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How do I prevent new browsers from resetting preferences in all?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I work with many many systems, multiple accounts, so I add setup syncing on new browser fairly often.

The problem is that whenever I add a new one, it resets the settings on all of the synced browsers. It's always the same settings that get reset, and they're not reset to any value I would've chosen, therefore I know there's not a lingering browser with different settings that's screwing up the rest.

However, to make sure: I eliminated everything from my account, set up a few browsers, and manually copied their profiles over. Restarted them a few times. Double, triple-checked that their settings are identical.

Next I installed a new browser and before setting sync on it, I changed its settings to match the other's.

I added it to sync, and again all browsers reverted their settings including the newly configured pre-configured browser. It's infuriating.

Among the usual changes are re-enabling/checking of:

  • Enable picture-in-picture video controls
  • Recommend extensions as you browse
  • Recommend features as you browse
  • Show search suggestions in address bar results
  • Ask to save logins and password for websites

These are other settings I'm not completely sure if they're modified or not, but only because they're locked down from modification through policy management systems such as Profile Manager (Apple devices) or Active Directory (Windows, Windows Server):

  • Settings under Firefox Home Content
  • Homepage URL
  • New tabs setting
  • New requests for Notification, Location and all other permissions and update checking are disabled too.
  • Block pop-up windows — Sidenote: it's 2023, this is more of a nuisance than helpful. Sites don't spam popups anymore, not reputable ones at least.

One last thing I've noticed, is that when these things are reset, presumably because they "synced down" from some master profile responsible for the preferences you didn't set. So if that was the case, in theory you should be able to change them back and "sync them up" back to that profile, right? But when you correct one of these change, that correction isn't replicated to other browsers in the group yet other settings like themes, extensions reliably do. It seems purposeful.

I saw in about:config entries with "prefs" and "sync" on them, but I haven't found any documentation about them. Are any of these useful to keep the browser from resetting itself?

I work with many many systems, multiple accounts, so I add setup syncing on new browser fairly often. The problem is that whenever I add a new one, it resets the settings on all of the synced browsers. It's always the same settings that get reset, and they're not reset to any value I would've chosen, therefore I know there's not a lingering browser with different settings that's screwing up the rest. However, to make sure: I eliminated everything from my account, set up a few browsers, and manually copied their profiles over. Restarted them a few times. Double, triple-checked that their settings are identical. Next I installed a new browser and before setting sync on it, I changed its settings to match the other's. I added it to sync, and again all browsers reverted their settings including the newly '''configured ''pre-configured'' browser.''' It's infuriating. Among the usual changes are re-enabling/checking of: * Enable picture-in-picture video controls * Recommend extensions as you browse * Recommend features as you browse * Show search suggestions in address bar results * Ask to save logins and password for websites These are other settings I'm not completely sure if they're modified or not, but only because they're locked down from modification through policy management systems such as Profile Manager (Apple devices) or Active Directory (Windows, Windows Server): * Settings under Firefox Home Content * Homepage URL * New tabs setting * New requests for Notification, Location and all other permissions and update checking are disabled too. * Block pop-up windows — Sidenote: it's 2023, this is more of a nuisance than helpful. Sites don't spam popups anymore, not reputable ones at least. One last thing I've noticed, is that when these things are reset, presumably because they "synced down" from some master profile responsible for the preferences you didn't set. So if that was the case, in theory you should be able to change them back and "sync them up" back to that profile, right? But when you correct one of these change, that correction isn't replicated to other browsers in the group yet other settings like themes, extensions reliably do. It seems purposeful. I saw in '''about:config''' entries with "prefs" and "sync" on them, but I haven't found any documentation about them. Are any of these useful to keep the browser from resetting itself?

All Replies (2)

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From my understanding of sync is for one account and one Browser if you use multiple sync accounts they will set to whatever the previous account is. Doing multiple accounts is probably causing sync issues as they sync to what every account it's logged into. Maybe have different Windows account users on different Firefox profile to prevent cross contamination of settings and data files. This is what one should do for Windows 7 and above to separate accounts from one another. This is what should be used for Windows account users with different profiles - this would eliminate sync issues only to that specific account only if there is a problem.

Modified by Dropa

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Your Troubleshooting Information shows quite a few locked preferences and when its services.sync.prefs.sync control pref is set to true this preference becomes part of Sync.

signon.rememberSignons	false

Related Sync control pref:

services.sync.prefs.sync.signon.rememberSignons	true

To prevent Syncing such a pref, you would have to set the Sync control pref to false.

Modified by cor-el