Honor "Reopen in container" over "Always open site in container"

[benyanke]

• Multi-Account Containers Version: 6.1.0
• Operating System + Version: Ubuntu 18.04
• Firefox Version: 67.0.3 in ubuntu snap

Actual behavior

When a site is selected to always open in a container, it's impossible to work around, at least using the tab right-click dropdown "reopen in container".

Expected behavior

When specifically selecting "reopen in container," the user would expect that their explicit choice of container be honored, as I believe this user action would be considered an intentional override of a default value.

Steps to reproduce

1. Setup a site to always open in a container
2. type the URL into a new tab's bar - note that it switches to the container
3. right click on tab, select "reopen in container" and then select any other container
4. Tab reopens in the default container you selected in (1), not the selected container

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[zslayton]

This issue also affects the 'Open this site in your assigned container?' prompt shown here:

Clicking the 'Open in Current container' button always results in using the 'Google' container, regardless of which container I'm currently in (if any).

Firefox 75.0a1 (2020-02-14)
Multi-Account Containers v6.2.0
mac OS mojave

[Solid-Ice8]

I don't know if I'm getting the same results as you.

I assigned "GitHub.com" to "Forums".

I unchecked "Always open 'Forums', At the top, it still says "Forums" (pink colour)
Right-click same tab > Re-open in 'Forums2' (red colour) and it works fine.

Please make sure you DO NOT have "Google Container" add-on installed along with Multi Account Container.

Google Container official add-on page also states you shouldn't have both installed if you plan to use multiple Google accounts. Not only did I quote it, but I've italic and more importantly, bolded

Other Containers
_Google Container leverages the Containers feature that is already built in to Firefox. When you enable Google Container, you may also see Containers named Personal, Work, Shopping, and Banking while you browse. If you wish to use multiple Containers, you’ll have the best user experience if you install the Firefox Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension. You should also check out Temporary Containers .

NOTE: If you are a Firefox Multi-Account Containers user who has already assigned Google to a Container, this extension will not work. In an effort to preserve your existing Container set up and logins, this add-on will not include the additional protection to keep other sites out of your Google Container. If you would like this additional protection, first unassign google.com in the Multi-Account Container extension, and then install this extension._

Additionally, this tab is now opening in Temporary Container as expected as it's not assigned to any specific container tab.

I have just tried re-assigning GitHub to Forums, clicked "Remember decision for this site", and I can STILL right-click same tab, open in Forums2 and it still worked.

[bobpaul]

Expanded/Clarified Steps to Reproduce

1. Open new tab in a container (ex: Personal)
2. Open a site (ex: Mozilla.org)
3. Choose "Always open in [Name of Container]"
4. Open a new tab in "No container"
5. Open the site from Add Acceptance Criteria #2 (ex: mozilla.org)
6. User is prompted to "Open in Current" or "Open in [Name of Container]". Choose "Remember my decision" and "Open in [Name of Container]"
7. Right click the tab and choose "Open in no container".
8. A new tab opens in default and then quickly switches to [Name of Container].

Desired Behavior
Step 8 should open in "No container"

The way I've been "working around" this issue is that in Step 6 I don't choose "Remember my decision". This is generally worse since now I'm frequently presented with a button press. It would be better if the tab ALWAYS opened in my chosen default EXCEPT when I explicitly open in a specific container (ex: right click tab and choose "re-open in", right click link or bookmark and choose "Open Link in New Container Tab...", etc).

[ikurek]

For me, this is a serious issue. I have multiple Google accounts, and I usually use my personal, so I set Firefox to open Google services with "Personal" container as default. When I want to use one of services with my work account, clicking "re-open in Work" still redirects to "Personal" container. This forces me to open my work accounts in private windows, so I don't get redirected to "Private" again. When explicitly stated by user, default settings should be overridden, and card should open in selected container, not the default one.

[pbarney]

I think people fundamentally misunderstand what Containers are, and what they are for. Perhaps someone should explain the difference between Firefox containers and profiles,

[maxxcrawford]

@benyanke's feature request makes sense. As of right now, the context in which a site is opened is not being considered.

Examples:

1. You're in Container A, and click on a website link that is assigned to Container B
2. You're in Container A, and you secondary-click and click "Open link in Container B"
3. You're in a new tab, and type/navigate to URL that is assigned to Container B

As the add-on stands, these requests are all processed the same, and when the request comes in, the add-on checks if it's assigned to another container. In Examples 1 and 3, this is expected behavior. In Example 2, it isn't.

[ikurek]

@pbarney It doesn't really matter in this case. What matters, is the fact, that clicking 'Open site in container A' doesn't always open site in container A. As a user, I would like to have full control over containers and tabs, and I think that explicit user declaration to open site in selected container should be accepted, and not overridden by default setting.

