Bug 298711 – REGRESSION (iOS 26): Shopee.sg: sessionStorage/localStorage calls does not work

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: CONFIGURATION CHANGED
• Component: Website Storage

Disclosure: I'm working at Shopee

I received several reports from internal staff who uses iOS 26 Beta that visitting https://shopee.sg/ (or other Shopee sites like https://shopee.co.id https://shopee.com.my https://shopee.vn https://shopee.com.br https://shopee.com.mx etc) on iOS Safari (real device, like iPhone 12 or iPhone 14) having some issue with Safari behavior on setting items on sessionStorage/localStorage.

Our site works by serving a HTML page on the main domain (e.g. https://shopee.sg/ ), and the rest of the scripts are hosted on CDN 'deo.shopeemobile.com'

Here are my observations:

1. During the page load, calls to window.sessionStorage.setItem() and window.localStorage.setItem() does not throw any error, but when we inspected the storage (via iPhone's remote debugging by plugging in cable to a macbook), the value is not set in session storage nor local storage.
2. After the page load settles, some scripts calling sessionStorage/localStorage setItem works again.
3. I also observed that using the remote debugger's console, we can sucessfully call window.sessionStorage.setItem() and window.localStorage.setItem() and it will be actually set in the storage.
4. If I go to iPhone setting > Safari > and I turned off 'Prevent cross-site tracking', things will behave as expected.

I suspect that this is due to Safari's tracking protection mechanism. However there's no such hint to developers what works and what wouldn't. With the imminent release of iOS 26 in a few days, I'm at loss on how to resolve the issue where some functionality of our site is broken due to this

The testing code is something like this:

```
import * as React from 'react';

export default function RouteTestingStorage() {
  React.useEffect(() => {
    try {
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! localStorage.setItem __testEffect');
      localStorage.setItem('__testEffect', '__testEffect');
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! sessionStorage.setItem __testEffect');
      sessionStorage.setItem('__testEffect', '__testEffect');
      globalThis.console.warn(
        '!!debug!! localStorage.getItem __testEffect',
        localStorage.getItem('__testEffect')
      );
      globalThis.console.warn(
        '!!debug!! sessionStorage.getItem __testEffect',
        sessionStorage.getItem('__testEffect')
      );
    } catch (e) {
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testEffect error', e);
    }
    (async () => {
      try {
        const cache = await self.caches.open('__testEffect');
        await cache.put('/__testEffect', new Response('__testEffect'));
      } catch (e) {
        globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testEffect error', e);
      }

      try {
        const cache = await self.caches.open('__testEffect');
        const response = await cache.match('/__testEffect');
        const data = await response?.text();
        globalThis.console.warn(
          '!!debug!! __testEffect response',
          response,
          data
        );
      } catch (e) {
        globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testEffect error', e);
      }
    })();
  }, []);

  const handleClick = React.useCallback(() => {
    try {
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! localStorage.setItem __testClick');
      localStorage.setItem('__testClick', '__testClick');
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! sessionStorage.setItem __testClick');
      sessionStorage.setItem('__testClick', '__testClick');
      globalThis.console.warn(
        '!!debug!! localStorage.getItem __testClick',
        localStorage.getItem('__testClick')
      );
      globalThis.console.warn(
        '!!debug!! sessionStorage.getItem __testClick',
        sessionStorage.getItem('__testClick')
      );
    } catch (e) {
      globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testClick error', e);
    }

    (async () => {
      try {
        const cache = await self.caches.open('__testClick');
        await cache.put('/__testClick', new Response('__testClick'));
      } catch (e) {
        globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testClick error', e);
      }

      try {
        const cache = await self.caches.open('__testClick');
        const response = await cache.match('/__testClick');
        const data = await response?.text();
        globalThis.console.warn(
          '!!debug!! __testClick response',
          response,
          data
        );
      } catch (e) {
        globalThis.console.warn('!!debug!! __testClick error', e);
      }
    })();
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      RouteTestingStorage <button onClick={handleClick}>Click</button>
    </div>
  );
}

```

We found out that in both cases (whether 'effect' or 'click'), localStorage.getItem sessionStorage.getItem returns null

Created attachment 476703 [details]
1

Created attachment 476704 [details]
getItem of localStorage/sessionStorage will always be null here

Created attachment 476705 [details]
getItem of localStorage/sessionStorage will always be null here even on click

Created attachment 476706 [details]
Storage > sessionStorage

Created attachment 476707 [details]
Storage > localStorage

Created attachment 476708 [details]
Prevent cross-site tracking toggle

If I turn this off, then everything will work as per expected

Created attachment 476709 [details]
Storage > localStorage (when Prevent Cross-site tracking is turned OFF)

Created attachment 476710 [details]
Storage > sessionStorage (when Prevent Cross-site tracking is turned OFF)

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/160453528>

[Tim Nguyen (:ntim)]

This was fixed by updating our cross-site tracking list in iOS 26.0.

Thank you very much!