeing your response I checked the operation again and if I haven't hit the login page & firefox does not show the live.com cookies, the accounts do not get checked.  The "check now" will cycle through the list of accounts but none show any mail, nor is there the little "Outlook" icon next to the name of any accounts.  It appears that while it's trying to check these, it is not successful for me without the live.com cookies in place.

Thanks again for your time.

RpD

Fri, 12/08/2017 - 22:57

Testing results...  FF 57.0.1, X-N 4.1.7 on Windows 10, Fall Creators Updated ...64bit system.

I cleared all my saved logins.
Turned off remembering logins/passwords.
Cleared cookies.

Set FF Options, Privacy & Security, History to...
Use custom settings...
  (not) Always use private browsing mode
  (not) Remember browsing/download history
  (not) Remember search/form history
  Accept cookies... (did not set any exceptions)
  Accept third-party cookies [Always]
  Keep until [I close Firefox]
  Clear history when Firefox closes (Settings - Clear everything)

And... my installation of Firefox 57.0.1, X-Notifier 4.1.7 will check everything, but leaves my three Gmail accounts red on the initial opening try.  If I click Check Now (or wait the default check interval), all my accounts are checked including Gmails. I don't have to click an account to go to login page.
When I restart, it still shows saved logins empty and cookies empty.

If I set my Options, Privacy/Security, History to  "Always use private browsing mode", with checkmarked Accept cookies..., and Accept third-party cookies [Always] ...everything else being grayed out... I can Show Cookies and there are none listed. No saved logins listed. And restarting FF, XN checks all but my Gmails, but they will be checked if I click Check Now or wait the the default check interval... without going to any login pages.
Saved Logins still remains empty, Show Cookies remains empty.
FF is also giving me a little yellow triangle exclamation mark on my FF settings/controls menu icon, and telling me to reconnect to sync... so apparently I'm not connected to online settings... and not giving XN any online assistance in this situation. 
So I reconnected my sync and that login is the only one saved, although the setting to save logins remains unchecked.

I also updated to FF 57.0.2 and X-Notifier 4.1.8.  No changes in operation.

I also have Portable Firefox 56.x installed and updates turned off, with X-Notifier 3.5.23 (with script updates from in the forums) also with updates turned off.  When I set up History the same as above and emptied Saved Logins and Cookies... of course, X-Notifier accounts were emptied... so, on restart, I had to Import my accounts Exported backup.  Then both Saved logins and cookies were shown in Portable FF Options, with X-N 3.5.23 accounts persisting on restart... and everything checked (no red accounts ...X-Notifier 3.x hasn't had the trouble with Gmails like in 4.x above... and I can check multiple accounts such as three Facebooks).  Then... I set 'Always use private browsing mode' and saved logins and cookies up to that time remained after restarting so X-Notifier 3.5.23 continues to work fine.

That's the end of my testing. 
(I'm going to leave the extra security in place until it becomes a problem.)

Do you run any other add-ons?  Or security/blocking/clearing software?
(or maybe it's a Win7 quirk ...not ;)

dafunk

Sat, 12/09/2017 - 05:16

Well you're obviously getting different results than I am.  I do run uBlock Origin but have no other add-ons installed except XN.  When testing XN in a new profile I did not have any add-ons installed except XN.  The behavior of XN is the same in my "real" firefox profile as my testing firefox profile.

The only difference between your settings & mine is "Accept third-party cookies [Always]".  I was using "From Visited".  I changed this to "Always" in my testing firefox profile & had the same results as when using "From Visited".

As you have pointed out, this is only a minor inconvienance & it is easy to work around.  Hopefully the developer will sort it out.  If not, that's fine too.  I'm grateful for all the work the dev has put into the add-on.  In its current form XN is still considerably more convient than checking accounts manually.

Thank you for your time.

CFBancroft's picture

CFBancroft

Mon, 12/04/2017 - 08:38

CFBancroft (me), RpD and jeroen, all of us are just a helpful XN user!