This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Are there any reliable solutions to *automatically* sync my tabs and groups?

  • 3 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by pollti

more options

Here is my problem: I have to use many different computers every day. I use several laptops and desktops running Linux, Mac, and sometime even Windows. The good news is that I have Firefox on all of these machines, and have been using sync to pass along my tabs. However, after using sync for several months, I have to say the current interface just does not cut it for a tab junkie like me. I have *hundreds* of tabs open and recently I have started using tab groups as a way of organizing them. Sync does not seem to transfer my tab groups metadata, it just transfers the tabs. All of my tabs become available in a list without the group info which is not ideal when you have hundreds of tabs.

What I really want is a solution that would sync my tabs and groups exactly as they are and where they are and as soon as I open, move, or close them from any system. I am only one person so normally I only operate one computer at a time. When I move from one Firefox to another, I want to see exactly what I was seeing when I used it last, regardless of where I was last. I don't want to do extra work to find and open my tabs and organize them in groups in each machine that I use -- all this metadata should just automatically transfer.

I have heard that there are some third party apps like Xmarks, but honestly I am a bit worried about using those kind of solutions. I don't want to give my data to them, especially if the software they are using is not free and open source.

To reiterate my question again, I am looking for a free and open source solution to immediately and automatically sync any changes to tabs and groups across all of my Firefox instances. Is there any solution that would allow me to use Firefox in this way?

Here is my problem: I have to use many different computers every day. I use several laptops and desktops running Linux, Mac, and sometime even Windows. The good news is that I have Firefox on all of these machines, and have been using sync to pass along my tabs. However, after using sync for several months, I have to say the current interface just does not cut it for a tab junkie like me. I have *hundreds* of tabs open and recently I have started using tab groups as a way of organizing them. Sync does not seem to transfer my tab groups metadata, it just transfers the tabs. All of my tabs become available in a list without the group info which is not ideal when you have hundreds of tabs. What I really want is a solution that would sync my tabs and groups exactly as they are and where they are and as soon as I open, move, or close them from any system. I am only one person so normally I only operate one computer at a time. When I move from one Firefox to another, I want to see exactly what I was seeing when I used it last, regardless of where I was last. I don't want to do extra work to find and open my tabs and organize them in groups in each machine that I use -- all this metadata should just automatically transfer. I have heard that there are some third party apps like Xmarks, but honestly I am a bit worried about using those kind of solutions. I don't want to give my data to them, especially if the software they are using is not free and open source. To reiterate my question again, I am looking for a free and open source solution to immediately and automatically sync any changes to tabs and groups across all of my Firefox instances. Is there any solution that would allow me to use Firefox in this way?

All Replies (3)

more options

There'll be a new Sync with FF29. There will be several changes, but I'm not sure about this. From FF32 the current Sync (1.1) won't be available anymore.

more options

How could I put this in as a feature request? Should I try to find the existing bug in bugzilla and comment on that, or should I open a new bug? I would really love to see this happen, I think it is a worthwhile and usefult feature. I tried searching bugzilla for a bit but I could not find the relevant bug. If you know it, please link to it. Thanks!

Modified by arasbm

more options

I think you'll have to create a new bug or you try to contact the developers of the new sync, but I don't know wether that's possible or not. If you create a bug please post a link her. Thanks!