[lonix1]

I realize there's 555 issues in the backlog at the time of this writing, but I think this is the most important of all.

The reason is right there in the name of this extension: "Multi-Account Containers".

That's not something we can do right now.

[grahamperrin]

#1442 (comment)

… I have multiple Google accounts, …

I often work with four separate Microsoft Exchange mailboxes from a single service provider. For each mailbox:

• one bookmark
• one container.

I either use the context menu:

– or use an extension to automatically open the bookmark in the required container.

Essentially: a single container is not always applicable.

[grahamperrin]

#1442 (comment)

… overridden by default setting.

Always is not a default.

[grahamperrin]

… workaround to "Always …

▶ #1222 and/or #1414

@benyanke please close this duplicate … quadruplicate issue. Thank you.

[dserodio]

#1442 (comment)

… overridden by default setting.

Always is not a default.

No offense, but this is nit-picking.

[frozenantler]

@grahamperrin

The reason you are seeing this problem differently than everyone else here is that there are multiple workflows that people use. Please do not force your workflow on users, but provide the power to identity what works best for them.

As it stands, this feature forces a very specific way of using it (Exactly this way) and does not support the ask of this entire issue.

Also, it's a very common software pattern to have a "default" but let it be overridden when the user chooses to. As it stands, this is absolutely NOT possible here.

Let me clarify the use case a little bit more in case it helps. You have 4 microsoft mailboxes, presumably using them all more or less equally. In this case, it does not make sense to have a default. However, imagine if 95% of the time, you used one of them but 5% of the time you used something else. In this scenario, it is annoying to have to jump through the hoops of picking the same container every single time. We are forced to choose between 2 bad options:

1. Don't have a default, manually choose the container every single time.
2. Have a default, and as a workaround, use a different profile, browser, or incognito.

As you can imagine, none of these options are ideal. Is there a specific reason this is not being implemented? Maybe we don't have the resources to get it done but is there a reason this is not even being accepted when it's a clear value for so many people, and honestly the correct way to build software?

[lukasheinz92]

Hello, this issue is open since 2019 and as I can see, some people, including me, logged a new issue with the same problem. My question is, is there any ETA to fix it since it has been open for so long time? I am not a programmer but I guess the solution must be simple, something like adding one condition into a code.

[lukasheinz92]

Hello, any update on this?

[benyanke]

Could we also get the "Feature request" tag changed to "bug fix", since the 'reopen in container [x]' is not working as it ought to be? @kendallcorner

[lukasheinz92]

Hello, any update on this?

[koraa]

Thank you for working on this! Containers are not just a useful feature; they are one of the main reasons I continue to use Firefox.

I would categorize myself as a power user; I use temporary containers for most of my browsing. For sites where I have accounts, I use a dedicated container and employ the "always open site in container" feature.

I use so many containers that the container UI struggles to manage them all, and I am unable to scroll down to the lowermost container in the dropdown menus.

This becomes troublesome for some sites, especially when I have multiple accounts and have to manage them through separate containers, which involves manually opening the site in a specific container. I can not use "Always open in" with these sites.

The situation gets even more complex because I use different VPNs to access websites that are only accessible within specific server infrastructures. I employ socks5 proxies in conjunction with the "container proxies" plugins to make this possible.

It would be splendid if we could transform use cases like these into first-class features:

• Represent the concepts of browsing contexts; for example, one for work, one for accessing work through a VPN.
• Represent the concept of managing multiple accounts.

Each context could be associated with multiple containers, including temporary ones, and could be linked with specific proxy settings.

Within each context, domains could be associated with multiple containers; one container could be used by default (for a primary account), and a well-designed UI could provide the option to open another associated container.

As it stands, I establish different contexts (where I need the full sophistication) in my setup through Linux network namespaces and Firefox instances running side by side. Keeping settings in sync is challenging.

Currently, there is no way to handle multiple accounts other than by choosing not to use the "Always open in container" feature.

[alexolog]

Also very interested in a fix.

[bubbleguuum]

Still a problem...

[mitchh]

I came here to add this request, so +1 from me

[superlopuh]

It seems that the only solution to this is to open the website in a different browser

[zevelorgani]

Please fix this!

[akvadrako]

Always is not a default.

No offense, but this is nit-picking.

I think it's pointing to a solution. What I want is "Open site by default in container X" - but sometimes I want that site in another container. The main use-case for me is AWS accounts – console only lets you be logged into one account at a time and normally I want that in my Work container. By sometimes I need two accounts open so I need that site to open in another container.