I can't say for sure that FF31 would do it for you. I have a version hacked "Activate Autocomplete" addon installed (that I think mostly does nothing), and a bunch of other undocumented (doh!) changes to internal settings that could affect things. Also, all my instances of Firefox are portable versions which COULD affect things (I think they are supposed to be 100% same as mainstream releases, but...)
Obligatory warning: Firefox 31, security vulnerabilities, old version, blah, blah..... at your own risk.
Recommend grabbing Firefox 31, 42, and/or whatever portable and just play with it. Don't commit to a full reversion. Might be able to do what I do and run a dedicated eBay/PayPal/USPS (or whatever) older Firefox version, alongside your more secure newest version for general use.
The portable versions are here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Mozilla%20Firefox%2C%20Portable%20Ed./
You can run essentially unlimited numbers of the browsers (memory is the constraint). I run 6 or 7 at once: FF2.0.20 (2 windows), FF3.624 (3 instances), FF31, FF11, FF52, and then FF21, FF29, another special FF3.6.24 configuration instance, etc. To run concurrently you just have to make a few minor text file changes. See middle of first post here:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/Firefox-PayPal-Shipping-Label-Printing-Problems-With-N...
Since the forums here just broke FF3.6.24 with their shift to TLS1.1 minimum, I am starting to have the writing on the wall shoved in my face, and see that I'd better start working on making the shift to a newer eBay browser. I had been wasting effort over the last couple of years getting FF31 whipped into shape with addons and tweaks as more things broke in 3.6.24, but going forward should probably devote the effort to FF52 (last Firefox version that can run on Win XP). Unfortunately, looking into your autocomplete issue here has shown me that isn't a slam dunk, and isn't going to be easy. I need to look into this autocomplete issue in more depth, figure out if it's a bug or a solvable issue, and if not, figure out what prior Firefox versions will work. Complication is also the 50-75 addons I use that are mostly not supported in newer versions.
That may take some time though, so don't wait on me
I hated the new feedback page at first, but once I transplanted my old FF3.6.24 formsaved feedback comments into FF31 (new form non-functional in FF3.6.24), and used it for a while I found I can live with it. I never leave bulk feedback anyway.
Obligatory warning: Firefox 31, security vulnerabilities, old version, blah, blah..... at your own risk.
Recommend grabbing Firefox 31, 42, and/or whatever portable and just play with it. Don't commit to a full reversion. Might be able to do what I do and run a dedicated eBay/PayPal/USPS (or whatever) older Firefox version, alongside your more secure newest version for general use.
The portable versions are here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Mozilla%20Firefox%2C%20Portable%20Ed./
You can run essentially unlimited numbers of the browsers (memory is the constraint). I run 6 or 7 at once: FF2.0.20 (2 windows), FF3.624 (3 instances), FF31, FF11, FF52, and then FF21, FF29, another special FF3.6.24 configuration instance, etc. To run concurrently you just have to make a few minor text file changes. See middle of first post here:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/Firefox-PayPal-Shipping-Label-Printing-Problems-With-N...
Since the forums here just broke FF3.6.24 with their shift to TLS1.1 minimum, I am starting to have the writing on the wall shoved in my face, and see that I'd better start working on making the shift to a newer eBay browser. I had been wasting effort over the last couple of years getting FF31 whipped into shape with addons and tweaks as more things broke in 3.6.24, but going forward should probably devote the effort to FF52 (last Firefox version that can run on Win XP). Unfortunately, looking into your autocomplete issue here has shown me that isn't a slam dunk, and isn't going to be easy. I need to look into this autocomplete issue in more depth, figure out if it's a bug or a solvable issue, and if not, figure out what prior Firefox versions will work. Complication is also the 50-75 addons I use that are mostly not supported in newer versions.
That may take some time though, so don't wait on me
I hated the new feedback page at first, but once I transplanted my old FF3.6.24 formsaved feedback comments into FF31 (new form non-functional in FF3.6.24), and used it for a while I found I can live with it. I never leave bulk feedback anyway.
No solution but I have a little more info. @gsquared7
Finally had feedback to leave AND remembered that I needed to do some testing for this issue before absentmindedly leaving feedback in my normal flow in Firefox 31 where the form history does work.
Before leaving feedback I needed to see what Firefox 52 was doing with form history, and possibly graft some saved feedback comments into it. My planned approach was to install the Form History Control (FHC) addon that I use in FF3.6.24 and FF31 with great success. Turns out the addon author is still on top of things, and has even made the transition to Firefox Quantum webextension versions (things work differently there because FF no longer maintains form history the same way and the addon has to use it's own database.)
