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Sync has messed up the preferences, extensions and who knows what else

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by 22over7

VetkaGalka
VetkaGalka
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I’ve just signed in to my Firefox account for the first time in approximately two years. I’ve deliberately clicked “Later” when it suggested to sync my data. A few seconds later I found myself with messed up preferences, merged extensions, what else? (And that’s the worst that I don’t know what else is wrong.) There are three absolutely wrong things here: Sync has enabled despite I had explicitly said no; it didn’t ask what to sync before syncing; and it’s absolutely unclear how it resolves conflicts. I would very much like to know what exactly data was affected and what exactly had happened to it, and how Sync handles conflicts, especially in regards to extensions’ data. Thanks.

I’ve just signed in to my Firefox account for the first time in approximately two years. I’ve deliberately clicked “Later” when it suggested to sync my data. A few seconds later I found myself with messed up preferences, merged extensions, what else? (And that’s the worst that I don’t know what else is wrong.) There are three absolutely wrong things here: Sync has enabled despite I had explicitly said no; it didn’t ask what to sync before syncing; and it’s absolutely unclear how it resolves conflicts. I would ''very much'' like to know what exactly data was affected and what exactly had happened to it, and how Sync handles conflicts, especially in regards to extensions’ data. Thanks.

All Replies (1)

22over7
22over7
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Me too. Decades old firefox user.

The bland word "sync" conveys no information.

Rashly, I experimentally turned "syncing" on in firefox on my main computer. I've some laptops on which it sounded like something convenient. Trusting firefox, like a fool, with most of my life: shopping, travel, pensions, government things etc. Firefox updated, and muttering darkly that my life would become corrupted, hurled me into a world of pain. I've quite enough access to that world already.

I now appreciate that Firefox considers a new profile to be a new device, which wasn't crystal clear. I have now 6 different profiles, all different, no certainty which of them best corresponds to my former life, and a lot of disk space gone.

Is there some magic "merge" incantation? My best efforts with "about:config" result only in dark mutterings, and then another hideously insecure bout of saving logins.csv, bookmarks.html and whatnot to memory sticks.

I blame The Bland Word "sync". What, *on earth*, does it mean?? PLEASE define it, very precisely.