منتدى دعم ”Firefox“

I’ve not had much success with my online searches to learn the details about what takes place when Firefox syncs browser information across devices. To keep things simple, assume I interested only in syncing bookmarks and staying within the Firefox environment, i.e., no syncing to another browser. Please note that I am NOT asking for help in setting up Sync on different devices or in how to turn Sync on and off. Rather I am seeking help to understand what “sync” means, that is, the details of the sort of information transfers that take place between individual devices and the Firefox Sync server.

Here’s what I currently understand. After signing in to my Firefox account on Device 1, setting up syncing on that device, specifying that I want only bookmarks to be synced, and turning syncing on, the set of bookmarks on Device 1 is sent to be stored on a Firefox server. After that, whenever one is signed in to the Firefox account on Device 1 and syncing is turned on, any changes to the bookmarks on Device 1 will "automatically" (but I don't know how quickly) end up being reflected in the set of bookmarks stored on the server. Fine so far.

In addition to Device 1 I have another device, Device 2 which has not been set up for Firefox Sync. It has its own set of bookmarks. Some of them are also on Device 1, some are not. I sign into my Firefox account on Device 2 and set up syncing on it. I follow the steps for doing this in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-set-sync-my-computer, “Connect additional devices to Sync.” I then click Sync Now. OK, now what happens?

1A. Do the bookmarks in Device 2 get added to the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server? 1B. Do the bookmarks NOT in Device 2 get deleted from the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server?

OR

2A. Do the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server get added to the bookmarks in Device 2? 2B. Do the bookmarks NOT stored in the Firefox Sync server get deleted from the bookmarks in Device 2?

After whatever transfers of bookmark between Device 2 and the Firefox Sync server take place, and assuming that I’m still signed in to my Firefox account on Device 1 and that syncing on that device is still turned on, what sort of transfers of bookmarks takes place between the new set of bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server and the set of bookmarks already on Device 1?

3A. Do the bookmarks then present in the Firefox Sync server get added to the bookmarks in Device 1? 3B. Do the bookmarks no longer in the Firefox Sync server get deleted from the bookmarks in Device 1?

Finally, what happens to the set of bookmarks in Device 1 and Device 2 if I’m simultaneously signed in to my Firefox account, syncing is turned on in both Devices 1 and 2, and a bookmark is a) added to either device OR b) deleted from either device?

I’m sorry this message is so long, but I’ve wanted to be clear about the things I don’t understand in regard to Firefox Sync. I’d really appreciate what anyone can say to help me clarify these points. Thanks so much.

Hello,

I have 3 different profiles and I'd like to have a visual indication of the currently active profile. I've found that using themes is the best option (a red theme for production, green for test, grey for default) but I can't prevent Firefox Sync to sync the active theme between my profiles.

I have set both services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID and services.sync.prefs.sync.lightweightThemes to false and restarted all my Firefox profiles.

After a while, all windows/profiles are synced to the same theme.

Are those settings really read by Firefox Sync ? I'm on Windows 10, Firefox 91.10.0esr (32-bit)

Thanks in advance for your help !

Dear help team,

First of all, thank you for your efforts to help this community. I've been using Firefox for about a decade and this is my first question, I believe.

I recently got a new Macbook. I've installed Firefox to it (my primary browser) and want to sync Firefox to it. I have Firefox on my iMac and my iPhone. However, my password is from 2014 and I can't seem to remember it no matter how many times I try. If I choose a new password, it gives me a warning that I will lose my account information, including my bookmarks, add-ons, history, etc. I really don't want to lose that info! I have spent a long time personalizing my Firefox.

Pleeeease tell me there's some other way to sync Firefox to my new laptop (when I can't remember my super old password).

Thanks in advance for your help! Best, Jason

Hello.

I have been using firefox for a quite while now, I have LOTS of critical data linked to my firefox account (all the passwords, important bookmarks for work, etc)

I completely formatted and reinstalled windows on my pc because it had software issues that made it impossible for me to use my pc, after that I installed firefox , but forgot password for my firefox account, so I reset it with my mail, but now I can not sync to my very important older data that I desperately need.

Is there any way I can recover my data? Please, it is very important for me.

you can check that all the activities happened from same IP address, and that I searched for "windows 7 iso file" using duckduckgo right before I requested password reset

thank you in advance.

I normally use Firefox desktop on my Linux computer.

