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Hi Moz Support,

I've had this happen several times before, but this time it really annoyed me.

I sent tabs from one Firefox instance to another on another device. I closed these tabs on the source device. These tabs were quite old this time, I'd not opened them in a while - this becomes important later.

On the destination device, let's call it "madbilly's destination Firefox", these tabs didn't arrive. After doing a couple of tests where I sent a tab from my mobile to this instance, I realised that this was a similar problem to what I'd had before, which is one where a Firefox instance/profile for some reasons "resets" itself and it seems to create a new instance in Firefox Sync. Tabs which have previously been sent to "madbilly's destination Firefox" don't arrive, because (I think) it's not registered in Firefox Sync as the same instance. These sent tabs, if closed on the source instance (which I did) are lost, unless one reopens the source instance and Ctrl-Shift+T reopens closed tabs. Unfortunately, in this case because the tabs were old and I hadn't opened them for a while there was no way to do this, because Firefox doesn't remember closed tabs which are not stored in memory (another bug, any fix?), except for looking in old session store backups which I'm going to do after I write this post, though I don't know if that will work.

Also, on Android, because it only remembers 10 closed tabs it's not really feasible to retrieve lost sent tabs this way either, and as there's no access to the session store backups the tabs are definitely lost.

Oddly, when this happens "madbilly's destination Firefox" usually appears twice in the send-tab-to menu, but in this case it didn't. To be able to send to this instance I had to sign out of Firefox sync on this instance and sign in again. Then the same instance appeared twice in the sync menu, the old one being now unreachable.

I'd like to know: 1. Why does this happen? 2. How to avoid it happening? 3. Is there a bug registered about this? 4. When will it be fixed and prevented from happening again.

I generally find that this happens when a Firefox instance isn't shut down properly, which on my old desktop I put down to it running out of resources, but on this shiny new laptop from work that doesn't make sense.

All help much appreciated thanks :)

Sehr geehrtes Support-Team,

ich habe seit Kurzem ein Problem mit Firefox auf meinem PC. Es erscheint folgende Fehlermeldung:

   „Das Lesezeichen- und Chronik-System wird nicht funktionieren, da eine der Dateien von Firefox von einer anderen Anwendung verwendet wird. Dieses Problem könnte von einer Sicherheitssoftware verursacht werden, beispielsweise von einem Virenscanner.“

Ich nutze dasselbe Firefox-Konto auf meinem Handy und auf meinem iPad. Dort funktioniert die Synchronisierung der Lesezeichen ohne Probleme. Das Problem tritt nur auf meinem PC auf.

Ich arbeite bereits seit mehreren Jahren mit Firefox und hatte dieses Problem bisher noch nie. In meinen Lesezeichen sind sehr viele wichtige Webseiten gespeichert, deshalb möchte ich diese auf keinen Fall verlieren.

Können Sie mir bitte mitteilen, wie ich dieses Problem beheben kann, ohne dass meine Lesezeichen verloren gehen?

Vielen Dank für Ihre Unterstützung.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Meik

День добрый. Я с 2023 года не выходил с аккаунта. После переустановки системы, и установки новой версии браузера, синхронизация не подтягивает мои данные (закладки, пароли и тд). Данные очень важны, мне остро необходимо их вернуть.

I'm still using the old browser because the new browser, the one before that popped up today, doesn't work well on my old desktop computer. New one today requested to move passwords from cvs file and bookmarks from an html file. When I tried to search for these things my computer couldn't find them. But when I went back to the old browser, all bookmarks passwords are there.

Why is Firefox asking me to perform these functions anyway? There is no explanation as to what this is. Is programming at Mozilla really gone downhill so quickly that they forgot how to make their service user friendly?

I had a phone set up for synchronization, and the tabs were synced. Now, that phone has disappeared from my main phone—the one that listed all the devices—and all the tabs are gone. What should I do?

How can I get my tabs back? 😭

Subject: Firefox Sync appears to have erased all bookmarks after setting up a new Windows installation

Hello Mozilla Support,

I believe I have encountered a Firefox Sync issue that resulted in the loss of my entire bookmarks collection.

