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My Firefox sync does not work between Windows and Linux

  • 5 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 139 views
  • Last reply by PrgBlacky

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I now have three computers where I use Firefox sync. One is Windows 7 (64 bit), one is Windows 10 (32 bit) and the newest is Linux Mint 18.x (64 bit). On the two Windows devices, sync works as expected. But after I logged in to Firefox sync on my Mint PC, I don't have neither my bookmarks nor the history. And the passwords are not synced, too. I configured all three computers the exact same way but only unchecking the preferences option.

Is this a common problem between Windows and Linux? Or is syncing between Firefox installations running on Linux and Windows not supported? If it is supported, how do I get my bookmarks, history and passwords?

I need the passwords and the bookmarks, so that I don't have to enter it all manually. Thanks for your help.

If it helps you, I am located in Germany and my ISP is Deutsche Telekom. But I hope that the problem has nothing to do with this.

I now have three computers where I use Firefox sync. One is Windows 7 (64 bit), one is Windows 10 (32 bit) and the newest is Linux Mint 18.x (64 bit). On the two Windows devices, sync works as expected. But after I logged in to Firefox sync on my Mint PC, I don't have neither my bookmarks nor the history. And the passwords are not synced, too. I configured all three computers the exact same way but only unchecking the preferences option. Is this a common problem between Windows and Linux? Or is syncing between Firefox installations running on Linux and Windows not supported? If it is supported, how do I get my bookmarks, history and passwords? I need the passwords and the bookmarks, so that I don't have to enter it all manually. Thanks for your help. If it helps you, I am located in Germany and my ISP is Deutsche Telekom. But I hope that the problem has nothing to do with this.

Chosen solution

I finally found the problem myself. I changed the password for Firefox sync yesterday, because I could not remember it. But I did re-enter it on my Windows 10 PC today. Now I get all bookmarks, the history and passwords on my Mint machine!

But thank you very much, anyway.

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All Replies (5)

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Are you using a master password?

You can open about:sync-log via the location bar to see if there are recent error logs available. You can upload a recent log if the log is too big to put in a reply.


Try the Firefox version from the official Mozilla server if you currently use a version from the repositories of your Linux distribution.

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As far as I know, I don't use a master password. The error log on my Linux System is empty.

How can I determine if I am using the distribution's version or Mozilla's official version of Firefox?

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If you do not use a master password then passwords might not be synced.

Bookmarks and history should work, but not all items might be synced and if you have a large amount then this can take time. Maybe leave all devices idle for a longer time. You can hover the email line in the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list to check when the last sync has been done and possibly click the sync now button on this line.


You can toggle this pref temporarily to true to get a Sync log in case of success to test this.

  • services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess = true

Do not forget to reset services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess after you are done testing.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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Okay, I've set the value of services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess to true and tried a sync. After that I did reset the value to false and posted the log here: https://pastebin.mozilla.org/9028097

The weird thing is, that the sync between my two Windows devices worked, including the passwords. I know that programs sometimes do weird things...

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Chosen Solution

I finally found the problem myself. I changed the password for Firefox sync yesterday, because I could not remember it. But I did re-enter it on my Windows 10 PC today. Now I get all bookmarks, the history and passwords on my Mint machine!

But thank you very much, anyway.