Firefox Support Forum

History and addons have synced succesfully, but despite trying various things, bookmarks have not. I am unable to access the previous machine on which they originate because of a catastrophic failure. Any help?

I'm really confused about how profiles and sync work together for what I assume is a pretty common use case, especially now will all the WFH. I have two devices:

1. Personal laptop 2. Work laptop

I'd like to keep my bookmarks, history, addons etc separate, but be able to access my work environment when working from home on my personal laptop. I've read a lot about profiles and sync and multi-account container but I'm still confused as to how I achieve what I'm trying to do.

Having multiple profiles on one device is straightforward. But AFAIK if I attach two profiles to the same sync account, and try to sync both between two devices, it will only sync one of the profiles (and then merge everything if I try to sync the other). And if I have two separate sync accounts (work and personal), each with a single profile, I can't switch between them without also merging everything. How does one achieve this then?

I normally use Firefox desktop on my Linux computer.

Last week, I started using it on a public computer running Windows. I installed Firefox Portable and then logged/synced into my Firefox account on this Win computer. I noticed that in the Firefox Portable Windows “about:preferences” page, it says “Your browser is being managed by your organization”, which links to about:policies. In that “about:policies” page, it shows this https://i.imgur.com/JmD8nXg.png Policy Name: DisableAppUpdate Policy Value: true. Now I’m back on my Linux desktop computer and it also has this “managed by your organization” message in “about:preferences” and the same “about:policies” stuff. In other words, it appears that this policy was copied from the Windows public computer to my personal Linux computer. I don’t want that.

How can I undo this? And how can I block this sort of policy syncing?

I am a game developer. I work about 12 hours a day, in Chrome. It is my main browser. When I installed firefox, I was asked to "import" cookies and such. I did. Which has been a terrible headache. All of the bookmarks and everything from Chrome came with it, which I already had in firefox, since I've had it for years. But, I thought since this is a brand new computer that I needed to do that. Fast-forward a couple of weeks and now EVERY time I open up firefox, all 10 million history links are in history.

I use firefox to unwind and watch movies. I don't want 10 million links to work in front of where I left off in binge watching Seinfeld.

I've tried everything and followed instructions and STILL, all history from Chrome shows up in firefox. It is infuriating. AND uninstalling and reinstalling did nothing. The setting is already in the account to import from Chrome to firefox. I've removed addons and extensions as well. Nothing has worked.

I have tried this several times over a few years, and have never got it to work I know it must be something I am doing wrong because if it was a glitch or bug, it would have been fixed by now. Usually I need to do this if I need to reinstall the OS, (Windows and Linux), or a new pc, the usual, but this time I had a major crash, so I'm starting over.

Anyway I have signed in on my pc to my FF account, and went through the menu to turn on sync, and I get to the page where is says, "when ready click next to display the QR code". I get my android out, open FF, sign in, click the "Scan" button, the FF scanner opens,, I open the QR code on the pc, (I have also went to the website to get a QR code). Then either way I scan the code, and get an errror msg "Must scan from inside FF". I am scanning from inside FF, with the FF QR scanner.

I don't uinderstand how of the 20 or more times I have tried to do this, I can't get it to work. I don't understand how I screw up every times, over a few years. But I also know as I said, if it was a bug MOzilla would have fixed it by now. Usually I give up on that and just log into both the pc and the phone, close both browsers and reopen them and it will go ahead and sync.

But not this time, I am unable to get it to sync for anything. I've been working on this for 3 days now, and at this point I'm confused, I don't remember what I have and have not done. Let me add, and I don't know if this will make a difference, I don't think so, but what do I know? Originally this all started, when I had to reset my password. I tried for 4 days there to get a recovery code to work. (The following is just to describe what I've done, and is not a second question) I had one downloaded, and saved on my pc. But no matter what route I took to go through the reset process, exactly as described in the help file, I never could get a place to enter the code. I read every article I could about it, and finally it seemed easier to just reset the password and resync than try to get the code to work.

Which is why I am sitting here, desperatly needing to sync my data, but unable to. If anyone can tell me what I need to do I will appreciate it. If you need any more information, just let me know.

