Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b5) Gecko/20051006 Firefox/1.4.1 Installing 1.5beta2, I deleted most of the FF directory, leaving only plugins and search plugins. As the installer automatically overwrites files, this usually updates plugins which have changed. I assumed the same was true for searchplugins. However, while plugins was simply updated, searchplugins was deleted and replaced. Although bug 123315 means that by default new search plugins are added to the user profile, this is not how I (and I guess many others) use FF. I often "zap" my profile for testing reasons, rescuing oly my bookmark file. Having to do the search plugins too would be a pain. I also don't want all of the default plugins (I'm not in the US, so things like ebay.com are of little interest). Finally, te sort order of the plugins has the user plugins and program file plugins separated out. But I like a simple alphabetical list. I guess in a corporate-type environment the default search plugins is also likely to be highly modified. I don't see why plugins is simply overwritten, preserving any additions, but searchplugins is deleted and replaced. This is annoying to me, but is also inconsistent. If the installer is going to clean out the FF directory, it should do the lot, and probably give a warning too.

(In reply to comment #0) > I don't see why plugins is simply overwritten, preserving any additions, but > searchplugins is deleted and replaced. This is annoying to me, but is also > inconsistent. According to bug 306576 comment 29 and bug 306576 comment 30, it seems intentional.

(In reply to comment #1) > According to bug 306576 comment 29 and bug 306576 comment 30, > it seems intentional. Yes okay. But why is plugins left alone, then? Treating the two directories differently seems odd to me, as both contain third-party data.

*** Bug 314137 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Based on dupe, seems to me other people thing this is odd too. Marking NEW

(In reply to comment #4) > Based on dupe, seems to me other people thing this is odd too. Marking NEW Isn't it too late for 1.8 branch?

We're doing this because we renamed many of the localized searchplugins (google-fr and not just google).

(In reply to comment #6) > We're doing this because we renamed many of the localized searchplugins > (google-fr and not just google). > Okay, but I still feel that there should be a warning. I still think the behaviour is inconsitent wrt the plugins directory, which is left alone.

WONTFIX is reasonable. So it there any chance to give users warning at Release Note or somewhere? This is not a serious problem at least to me, but I guess some of users (especially good old mozilla fans) might get shocked as well as the reporter did. We need some kind of excuse in advance (and we should advertise the merit of bug 306576, say, Better Handling of Localized Search Engines!! etc.). CCing Asa.

*** Bug 314579 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to comment #9) > *** Bug 314579 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** > How is the bug a duplicate of this bug? My problem did not occur -until- I installed the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update. The bug does not occur on my Windows XP Firefox or my Powerbook's Mac OS X 10.4.2. I'm not questioning your judgement, but I don't understand the reasoning.

*** Bug 315698 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 314812 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 318196 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 318834 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 315698 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

upon the new install, there should have been a warning to users that there search engines would be erased. no warning of this is unacceptable as the files cannot be recovered, and some people may have had many search engines installed that the could have at least written down for the upgrade. please provide a warning!!

*** Bug 323929 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 327499 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I just fell victim to this issue, and "WONTFIX" is absurd. A program that boasts and fosters extensibility should not, by design, remove installed extensions during a minor version upgrade. Less inconvenient than offensive, this is precisely the kind of discourteous time-wasting "feature" that prompted the open source movement.

*** Bug 321300 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

The Mozilla-recommended circumvention (given in what I felt were haughty tones), per a separate bug (bug 429516) I filed on this same issue, is to move one's search plugins into a specific profile's search plugins folder. But if one "protects" ones customized search plugins by moving them into a per-profile folder, the installer continues to add unwanted plugins to the default profile. So for a start, I frankly find it mildly offensive that Mozilla has unilaterally decided that I "must" have built-in search capabilities for Amazon.com and eBay.com, et al. Also, what if one has multiple profiles that use the same custom search plugin? Are we compelled to copy that plugin to all the profiles that use it? Upgrades should respect customizations. With regard to search customizations, Firefox's installer doesn't. Fix it, please. Or if it simply can't be fixed, at least provide native capabilities for managing search engines across profiles so that it's easier to repair the unwanted damage...

(In reply to comment #24) > But if one "protects" ones customized search plugins by moving them into a > per-profile folder, the installer continues to add unwanted plugins to the > default profile. So for a start, I frankly find it mildly offensive that > Mozilla has unilaterally decided that I "must" have built-in search > capabilities for Amazon.com and eBay.com, et al. You should hide these unwanted plugins through "Manage search plugins" window. They will remain in /searchplugins directory of application, they will be updated with application, it will be possible to restore them, but they will not appear in Firefox (unless you restore them manually) > Upgrades should respect customizations. With regard to search customizations, > Firefox's installer doesn't. Fix it, please. All your customizations should be stored in your profile directory and updater respects it. As I understand there was a redesign in Firefox 1.5 that moved custom search plugins to user's profile directory. Don't you think it's now too late to turn it back? (All this was already mentioned in bug 429516 comment 2) > Also, what if one has multiple profiles that use the same custom search plugin? > Are we compelled to copy that plugin to all the profiles that use it? I think it is not so difficult. Even if you have TOO many profiles you can write batch file/shell script to do that. > at least provide native capabilities for managing search engines across > profiles so that it's easier to repair the unwanted damage... Don't think this feature will be useful for most users to include it in Firefox.