Today, bug 177175 is still unresolved in general.

We had introduced a workaround in bug 1610390, that had improved the situation for Linux and Windows.

Unfortunately the workaround did not work on macOS in Thunderbird versions 78.x and 91.x, so it was kept disabled for macOS (see bug 1612456).

In the meantime we've gotten positive test results that the workaround from bug 1610390 is working in Thunderbird 102.x !

Therefore I suggest that we enable the workaround from bug 1610390 by default for TB 102 and later versions on macOS, too.

The suggestion is to enable pref security.prompt_for_master_password_on_startup by default on macOS, too.

FYI, works for me in TB 91.11.0. About TB dialog and Preferences tab open just fine with this flag enabled. I just filed this blocker bug 1778922.

I realize Wayne might not be set up to review patches in phabricator.

Wayne, does it make sense to ask you for review of this default preference change, or would you prefer if I ask someone else?
If you are willing to r+, just say here in a comment.

The change makes sense to me. But I am not a code reviewer.

We should ask beta users on mac to test this.

Comment on attachment 9284713 [details]
Bug 1778725 - Use master password unlocking at Thunderbird startup time on macOS. r=mkmelin

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): -
User impact if declined: mac users with master password face multiple prompts on startup
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): needs testing on beta
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): rather low, the code is working fine on other platforms, and the only known side effect on macos can no longer be reproduced

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #6)

We should ask beta users on mac to test this.

How should we ask them? Posting on the tb-beta list?

Note, if we have a good channel to ask, we could even ask release users of 102 to test this, they could manually flip the pref.

Pushed by geoff@darktrojan.net:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/e53c07a17b7d
Use master password unlocking at Thunderbird startup time on macOS. r=mkmelin

Comment on attachment 9284713 [details]
Bug 1778725 - Use master password unlocking at Thunderbird startup time on macOS. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

We don't really have a good way to get 102 feedback, but beta certainly can be posted to the forum.

Thunderbird 103.0b5:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/4d0ed30d624c

103b5 (macos) has definitely changed/fixed this for me! Now I get just one prompt on startup before the main window shows up. Before the main window would show up and then I'd get the multiple prompts. So much better!

As the reporter of bug 1778010, I can confirm this is fixed on macOS 10.13. :)

(In reply to Kai Engert (:KaiE:) from comment #9)

Note, if we have a good channel to ask, we could even ask release users of 102 to test this, they could manually flip the pref.

I can confirm that on 102.1.0, by following the recommended workaround (in #1), the duplicate password prompt goes away.

Time to uplift to 102?

Comment on attachment 9284713 [details]
Bug 1778725 - Use master password unlocking at Thunderbird startup time on macOS. r=mkmelin

[Approval Request Comment]
see comment 7

Comment on attachment 9284713 [details]
Bug 1778725 - Use master password unlocking at Thunderbird startup time on macOS. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

Thunderbird 102.2.0:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/1f7d4195a745