Forum der Gemeinschaft Firefox

Hello Mozilla Support Team,

I am experiencing a critical Firefox Sync issue and would like to request your assistance.

I recently installed Firefox on a new Windows system and signed in using the same Firefox Account that I have used for a long time. Although my account shows recent activity (last connection around mid-February), none of my synced data has been restored on the new installation.

The missing data includes:

Saved passwords (logins)

Bookmarks

Firefox preferences/settings

I have carefully checked the Sync logs (about), and they indicate that collections for passwords, bookmarks, history, and preferences do exist on the Sync server. However, the new profile does not download or apply these records, and Sync appears to treat the new local profile as authoritative.

I suspect that repeated sign-ins and sync attempts from a fresh profile may have caused my previous data to be overwritten or made inaccessible, even though the server still reports existing collections.

Given the importance of this data, I would like to ask:

Is it possible to restore my Firefox Sync data (passwords, bookmarks, and preferences) from a snapshot or server-side state from approximately 20 days ago?

Is there any way to force a full restore from the server instead of uploading the empty local profile?

Are server-side backups or recovery options available in cases like this?

I fully understand that Firefox Sync uses end-to-end encryption, but since the data was previously accessible under the same account, I am hoping there may still be a recovery option.

Please let me know if you need any additional information, logs, or identifiers from my account or device to investigate further.

Thank you very much for your time and support.

Kind regards, [edited email from public community support forum]

Hi.

I had to install a new OS disk. So, I created an account, and made a synchronization. Then, I made a security backup. When I installed the SO and Firefox, I logged in to sync. As soon as I logged, it automatically started to sync the random tiles it had after install. So, I had to use the places.sqlite and favicon.sqlite files. It got me half the tiles, and even those were misplaced. So, I had to go for the security html, and I finally got everything I wanted. But, now it says the account is not associated. If I login to associate it, when I shut down the PC, it returns to those half tiles, and out of order.

How can I get this right?

Dear Support,

Since ages ago I've always logged into Firefox and turned on sync so whichever device I was on (or if I have formatted my PC) I would still have acces to my browser history, tabs etc. Today I've formatted my PC to switch from win 10 to win 11 and logged into firefox as usual, but after trying to Sync nothing happens. My tabs, my history, everything is empty for some reason and I cannot find my original device (the one from a few hours ago connected in win 10) in my connected devices list either.

Please help me, my whole life is in that sync :(

Best Regards, Peter

I have changed operating systems from windows to linux mint. I made sure to sync my profile before uninstalling, but now the profile looks to be empty. there are no saved passwords or bookmarks. This worked when I changed between different windows devices last year, but this time it seems stuck. I will check on a windows device when able, but in the meantime, are there any other ways to troubleshoot this?

Hello, I just completed a wipe of my whole device, beforehand I obviously signed up and synced up my Firefox account to keep my boomarks and data. After reinstalling Firefox I managed to sign in, sync up and get my bookmarks back - great. However after reopening of the app they were gone again and when checking back-ups the only available one was from after the "automatic wipe". I quickly checked my mobile Firefox app as well - it still showed a bigger of number of bookmarks so I had hoped they stayed at least there but after entering the folder they appeared empty and then gone completely after re-entering. Please if possible assist, it seems like Firefox decided to overwrite this data so maybe it's still somehow recoverable as these bookmarks have been collected over the years. Thank you in advance.

Hello community, I have many history items from forms that I want delete, I can delete formhistory.sqlite from Firefox profile in AppData, but after while all unwanted items are back downloaded from Firefox Account (cloud). Is it possible somehow delete those file in Firefox Account too?

I got a new tablet and synced my Fire fox but did it from the new device so it removed all my pinned shortcuts from my other computers. How can I recover my shortcut settings? What is the correct way to sync other devices to the one you have as the main one?

Hi, I have more than one password for Firefox. One is noted for making changes in thebrowser and use benefits that come with the broswer like the security feature that was called Mozilla Monitor that i understand in now discontinued.

The other password is noted for "just signing in." I called it the "Primary" password.

I don't know the difference anymore.