Here is exactly what happened:

I have been using Firefox Sync for several years without any issues. This was not my first Windows reinstallation. I have restored Firefox through Sync multiple times before. Firefox Sync had always synchronized bookmarks, passwords, history, extensions and open tabs correctly across my Windows PC and Android phone. I had approximately 350 bookmarks, organized into folders. Timeline Yesterday I performed a clean installation of Windows 11. I installed Firefox 152.0.5 (64-bit). I signed into my existing Firefox Account. I did not immediately enable Sync, so nothing was synchronized at that point. Today I enabled Sync and waited for the synchronization to complete. Passwords synchronized successfully. Browsing history synchronized successfully (it took a little longer). Extensions were restored successfully. Bookmarks never appeared.

Immediately after noticing this, I checked Firefox on my Android phone.

At first, one of the bookmark folders still showed that it contained more than 300 items (I saw the item count), but when I opened the folder it was completely empty. After synchronization finished, all bookmarks disappeared from both devices.

Additional information Browsing history is still present. Saved passwords are still present. Extensions are still present. Open tabs synchronization continues to work. Bookmark synchronization is enabled. I am signed into the correct Firefox Account. The second local Firefox profile is empty. The automatic bookmark backup now contains only the current state (7 items), indicating that the original backup has already been overwritten. The current profile contains both places.sqlite and places.sqlite-wal. The only Sync error log is related to a temporary DNS lookup failure (NS_ERROR_UNKNOWN_HOST) and contains no bookmark synchronization errors.

Because history, passwords and extensions synchronized correctly, this does not appear to be an account or authentication problem.

What concerns me most is that I briefly saw the bookmark folder still reporting over 300 items on Android before it became empty. This makes me suspect that something went wrong during bookmark synchronization rather than the bookmarks simply never existing on the server.

Could you please advise:

Is there any server-side recovery or investigation that can be performed for Firefox Sync bookmark data? Are there any diagnostic logs that I can provide? Is this a known issue with Firefox Sync after connecting a newly installed device?

I would greatly appreciate any assistance, as this bookmark collection had been accumulated over many years.

I have a Sync error log available: error-sync-1783454370913.txt

It only contains a DNS error related to tabs synchronization: NS_ERROR_UNKNOWN_HOST

There are no bookmark-related errors in the log.

Thank you.

No matter what I do, sometimes, Firefox on my phone won't sync and it's driving me crazy to be honest. I don't know why it happens, it has no fixed schedule and it seems to go away on it's own in a seemingly random amount of time. In this instance, as I'm writing this I've been trying to sync with my PC for over an hour and it simply refuses to sync. I've tried restarting, force stoping , clearing cache.. Nothing. In the past I even tried reinstalling and for it to sync it took a while. I'm lost with this bug and it's been happening for a while now, I was hoping for a fix but so far it seems it hasn't come.

Please let me know if additional information is needed.

For years, I've been using FF on desktop (Linux), tablet (Android) and phone (Android - Samsung S24+). Sync has never been a problem until two weeks ago when FF on the phone has either refused to sync when I tapped the command, or hasn't synced for many hours or sometimes days (which is why I tried to do it manually). So, I signed out of my FF account on all 3 devices and then signed back in. The desktop computer and tablet are syncing normally, but the phone still won't sync. When I tap the 3-dot menu on the phone and then my name, it says the phone has NEVER been synced and tapping the sync command does nothing. Under "Choose what to sync", all options are checked, but greyed out. Can't change them, in other words. When I access bookmarks on the phone, it properly shows what was there before the last sync. The phone is running FF version 150.0 Build 2016155439

Help!

sync not working from: desktop to pixel 10 pro. desktop has folders and subfolders.

In addition sync not working from pixel 6 to desktop. pixel 6 is setup with folders and subfolders. There are approx 300 bookmarks

Installed Firefox on new android. When I try to sign in using sync the camera doesn't recognize the QR code on laptop pair screen, turned up brightness, hold closer and further away etc but just doesn't recognize. If I log in using email my passwords, history etc do not transfer.

Hello everyone .