Last week, I started using it on a public computer running Windows. I installed Firefox Portable and then logged/synced into my Firefox account on this Win computer. I noticed that in the Firefox Portable Windows “about:preferences” page, it says “Your browser is being managed by your organization”, which links to about:policies. In that “about:policies” page, it shows this https://i.imgur.com/JmD8nXg.png Policy Name: DisableAppUpdate Policy Value: true. Now I’m back on my Linux desktop computer and it also has this “managed by your organization” message in “about:preferences” and the same “about:policies” stuff. In other words, it appears that this policy was copied from the Windows public computer to my personal Linux computer. I don’t want that.

How can I undo this? And how can I block this sort of policy syncing?

Netflix no longer works on Firefox. After chatting with their help, I tried it on Google Chrome and it works just fine there. But I want to use Firefox. Can you help.

I have tried this several times over a few years, and have never got it to work I know it must be something I am doing wrong because if it was a glitch or bug, it would have been fixed by now. Usually I need to do this if I need to reinstall the OS, (Windows and Linux), or a new pc, the usual, but this time I had a major crash, so I'm starting over.

Anyway I have signed in on my pc to my FF account, and went through the menu to turn on sync, and I get to the page where is says, "when ready click next to display the QR code". I get my android out, open FF, sign in, click the "Scan" button, the FF scanner opens,, I open the QR code on the pc, (I have also went to the website to get a QR code). Then either way I scan the code, and get an errror msg "Must scan from inside FF". I am scanning from inside FF, with the FF QR scanner.

I don't uinderstand how of the 20 or more times I have tried to do this, I can't get it to work. I don't understand how I screw up every times, over a few years. But I also know as I said, if it was a bug MOzilla would have fixed it by now. Usually I give up on that and just log into both the pc and the phone, close both browsers and reopen them and it will go ahead and sync.

But not this time, I am unable to get it to sync for anything. I've been working on this for 3 days now, and at this point I'm confused, I don't remember what I have and have not done. Let me add, and I don't know if this will make a difference, I don't think so, but what do I know? Originally this all started, when I had to reset my password. I tried for 4 days there to get a recovery code to work. (The following is just to describe what I've done, and is not a second question) I had one downloaded, and saved on my pc. But no matter what route I took to go through the reset process, exactly as described in the help file, I never could get a place to enter the code. I read every article I could about it, and finally it seemed easier to just reset the password and resync than try to get the code to work.

Which is why I am sitting here, desperatly needing to sync my data, but unable to. If anyone can tell me what I need to do I will appreciate it. If you need any more information, just let me know.

Hello, I was reinstalling my OS, and I didn't create recovery code for my data to retrieve it after (which I found out after reinstalling my OS) on my Mozilla Firefox account, I had a lot of passwords, bookmarks and data that I need to recover, also for my full time job a lot of valuable data which I have lost now. I couldn't find any email address so I can address my concern directly, It's why I am posting here. Please help, I am so lost now. I can also provide you with any information needed, just let me know.

Firefox Account Email: [email]@hotmail.com Contact Email: [email]@hotmail.com

I would really appreciate your help, and hoping on resolving my concern in a timely manner.

Blagojche

Following direction on Help Page - Trying to sync tabs, bookmarks etc from one laptop to another. In settings, devices are said to be logged in and sync set to sync pretty much everything. Clicking the menu top right - only shows my email @ the top, then New Tab etc - but nothing about "Sync Now" or "Sign In" What am I missing? TIA, Jean

I know there's [[an article|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sync-custom-preferences#w_sync-custom-preferences]] on how to sync custom preferences. I wanted to sync my toolbar customizations and some other preferences like disabling disk caching. And I don't even have other firefox instances, instead I just want to sync only on one device, so that I can continue the same setup when I signin later on the same device.

I've tried to add services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.uiCustomization.state, "services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.cache.disk.enable" and set it to true. But it doesn't work. What am I missing? No one seems to address this. May I am missing something.

The title pretty much sums it up. I even tried drastic measures such as logging out then completely uninstalling Firefox and removing any leftover data on both platforms. After reinstalling and connecting to the Firefox account they will sync with previous data but any new data I add on Windows won't show up on Android and vice versa. I also obviously tried forcing a sync manually... I really wish I didn't have to switch to another password manager any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

I have a question regarding syncing. Is there a way to remotely remove all synced information from Firefox on a particular PC without actually accessing it? For example, if I sync my home PC Firefox with my laptop or my work PC. Then, one day, for some reason I no longer have access to my work PC, and all of my sensitive information is there. Or if I lose my laptop, or if it is stolen... Is it possible to remove all sensitive information from a remote synced PC? Alternatively, is there a way to remove all synced information every time I close the browser? This way I can remove a particular PC in my Firefox account and once the browser is restarted at the remote location, the data will no longer be pulled and synced. Can this be done? Thanks in advance!