Sync is a nightmare. It is so unintuitive! What exactly would be wrong with having separate Export and Import buttons for each of Settings, Addons, Tabs, History, Bookmarks, etc? I have a desktop box and a newer laptop I wanted to get up to date. I pressed the Sync button on the desktop ... By the way, there`s a link below that reads "Connect another device" ... Connect where? Someone is designing these interfaces who has absolutely zero imagination. Anyways, I signed off, moved the ethernet cable to my laptop, signed in, pressed Sync, and voila!, I got my Bookmarks, at least. But I have no idea how to get my tabs and windows. I tried with a "download link" something or other, but it seemed to assume I was sync-ing to a phone, and didn`t work. Any way to get my tabs?

I need to reset my password and I have all my firefox files from "appdata/roaming//monzilla/firefox" but will I be able to restore all my data from it after the reset or will the reset prevent anything? Will it work?

I want to be able to sync my data and know my password for this account.

I am aware that there is a guide for restoring profile data, but I dont know what happens after I reset the password and still try to restore the profile.

I have seen multiple copies of this question, some unanswered, some with the same "answer". All the questions are closed so I cannot reply to them. The "answer" does not work.

I have the "Show tabs from other devices" sidebar. I also can access from "Open application menu" > email address > list of synced tabs. Both methods show me the device name and all of my synced tabs. Neither method has an "open all tabs" option. If I right click my device name nothing happens. If I right click a tab, it opens that one tab. I don't know how many tabs I have on my Android. I have enough tabs that it only shows the infinity symbol instead of the number. It has shown the infinity symbol for a long time and I've opened many more tabs since. It could be hundreds or even thousands of tabs. I have 224 tabs on my laptop. I want to open all 224 laptop tabs plus all however many Android tabs on my laptop at the same time. I'm aware this will cause significant lag on my laptop. I'm not looking for a solution for that or people telling me not to do that. I want to know how to open all of my synced tabs at once on my laptop, without having to click through one by one.

Edition Windows 11 Home Version 22H2 Installed on ‎2022-‎09-‎21 OS build 22621.1702 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22641.1000.0 "You're up to date Last checked: Today, 17:15" (Just clicked "Check for updates")

Firefox 113.0.1 (64-bit) "Firefox is up to date"

My school email is going to be disabled in a couple of months and I was wondering if there's a way to just change the email associated with my Firefox account, or if I'll have to make a new one and carry over my bookmarks/settings/addons etc. manually.

Hi all, I suspect I'm out of luck but I'm hoping someone might have some ideas ... I'm using Firefox 94.0.2 and I have become a big fan of the ability to pin shortcuts/bookmarks to tiles in the New Tab screen. I customized my New Tab with 9 rows of tiles, 72 pinned sites, a very useful & convenient feature.

I got a new laptop for work, installed Firefox and logged into my Firefox account. I ran Sync to copy some open tabs over to the browser in my old laptop. Somehow the sync picked up the setting of having 72 tiles on the New Tab page, on the new laptop, which was great; but instead of my pinned sites, the 72 tiles were populated by random sites (presumably pulled out of browsing history). No worries; I'd expected that I'd have to manually configure the new laptop's browser anyway.

But then when i logged into my old laptop this morning I was dismayed to see that the pinned sites were gone! The 72 tiles are still there, but the pinned sites have been replaced by random ones. Now I'll have to reconfigure my old laptop's browser as well. :-(

My question: is there any way to restore the previous pinned sites without having to re-pin them all manually? And once they're all back in place, is there some way to export/save/lock them, so this won't happen again? If having Sync enabled across my two devices is going to randomly wipe out my pinned sites, then I suppose the New Tab tile functionality is not so useful and I'll just use an old-fashioned Bookmark list.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Hello,

I have 3 different profiles and I'd like to have a visual indication of the currently active profile. I've found that using themes is the best option (a red theme for production, green for test, grey for default) but I can't prevent Firefox Sync to sync the active theme between my profiles.