I have used Firefox for years now and I always keep my sync on. When I sign in to a new device, I sync and all my data. I had a problem with my PC today and I downloaded Firefox for mobile on my Android tab. I tried signing in but forgotten my password, I did a reset and logged in and tried to sync but I can't find my previous data. I can't even see any of my previous devices. This is strange because it has always worked

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

Somehow NordVPN caused my Firefox bookmarks on my macbook to be deleted (Nord has caused more problems than I've had in years). Many of the bookmarks are still on FF on my ipad. I've setup sync on both devices (at least I think so), but when I hit the sync button on my mac, the ipad's bookmarks don't appear on my macbook. On my ipad mozilla account 'everything I'm using and signed into' shows the macbook was active 7 minutes ago, and the 'sign out' box is available, so I must be signed in. Firefox on my iphone is the same. Any suggestions. It's getting to the point where it would be easier to setup new bookmarks.

Obligatory, I apologize if this question has already been asked or worked out elsewhere. But I have tried searching for a solution on the forums here and not one solution could be found, so here I am:

At the time of setting up my Linux PC for Firefox Sync, I was signed into my Firefox account on my mobile but syncing had been paused on my mobile for some reason or another. No biggie right? Should just be able to enter my credentials into my PC browser and start syncing right away? In the past when I had got signed into sync on the PC, everything across the board would sync as I had just my bookmarks, add ons, and settings set to sync. Bookmarks would load right up, all my add on prompts would open their own tabs to finish setting up, and everything was peachy.

However, when I went to get things setup on my new PC today, using the proper credentials and all kinds of authentication methods, I am able to sign into my firefox account on my PC with no issue, except for the fact that nothing is syncing up with my existing mobile account.

I have done everything I know that is in my power to do, with the exception of reinstalling my mobile app (will lose my bookmarks if I do), I have uninstalled and reinstalled on my laptop, signed out of both devices and signed back in with my account credentials to no avail. I went so far as to just create a new Firefox account with a separate email address, and using the NEW email address when signed into both, I am looking at the "Sync Now" button on my mobile with hatred, because clicking on it literally does nothing. It shows as last synced being "Never". My PC is logged in to Firefox now with the new email address and clicking sync there, it will run through the normal process but as there seems to be no data coming from my my mobile, it syncs nothing. I can see both devices under "Connected Services" as well.

I know I screwed up somewhere and now the entirety of my life's favorite bookmarks and websites are stuck on my phone. To my understanding there is no JSON style file created in Firefox mobile, with no ability to manually export. I am not above manually going line by line through each bookmark and just adding them one at a time into my PC, but I would rather not.

In summary:

- PC is not syncing to mobile bookmarks which are very much still in existence - Creating a new Firefox account and restarting the sync process from scratch does not work - As of creating and logging into the new firefox account, clicking sync does absolutely nothing on mobile, and still shows as having never been synced

Why doesn´t the new checklist widget (that apperas on a new tab) sync between my different computers?? As it is now, it is totaly useless. If i create a checklist on my homecomputer (logged in with my firefox account) it does not show up on my work computer (also logged in with my firefix account). Eveveything else is syncing fine, but not the widgets...

You can help by letting my sync be turned on so you can see I've only one device and quit asking me to keep signing in a device already signed in . Then you might not be confused about how many devices I'm actually using

Hello,

I have been using the same Firefox Account with Firefox Sync for several years.

I always reinstall Windows using a full disk format, and I have done this many times over the years. I have never signed out of my Firefox Account before reinstalling Windows, and Firefox Sync has always restored all my passwords, bookmarks, history and other synced data without any issues.

This time, after performing the same clean Windows installation and installing Firefox again, I signed into the same Firefox Account using the correct email address and two-factor authentication (Authenticator app).

I have verified that:

I am signed into the correct Firefox Account. Two-factor authentication works correctly. Firefox Sync is enabled for Passwords, Bookmarks, History, Tabs, Add-ons and Settings. Only the two new passwords I created after reinstalling Windows are present. All previously synced passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs and other data are missing. My Mozilla Account now shows only the new device. The previous computer is no longer listed.

I also checked the Firefox Sync log. It contains entries such as:

No metadata record Fresh start Wiping server data

Since I have successfully restored my Firefox data after many previous clean Windows installations using this same Firefox Account, this behavior is unexpected.

Could you please check whether my Firefox Sync storage still existed before this device connected, or whether it had already been reset or become empty?

Is there any possibility that my previous Sync data can still be recovered from the server?

Thank you for your time and assistance.