Anyway, turns out the author worked on new versions up through FF48, and then blasted out a quick final pre-FFQuantum, pre-webextension version (v1.4.0.6) update for FF22-56.
From what I can see, I suspect the changes were minor and mostly just changes to the install.rdf that controls what FF versions it will install in because, although it installed in FF52 just fine, it doesn't work. Options dialog opens but is hidden and completely inaccessible, requiring killing of the browser session, and no menu options appear. (May be because it's a portable version, may be because it's an ESR version, don't know and didn't take time to figure out)
Fired up a SQLite database tool and took a look at some of the formhistory.sqlite files for various versions of Firefox on my machine to see what was going on (since I couldn't use Form History Control in FF52 to see). FF52 formhistory appears to work same as always , it just never gets any eBay feedback comment data to save.
Ok fine. While looking into the FHC failure in FF52, stumbled across a post the author made in the addon reviews at the Mozilla site in response to a user seeing the same FF formhistory issue with not storing search input data in Firefox 39:
The problem is, that this add-on relies heavily on the search history stored by Firefox
itself for simple text-fields (not the editor fields) normally stored after a form-submit. In the case of ebay for example, the searchfield is not stored by Firefox because
of the fancy way eBay is processing this field, and thus it is not stored at all. I will look into this and try to store these custom fields too. Please keep
reporting these anomalies using the Support Site and help me improving this add-on. posted 3 years ago
Pretty much as I suspected. He was saying that eBay started playing games with handling of (some) form fields that are makes the data no longer accessible to the standard Firefox (or Chrome and others too?) form history methods. (It's bit of a reach, but I'm going to say the feedback comment formhistory issue is for the same reason as that poster's eBay search term storage issue. eBay is doing things in a non-standard, non-traditional way.
Now a possible bright spark in all this: note that he said
I will look into this and try to store these custom fields too
The older versions of Form History control that I use are just that - a nice editor management interface to older FireFox version formhistory. What he was saying, is that in future versions of the Form History Control addon, he was going to look into working around that and have the addon grab some of the data Firefox can't and manage it also.
I can't test any of that. I'm using Windows XP, the last version of Firefox that runs on XP is FF52, the addon doesn't work in FF52 (it might with some tinkering or another look, but low priority at the moment), but newer versions that run in FF54, 56 , and FF Quantum versions might have that extra form functionality that he spoke of and solve the problem for some of you.
I don't see any chance of eBay "fixing" anything at this point. They chose to go down the coding path they did for handling form fields on newer eBay pages (seller notes on unsold page, feedback comments, fields on the listing form, etc) and I really doubt they are going to backtrack.
As I type this, it occurred to me that it might be possible to "fix up" some of those form fields using client side JavaScript and "pipe" a copy of the form data into the standard FF formhistory, but that is really stretching my JS skills, I'm not sure that even if it gets into the formhistory it would get used next time form appears without more JavaScript to ram it into the form. Additionally, that approach would require users to run the GreaseMonkey addon in FF to run the script, newer FF versions where this fix is needed need newer versions of GreaseMonkey, and newer FireFox versions and GreaseMonkey versions have far more security restrictions that prevent a lot of operations like this. A Catch-22.
Keep in mind that the info above is from 3 years ago, doesn't address whether the addon author actually did code a workaround into newer versions of his addon, and whether Firefox has any plans to make formhistory in the newer browser versions more robust to handle non-standard methods like eBay uses (if even possible)
Why does FF31 work just fine? I have no idea (yet?). It may be as simple as a browser user agent determination - eBay servers see browser version/brand X, Y, or Z and use method A, they see browser version T, U, or V and use form method 2. Dunno. Would take far too much testing to determine.
That switching may be for JavaScript engine reasons. Fancy newer method 2 requires newer browser JavaScript engine, and uses it when available, otherwise falls back to old std form methods when older browser with older JavaScript engine is found. Firefox made major JS engine changes in versions along the way and other browser likely did also. The poster in the reviews mentioned above was having trouble when he updated to FF39, so that may have been around the time things went south.
TLDNR;
eBay Feedback comments and other form fields not being saved in browser form history for newer FireFox versions and other browsers like newer Chrome versions may be due to eBay changes in the way eBay handles form fields. It's eBay, not you or your browser.
I doubt there will be any "fixes" (it's a feature not a bug), but Firefox users may be able to work around it using the Firefox Form History Control addon (or maybe other addons?) Chrome users, if having the same problem, may find a solution in a Chrome addon of some variety also if one exists.
All guesswork and deduction (I am not a developer)
If I get the time and inclination I may poke at this further and see what is going on with the input fields, but doubt that even if successful (remember, not a developer), it will be of any than other academic interest (took a quick look/stab at it a month ago but saw nothing obvious)
