P3A measurements maybe causing UI hangs (disable temporarily)

[rillian]

Desktop

1. Fresh profile
2. Create 4 or more tabs
3. Change your default search engine to Brave (if not already set). Then change default to Ecosia.
4. Disable sponsored images
   • Desktop new tab > Customize > Show Background Images

Check the following:

1. View brave://local-state
2. Search for Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated; verify value is correct (2 or more)
3. Search for Brave.Search.SwitchEngine; verify value is correct 3
4. Search for Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled; verify value is 0
5. Verify some of the values have a sent as true

Android

1. Fresh profile on a previous version before Temporary work-around for P3A (if there is a hang) brave-core#10940 landed
2. Create 4 or more tabs
3. Change your default search engine to Brave (if not already set). Then change default to Ecosia.
4. Disable sponsored images
   • Android brave://settings > New Tab Page > Show Sponsored Images)

Check the following:

• ensure that the previous data isn't being removed when upgrading
• ensure that new data isn't being added into brave://local-state after upgrading

See #19280 (comment) for examples.

Description

After the 1.31.90 rollout, many users, mostly on Android but perhaps some also on desktop reported ui hangs. Since this is correlated with the first P3A submission window after #18224 was uplifted to release, it may be prudent to revert the change until we understand the issue better.

Steps to Reproduce

Unknown

Actual result:

Expected result:

Reproduces how often:

Desktop Brave version:

Android Device details:

• Install type (ARM, x86):
• Device type (Phone, Tablet, Phablet):
• Android version:

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel?

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards?
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?

Miscellaneous Information:

[rillian]

It seems the problem was first seen on v1.31.87, while the P3A Search Engine Switch change landed on v1.31.88 so this is unlikely to be the cause. releases 1.31.88 and 1.31.89 didn't reach full roll-out on Android because of other issues, so 1.31.90 is the first with wide adoption.

[bsclifton]

P3A temporarily disabled on Android with brave/brave-core#10940 - we'll want to re-enable after we find the root cause

[bsclifton]

Created #19302 as a follow up - so we don't forget to re-enable at some point

[GeetaSarvadnya]

Verification passed on

Brave | 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 6a1600ed572fedecd573b6c2b90a22fe6392a410-refs/branch-heads/4638@{#984}
OS | Windows 10 Version 21H1 (Build 19043.1288)

• Verified the test plan from P3A measurements maybe causing UI hangs (disable temporarily) #19280 (comment)

Case 1: New user

• Installed 1.31.91 opened a bunch of new tabs and changed search engine from Brave to Ecosia and disabled BG images via NTP

Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated	Brave.Search.SwitchEngine	Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled

Case 2: Existing user

• Installed 1.31.88 opened a bunch of new tabs and then upgraded the profile to 1.31.91 and changed search engine from Brave to Ecosia and disabled BG images via NTP

Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated	Brave.Search.SwitchEngine	Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled

[stephendonner]

Verified PASSED using

Brave	1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69 (Official Build) (x86_64)
Revision	6a1600ed572fedecd573b6c2b90a22fe6392a410-refs/branch-heads/4638@{#984}
OS	macOS Version 11.6.1 (Build 20G224)

Steps:

1. new profile
2. opened 9 tabs
3. changed my default search engine to Ecosia
4. disable sponsored images via new tab > Customize > Show Background Images - toggled to Off
5. opened brave://local-state
6. searched for Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated; verified value of 3 corresponds to the 9 to 20 tabs, per https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/P3A#q25-on-average-how-many-new-tab-pages-did-you-create-per-day
7. searched for Brave.Search.SwitchEngine; verified value of 3 is correct
8. searched for Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled; verified value is 0
9. verified some of the values have sent as true

example	example	example	example	example	example

---

Verification passed on

Brave	1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	6a1600ed572fedecd573b6c2b90a22fe6392a410-refs/branch-heads/4638@{#984}
OS	Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Verified the above test plan

Verified Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated value of 3 corresponds to the 9 to 20 tabs, per https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/P3A#q25-on-average-how-many-new-tab-pages-did-you-create-per-day
Verified Brave.Search.SwitchEngine value of 3 is correct
Verified Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled value is 0

[kjozwiak]

Verification PASSED on Samsung S10+ running Android 11 using the following build:

1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Clean Profile/New User

• ensured that Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated, Brave.Search.SwitchEngine & Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled weren't being logged under brave://local-state on a clean profile on 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Previous/Upgraded Profile/User

• ensured that previous data from brave://local-state isn't being removed when upgrading to 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69
• ensured that P3A cohorts are not being updated after updating to 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Found #19324 while running through verifications. Looks like we're re-enabling P3A whenever an upgrade is done on Android.

---

Verification PASSED on Samsung Galaxy Tablet A running Android 11 using the following build:

1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Clean Profile/New User

• ensured that Brave.NTP.NewTabsCreated, Brave.Search.SwitchEngine & Brave.NTP.SponsoredImagesEnabled weren't being logged under brave://local-state on a clean profile on 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Previous/Upgraded Profile/User

• ensured that previous data from brave://local-state isn't being removed when upgrading to 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69
• ensured that P3A cohorts are not being updated after updating to 1.31.91 Chromium: 95.0.4638.69

Found #19324 while running through verifications. Looks like we're re-enabling P3A whenever an upgrade is done on Android.