I have set both services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID and services.sync.prefs.sync.lightweightThemes to false and restarted all my Firefox profiles.

After a while, all windows/profiles are synced to the same theme.

Are those settings really read by Firefox Sync ? I'm on Windows 10, Firefox 91.10.0esr (32-bit)

Thanks in advance for your help !

Hello! Since the most recent firefox update, my settings and extensions have been inaccessible to me due to my firefox account profile being "old." It has been working perfectly until this update. If I try to change my profile to my old one, it forces me to create a new one which does not include my saved addons and settings. I am able to usually manually move my bookmarks to the new profile via the files stored locally. I really need access to the settings and extensions, so it would be great if someone can help me to recover them. I tried to troubleshoot by finding my extensions local folder from my old profile, and I copied it to a new profile, but it didn't work. I am also wondering, if I do copy the extensions successfully, how can I also copy the settings preferences? Any solution is appreciated, thank you!

I tried this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update And I tried this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data#w_what-information-is-stored-in-my-profile

Hello

Google has a service called "Takeout" through which users can download all of Chrome's synchronized data, including history and bookmarks, in a zip file.

Does Mozilla have such a service for Firefox sync?

I’ve not had much success with my online searches to learn the details about what takes place when Firefox syncs browser information across devices. To keep things simple, assume I interested only in syncing bookmarks and staying within the Firefox environment, i.e., no syncing to another browser. Please note that I am NOT asking for help in setting up Sync on different devices or in how to turn Sync on and off. Rather I am seeking help to understand what “sync” means, that is, the details of the sort of information transfers that take place between individual devices and the Firefox Sync server.

Here’s what I currently understand. After signing in to my Firefox account on Device 1, setting up syncing on that device, specifying that I want only bookmarks to be synced, and turning syncing on, the set of bookmarks on Device 1 is sent to be stored on a Firefox server. After that, whenever one is signed in to the Firefox account on Device 1 and syncing is turned on, any changes to the bookmarks on Device 1 will "automatically" (but I don't know how quickly) end up being reflected in the set of bookmarks stored on the server. Fine so far.

In addition to Device 1 I have another device, Device 2 which has not been set up for Firefox Sync. It has its own set of bookmarks. Some of them are also on Device 1, some are not. I sign into my Firefox account on Device 2 and set up syncing on it. I follow the steps for doing this in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-set-sync-my-computer, “Connect additional devices to Sync.” I then click Sync Now. OK, now what happens?

1A. Do the bookmarks in Device 2 get added to the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server? 1B. Do the bookmarks NOT in Device 2 get deleted from the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server?

OR

2A. Do the bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server get added to the bookmarks in Device 2? 2B. Do the bookmarks NOT stored in the Firefox Sync server get deleted from the bookmarks in Device 2?

After whatever transfers of bookmark between Device 2 and the Firefox Sync server take place, and assuming that I’m still signed in to my Firefox account on Device 1 and that syncing on that device is still turned on, what sort of transfers of bookmarks takes place between the new set of bookmarks stored in the Firefox Sync server and the set of bookmarks already on Device 1?

3A. Do the bookmarks then present in the Firefox Sync server get added to the bookmarks in Device 1? 3B. Do the bookmarks no longer in the Firefox Sync server get deleted from the bookmarks in Device 1?

Finally, what happens to the set of bookmarks in Device 1 and Device 2 if I’m simultaneously signed in to my Firefox account, syncing is turned on in both Devices 1 and 2, and a bookmark is a) added to either device OR b) deleted from either device?

I’m sorry this message is so long, but I’ve wanted to be clear about the things I don’t understand in regard to Firefox Sync. I’d really appreciate what anyone can say to help me clarify these points. Thanks so much.

I can prove that I'm using the same e-mail address but with different domain thus making the last statement from [[an article here|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-if-im-locked-out-two-step-authentication]] invalid.

Any idea how I can contact Mozilla to restore access or delete my account to recreate it again? Cannot find an e-mail address to create a ticket :( I don't want to use custom e-mail domain for Firefox account.

Thanks!

