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Firefox sync does not sync any data between desktop or Android browser.

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by John99

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I am trying to switch from Chrome to Firefox, since I see there is native sync support now. I use a desktop, laptop and Android device. All have Firefox installed and are signed-in with the same Firefox sync account. For now, I'm only trying to sync bookmarks. No matter how many changes I make, or times I manually sync, I can't see any synchronization happening on any of the devices. I haven't been able to find a sync log to see if there are any errors.

I am trying to switch from Chrome to Firefox, since I see there is native sync support now. I use a desktop, laptop and Android device. All have Firefox installed and are signed-in with the same Firefox sync account. For now, I'm only trying to sync bookmarks. No matter how many changes I make, or times I manually sync, I can't see any synchronization happening on any of the devices. I haven't been able to find a sync log to see if there are any errors.

All Replies (7)

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Hi mrchops, I understand that you are trying to sync bookmarks. Please make sure that there are no more the 5k to sync to a mobile device.

Please also see these troubleshooting steps:

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I have far less than 5k bookmarks. Also, bookmarks are not syncing between my desktop and laptop. I have also run through everything on the troubleshooting steps page.

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I keep trying to remind people never become over reliant on Sync. Always create regular manual bookmark backups. People who Sync bookmarks think it increases security, but Sync occasionally duplicates or corrupts bookmarks.

Firefox is pretty good now at making automated backups but it is still prudent to make manual bookmarks backups.

Do you still have a good set of bookmarks on the Computer ?

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Hi john99,

Yes, I still have Chrome installed (which is where I did my import from). I appreciate your reply, as I am prepared to look into alternative sync solutions. But I posted a support question due to the fact that the product does not seem to function properly at all. At this point, I'd be happy if I got corrupted or duplicate bookmarks. The fact of the matter is that I cannot sync bookmarks at all, nor tabs, history or anything else that's available in the sync options.

I focused my question on just bookmarks, since I figured that would be the easiest to sync (or troubleshoot).

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If it has become corrupt you can unattach the account and use:

If we need to confirm there is a corruption: * How do I turn on sync logs:

  1. Open about:config and turn on: services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess and services.sync.log.logger.engine.bookmarks
  2. Restart Firefox and look at: about:sync-log
  3. Logs and error messages will be located here

Please also use pastebin.mozilla.org for sharing any errors that relate to this issue.

Thank you.

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Now that I know how to view the sync logs (thanks for that tidbit), I noticed that up until today the logs have been 503 errors that the service is unavailable. Enabling logOnSuccess is starting to show completed sync logs. I don't have my laptop handy to see if bookmarks are syncing, but open tabs seems to be syncing properly to my Android phone. No bookmarks are showing up on Android, but I want to see if things are at least fully syncing on my laptop.

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Note you should be able to check the server availability from https://status.services.mozilla.com/