When using "send tab to device", the submenu previously showed all synced devices, in my case, more than 10 devices. Recently it only shows 4 devices and there is no way to access the other ones. Is this broken or is it a recent change? If so, can I revert the behavior with a preference?

Under "manage devices", I still see all of my synced devices, they just don't show up in the "send to device" submenu.

I am using Firefox Developer Edition in a work environment that only saves directories between weekly restarts by explicitly managed rules. As a result of some missing folders from my weekly restarts, I need to sign in to my Firefox account and enable sync each week. Currently my machine retains the %APPDATA%/Mozilla and %LOCALAPPDATA%/Mozilla directories + children.

What other directories are needed by Firefox Developer Edition in Windows to retain the user profile/syncing, et. al.?

Thank you for your time!

Hello:

I have 2 profiles in use. 1 for personal use with their respective bookmarks, passwords, and extensions, and I have no trouble syncing with this one. However; profile 2 that is for work use that has its respective bookmarks, passwords and extensions, has become a nightmare.

It happens that I have both profiles on the same computer and when trying to create an account in Firefox, the system asks me to enter the email registered in profile 1, with the warning that bookmarks, passwords and extensions will be mixed.

I mention that I have migrated from Google Chorme to Firefox for speed reasons and because I use windows 7 (I don't like later versions) Now well; in Google Chrome you could create as many sessions as were registered but in Firefox you can't.

Oh! I have been working fine with Firefox but suddenly an error occurs (it has happened to me 2 times in the last 2 months) in which the program closes and all the data of my profiles stored on the pc DISAPPEARS or is deleted (including cache), when I want to open them again:

firefox.exe -P

Then I have to give myself the task of synchronizing profile 1, but profile 2 I have to be importing from my previous Google account or importing a backup Bookmark.

The option to copy and paste the data from Firefox to replace it in the path (supposedly brings with it the data of everything):

C:\ProgramData\Mozilla-1de4eec8-1241-4177-a864-e594e8d1fb38\updates\308046B0AF4A39CB

with Firefox turned off it has not worked for me. Since when opening I see 2 profiles called Default "X" and Default "Z" without data.

This is a headache that if it happens to me, it happens to millions who have 2 or more profiles.

Why can't I sync a second profile? Why do you insist that there can only be one sync per device? Is there a solution for this?

Note: I have read all the tutorials out there and the situation remains the same. Synchronization with 2 or more profiles is never described.

Thank you very much to whoever asked this question!

According to this support page (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/sync-custom-preferences#), setting ``services.sync.prefs.dangerously_allow_arbitrary`` to True will sync all my preferences.

I have set it to true on the two devices I want to sync (2 desktops, Windows and Ubuntu). However, the preferences are not synced. For example, ``browser.compactmode.show`` keeps its default value "False" on my Ubuntu installation, despite it having the modified value "True" on my Windows installation.

I have tried pressing "Sync now", and restarting the browsers - to no avail.

Could anyone tell me what am I doing wrong?

This all started when i wanted to use a user.js file for firefox.

I followed a youtube video to create a new profile to use the user script but I wanted to change the directory so I deleted it, made it anew and somehow the default profile file that i used was gone (I realised this only later). I think I had somehow overwritten it, but its weird because in my trashbin i did not find anything.

When asking me to login to sync I gave my password but it said it was wrong i realised I was using a vpn so i turned it off and then it worked, however then it asked me for a confirmation code from my email wich I also gave but it still refused saying it was wrong, which it wasn't!

After that I gave up and made a backup of my profiles and resetted my password still thinking I had my old profile file. My logins were gone and copying and pasting the login.json with the key4.db files from other profiles didnt give them back.

Luckily am still logged into my mobile app where i have my logins but there is now a warning sign to reconnect to resume syncronizing and Im afraid if i reconnect its going to delete my saved logins on the app instead of using them.

What do i do now? Is there a way to export all my data from the mobile app? Do I need to copy my logins one for one? Or can everything be resolved by reconnecting?

I'm interested in listing what bookmarks are being synched. You'd think that's the dumbest question on earth. Obviously, just look at my bookmarks Ctrl+Shift+o. There they are. But that's not what I'm asking. I want to see what has been stored on the Mozilla site in the way of bookmarks. I want to see what Mozilla will send to a second device when I get on that second device & tell the Firefox on the second device to synch. And not just bookmarks. I want to see everything that will get downloaded onto the second device when it synchs. I suppose it depends partly on what the second device is: PC, phone, something else. But that doesn't change my question. I'd like to list what is on the Mozilla site in the way of synching data. It's all well & good to say it's doing what it needs to. I think I'm in the trust but verify camp on this subject.