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Not Syncing

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  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hi Guys, I asked a quetion before and never had an answer? I will try this one. Why does Firefox seem hell bent on syncing computers? I do not want to do this, all my computers are individual machines and have different perposes. I logged in and all the machines synced up, now I have to remove all the unwanted trasferred data, tabs etc. I now have to untangle the original items on all four computers. This will take me some valuable time. When I log in here all the other machines are switched off in case it gets worse. So, how do I stop synking from happening? Thanks people, perhaps I missed a page. :)

Hi Guys, I asked a quetion before and never had an answer? I will try this one. Why does Firefox seem hell bent on syncing computers? I do not want to do this, all my computers are individual machines and have different perposes. I logged in and all the machines synced up, now I have to remove all the unwanted trasferred data, tabs etc. I now have to untangle the original items on all four computers. This will take me some valuable time. When I log in here all the other machines are switched off in case it gets worse. So, how do I stop synking from happening? Thanks people, perhaps I missed a page. :)

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You can change the password of the Sync account to prevent further propagation of your personal data. This is how Sync works, so when you connect devices to a Sync account then data from all connected devices is merged among the other devices with the result that all devices get the same data.

For the bookmarks you can restore an older compressed .jsonlz4 backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

For logins there might be a logins-backup.json file in the profile folder that you can check. Make sure to keep a backup copy of all involved files, especially if you modify files directly or cleanup from within Firefox.

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.


You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to backup personal data.


  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)