Firefox view is a new feature that looks awesome and I'd love to try it out to sync stuff between devices. There's just one problem:

1. Firefox view works on my laptop and seems to work on my phone, but does not work on my desktop.

For reference:

• Desktop (doesn't have view tab) is Mac Mini 2020 (M1) on Mac OS Ventura 13.0 (22A380)
• Laptop (has view tab) is Mac Mini 2020 (M1) on Mac OS Ventura 13.0 (22A380)
• Both devices are running Firefox 106.0.2 (64-bit)

I have already:

• Made sure "Open Tabs" is enabled for sync on all devices
• Looked for the firefox view in the "Customize Toolbar" menu
• Disabled / Re-enabled Firefox-View in about:config

Hi,

On September 15, 2022 I created this thread here on Firefox Support Forum and now I finally have an answer to the question, but as we can see my thread was archived and I can't update anything, so I decided to create a new thread just to mark my previous question as solved and bring it an answer.

I contacted Mozilla Firefox developers and got a response: Firefox is no longer integrated with Gravatar. Considering this, I can tranquilly say there is no bug or problem with my account as I thought. It's a pity that Firefox no longer support Gravatar integration, and even if I use an old version I will face the same "issue" because the Gravatar integration was a online feature linked to the Firefox account*, not to the browser itself.

Info source: https://github.com/mozilla/fxa/issues/15665

- - -

Admins can now archive and close this thread, I only ask to keep it online to help who may need this information in the future. Thanks.

• Actually I made a mistake when I wrote this, the Gravatar integration was an online feature linked to the Mozilla account, not Firefox. James explained the distinction on #4 post of the current thread.

Last edit: On January 31, 2023 I created this thread on r/firefox but no one answered precisely. This current thread here on Firefox Support Forum also solves what was asked on reddit. The thread created on January 31, 2023 and posted on r/firefox was archived as well, like what happened to my thread with the same theme here on Firefox Support Forum, then I also created a new thread on r/firefox to mark my question as solved.

Okay, so I decided to sync my Firefox from my laptop with my work computer. I wasn't thinking about it also making all my passwords available on my work computer, which I do not want. I thought just signing out and using the browser 'un synced' would mean the passwords weren't available, but nope. While signed out, if click into passwords I can still see them all. So my question: If I delete the passwords from here (signed out) on my work computer, will it also delete them from my laptop browser (that is signed in)?

Hello Please explain to me how to transfer tabs from desktop to Android phone because there is no option on my desktop browser settings and no matter how much I sync, the desktop tabs will not be transferred to the phone again. please guide me

Hello

I do not understand how firefox sync is supposed to work. I have a desktop and a laptop. The desktop is FF 85 on Linux Mint (I cannot get a later version due to some querk) The laptop is 99 on Windows 10 Both are signed in to sync but my bookmarks were scrambled so I signed out the laptop and cleared the profile, cleaned up the bookmarks in the desktop and to be safe I tried just syncing the tabs, not the bookmarks, by opening the fresh firefox on the laptop and signing in again. In the sidebar under my account icon I clicked "Synchronise now" and the open tabs from my desktop appeared in a list underneath, jumbled up. (I have 2 separate windows open on the desktop with different tabs in each, but this separation was not followed either, there didn’t seem to be any provision for syncing tabs in two separate windows)

But the row of tabs didn’t open, all I can do is open them one by one from the list on the right, this is a slow process as every time I click on a tab in the list the new page opens in the same single tab, not a new one, but the sidebar closes again.

Is this what’s supposed to happen? I was expecting the synced row of tabs to open automatically.

This feature would have been useful as my OS on the desktop, (Linux Mint) tends to crash and to have the on the laptop would be a good backup.

Incidentally the other way I try to back up the lost tabs is to select them all and bookmark them to a new folder which I call “backup” but it seems this doesn’t necessarily duplicate them, which I would prefer, so any of the open tabs that were previously bookmarked risk being removed from the original bookmarked folder, without my noticing, and I am therefore reluctant to delete the backup folder without checking that it doesn’t contain the only bookmark of a page.

When I came back to syncing the bookmarks, how do I avoid them getting scrambled again?