Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

connection to my given firefox sync account is stopped with the message "unexpected error"

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I make successfully use of Firefox Sync on different devices (PC´s, notebook) and operating systems (WIN7, Ubuntu, WIN10). In my office there are two PCs: one with Ubuntu an WIN7. From both of these OS the connection to sync works smoothly. The second one had WIN7 Ultimate running. In 2016 I got a hint that SYNC wasn´t running, but when I tried to connect to SYNC I was stopped with the error message "unexpected error". Now and then I tried to start SYNC but result was always the same. Now, in July 2017, I replaced the affected WIN7-PC by a brandnew WIN10-PC. In order to have all of my bookmarks and settings available, I immediately tried to connect to my SYNC account and was more than puzzled when Firefox stopped the connection build up with the infamous failure message "unexpected error". The only part the old and the new PC had in common was the USB Wifi-stick. So I bought today a new one, but the problem remains. :-( Dennis1960 brought up the same item last summer (https://support.mozilla.org/de/questions/1134274) and found for himself the solution by switching off and on the router. I gave it a try - without success. Perhaps he was on the right track and I have to change anything at the router settings but I am neither an network expert nor does I know how Firefox communicates to connect to the SYNC account. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I make successfully use of Firefox Sync on different devices (PC´s, notebook) and operating systems (WIN7, Ubuntu, WIN10). In my office there are two PCs: one with Ubuntu an WIN7. From both of these OS the connection to sync works smoothly. The second one had WIN7 Ultimate running. In 2016 I got a hint that SYNC wasn´t running, but when I tried to connect to SYNC I was stopped with the error message "unexpected error". Now and then I tried to start SYNC but result was always the same. Now, in July 2017, I replaced the affected WIN7-PC by a brandnew WIN10-PC. In order to have all of my bookmarks and settings available, I immediately tried to connect to my SYNC account and was more than puzzled when Firefox stopped the connection build up with the infamous failure message "unexpected error". The only part the old and the new PC had in common was the USB Wifi-stick. So I bought today a new one, but the problem remains. :-( Dennis1960 brought up the same item last summer (https://support.mozilla.org/de/questions/1134274) and found for himself the solution by switching off and on the router. I gave it a try - without success. Perhaps he was on the right track and I have to change anything at the router settings but I am neither an network expert nor does I know how Firefox communicates to connect to the SYNC account. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Chosen solution

Sorry for my delayed response. It´s only today I came back to my office. The first I did after having started WIN10 was to open Firefox and to try to connect to my sync account to get a fresh error entry in the mentioned log-file. Well, how to put it? Instead of the well-known "unknown error" message I got the long wished-for hint, that an email has been sent for verification. After the verification the synchronisation was carried out. The command about:sync-log showed in the beginning a blank page! After the succcessful termination of the sync procedure, the today´s log file could be found there. I haven´t any clue why there aren´t any further entries. :-o Can it be that Firefox at certain circumstances doesn´t get the permission to write and therefore stopps the sync handling with that "unknown error" message? In any case, sync is running now successfully and I can close this item. Thank you for your answer cor-el

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (3)

more options

You can open about:sync-log via the location bar to see if there are recent error logs available. You can upload a recent log if the log is too big to put in a reply.

more options

Chosen Solution

Sorry for my delayed response. It´s only today I came back to my office. The first I did after having started WIN10 was to open Firefox and to try to connect to my sync account to get a fresh error entry in the mentioned log-file. Well, how to put it? Instead of the well-known "unknown error" message I got the long wished-for hint, that an email has been sent for verification. After the verification the synchronisation was carried out. The command about:sync-log showed in the beginning a blank page! After the succcessful termination of the sync procedure, the today´s log file could be found there. I haven´t any clue why there aren´t any further entries. :-o Can it be that Firefox at certain circumstances doesn´t get the permission to write and therefore stopps the sync handling with that "unknown error" message? In any case, sync is running now successfully and I can close this item. Thank you for your answer cor-el

more options

Firefox by default only creates a log file when there is a failure and not when there is success to avoid getting a lot of log files. There is usually no need to check Sync success logs un less you would want to compare for intermittent failures.

You can toggle this pref temporarily to true to get a Sync log in case of success to test this.

  • services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess = true

Do not forget to reset services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess after you are done testing.