Also i am trying to sync my passwords to my old firefox. The updates were crashing my computer (Mac 11.7.10) so i dragged the app from the apps folder into the trash. Then i used Chrome to download the Firefox 115 ESR (which for some reason is labeled 140, why???) but now i can't find my passwords from the one i trashed. I am trying to synch the passwords from my other (newer) computer but it doesn't work. Do i need to sign in with the other password? Do i need to quit Firefox for the sync to take? Do i need to reboot the computer?

KR

I use an iMac (2019) and MacBook (2015) but my tabs aren't syncing between the two.

I've refreshed the syncing a few times but the MacBook is still showing two lots of tabs for the iMac, and both of them are showing pages that are no longer open.

I'd really like to be able to move between the two so if anyone has any suggestions on how to get FireFox to sync, I'd be really grateful. :-)

Afternoon,

I've used this account for a long time and today I had to reset my PC.

I was always signed into to Firefox to manage my bookmarks/passwords/history, however I've signed in now and everything is gone.

It won't sync up. I've tried removing the profile folders, copying them out, uninstalling/reinstalling firefox but nothing is working.

I tried to disable Windows defender, but that didn't do anything either.

The version I had at the time was Mozilla Firefox (x64 en-GB) Mozilla 147.0 which is the same version.

Is there anything that can be looked at, to see what has happened to the data I has?

I'm on week 3 of attempting to import my firefox data I'm stuck on the already synced to profile create another. I am unaware that I have any profile at all and I don't want any profiles. Is there any means at all of retrieving my passwords and bookmarks from my old laptop without having to deal with this crap?

Instead of syncing my current settings, sync just overwrote them with an old, outdated copy from another device, completely ruining my addons, bookmarks and various other settings. I managed to restore the bookmarks, but is there really no proper way to undo this or prevent such thing from happening in the first place? Is there no way to control if I want to sync my setting TO the server or FROM the server? How such a vital decision is even made then and why wouldn't there be a way for a user to control that? This is so disappointing :(

Hello, in the last couple of days I spent a lot of time deleting old accounts stored in "passwords" in my Firefox account and making sure no vulnerable passwords were still around. I did it from my Mozilla account, on a laptop.

When I was done with it, I signed out from my account on my Android Firefox app, and deleted all the cache and the data, to remove all the old password. Unfortunately, when I looged back in my Firefox account, the old passwords were still there and synced on my laptop as well.

So, is there any way I can undo that Sync? The problem is that now not only all my cleaning pointless, but I changed the password for many accounts and the Sync override it with the old ones.

Hi,

I use Firefox app in macos, android and ipados. The bookmarks across them are not synching automatically. I need to press sync manuelly to do. All apps are updated, all settings look fine. Please help me synch bookmarks across platforms. Thanks a lot.

I just got a new computer and when downloading and signing in to firefox on my new computer it somehow brought over saved tabs from my dad's computer and not my old computer. It did not used to be like this on my old computer however I created a firefox account on my old computer hoping that if I did that and signed in on my new computer it would bring over my saved tabs and info. It did bring over my info but kept my dad's tabs as well. Is there a way to get rid of my dad's tabs on my new computer without deleting them from his computer as well? I also then created a new firefox profile in hopes that when I signed in to that one it would only bring my information but it just replicated the original profile, now I am hoping to delete that second profile but I am worried that will delete all of my information because when I go to delete it it says it will delete a bunch of my saved information. Is that information saved in my original profile so that if I delete the second profile I created it won't delete the data from the original profile (which is just the same information on both) as well? I can't seem to find anything to sign out of other than the new firefox account I just created, I was hoping to sign out of whatever I originally signed in with and try a different sign in but I can't even seem to find anywhere to sign out. I am not sure how I managed to do this, but any suggestions on how to fix it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I created a firefox profile from another, so I start with the same saved passwords and bookmarks which is nice.

Now I want to sync this new profile with the sync service of the mozilla account.

First, I tried to use the same mozilla account I was using for the original profile (which would be ideal), but I get an error saying: This account is already in use.

OK, so I thought, instead, I could use an alternative mozilla account to sync this new copied profile, but, when I try to register/login with another account I get this other error:

This profile was previously synced with a different account.

To keep your data organized and secure, each Firefox profile can only be synced with one account. To log in using ***@***, you must create a new profile.

Isn't there anyway to sync this new profile to a mozilla account? What's the whole point of copying profiles if you, after, cannot sync it? :/