firefox sync
I cannot for the life of me figure out firefox sync. I'll tell you what I want, and what I thought sync was. I am on PC1, my PC. On PC1, I have my bookmarks, history, and open tabs in my firefox browser. Later that night, I am at my girlfriends, and I have access to PC2. So I download firefox and enter my firefox sync username and password, and I now have access to the bookmarks, history, and open tabs on PC1.
This, logically, is what sync means to me.
Instead, I'm told I have to download a 'recovery key'. And since I am nowhere near PC1 anymore, I don't have any idea what the key is. So I say 'I don't have access to my PC1'. Now I am told I need a new recovery key. Furthermore, I am also told 'Changing this will erase all data stored on the sync server and upload new data secured by this recovery key.' What the hell does this even mean?
So a point and a question.
Point: This is all needlessly complicated. I thought sync would be simple - not this labyrinthine system involving recovery keys and erasing server data. None of this is well explained. I'm ready to switch to Chrome to see if they have a better option.
Question: So this point about 'changing the recovery key will erase all data on the server' - How do I not erase this data? I just want access, on PC2, to the tabs and bookmarks and history on PC1 that was synced to the server. Simple. I just have no idea how to do this.
Thank you
All Replies (7)
Key point: I don't have my recovery key from PC1. It is dead. I want to access all my PC1 tabs etc. on PC2. How do I do this? I want nothing erased.
The Recovery Key is the encryption key for Sync data. Without the exact key the data was encrypted under, that data is useless. I agree the process could be explained better.
Modified by the-edmeister
No! You have to be kidding me. I have approximately 60 hours of organized job, school, and internship links, all collected through a couple months of work, and you are telling me this is all lost because "the process could be explained better"? No fucking way. This is an absolute nightmare.
I edited my response because your "story" changed as I was composing that response.
Your data isn't "lost", you can't recover that data because you didn't save the Recovery Key as advised on the final page of the Sync Setup process. (see the screenshot)
Sync is intended to be used to synchronize Firefox data between multiple devices, not to connect a 2nd device after the first device quits working. You used Sync incorrectly and IMO created your problem.
Haha, sure. I'm going to tell you a bit about people who aren't computer whizzes. They are busy with other things in their lives, and want things to 'just work'. Take another look at your screenshot. It is absolutely 100% not intuitive. If the possibility exists that people are going to lose months (or years) of work, instead of crap about keys and encryption, your screen should say, in big bold letters:
HERE IS YOUR KEY: SADFSAJH*@#Y$IO*()UY#()UK
ATTENTION!!!: KEEP THIS KEY. YOU NEED IT TO SYNC OTHER DEVICES. YOU LOSE THIS KEY, YOU LOSE ALL YOUR ABILITY TO SYNC AND YOU LOSE ALL ACCESS TO YOUR DATA. EVERYTHING. WRITE THIS KEY DOWN NOW.
Instead, we get "To ensure your total privacy, all of your data is encrypted prior to being uploaded. The key which is necessary to decrypt your data is not uploaded."
What the hell is this? First: I only learned what encryption is months ago, and I'm still not clear how it works. I didn't know when I set up sync. Not only that, but why tell me stuff I don't need to know. Put this below or something. All I care about is access to my data, so tell me how not to lose it - don't give me a bunch of techspeak about encryption and keys.
So here is a case study in problems with open source: a bunch of brilliant programmers, but no one with the actual capacity to transmit important information to the end user in a clear and non-technical manner.
And don't tell me I'm the only neanderthal who 'used sync incorrectly'. This forum has a whole bunch of people making the same points I made. Maybe the problem isn't the end user - it's the failure of firefox to transmit ideas clearly.
ps. This rage isn't directed at you. I thank you very much for answering my response of your own accord. Keep in mind, I just lost access to 60+ hours of organizational work related to trying to find work and internships. Forgive my language, but in no unequivocal terms, I am now right fucked.
I'll update this for anyone else who stumbles over this support ticket, and end with a question. I recovered my bookmarks up to about a week ago (but not my tabs or history) by using the following method. Do this if you think you ever went into firefox on your previous computer, and backedup your bookmarks into json files.
After about 8 hours of work, I recovered some data from my hard drive that allowed me to access my bookmarks up until a week ago. I did this by taking the hard drive from my laptop (PC1), and plugging into an external hard drive USB connector. It wasn't hard to do. I then wondered how to get access to my files, as my computer recognized a hard drive had been connected, but I couldn't search it (a sign of disc damage). So after scouring forums, I came across 'Minitool Power Data Recovery' (google it). It is a program you can download that works to recover the data you want from discs, including my attached, damaged hard drive. So I ran that, and it ran for about 4 hours. At the end, the program built a 'database' of the files on the drive. But I didn't have access yet - I first had to actually 'recover' the full data files via the program. Well, I really was only looking for firefox bookmark backups, and I found them in C:Users/Alex/Appdata/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/ebw05zzw.default/bookmarkbackups
It was here I found json files from a week ago. So I went into firefox browser, show all bookmarks, then 'import and backup' at the top, then restore, then I relocated the json file that was most recent, and about 30 seconds later, I had all my bookmarks back (at least up until a week ago).
So, for me, I mitigated the worst of this disaster. I hope this helps anyone else who might be in similar circumstances to me.
I now have a question. Since I have partial access to my old hard drive, is there anywhere on it that I might be able to find my firefox sync key, or some data file that I can access on PC2, that will generate my old firefox sync key? Maybe there is some obscure 'profiles' or 'firefox passwords' folder squirreled away someway on my old hard drive, that will contain my old sync key. If so, I would appreciate any advice for locating it.