Sorry you had a problem, but clearly you have misconceptions about what Sync does and how it works.

"I just tried to setup Firefox Sync after a year of not using it and it removed a years worth of bookmarks, passwords and god knows what else." Doing a "setup" would have created a new Sync account. Sign in would be the action to take to connect to an existing Sync account.

And a new Sync account wouldn't have deleted any data from the devices that you where using; the data on that devices would have been sent to the Sync server.

There is no "new data" vs "old data", there is one set of data and no backups are made of the data sitting on the Sync server. There are few "user controls" beyond "disconnect" and "sign in". There no "direction control", all data that is in devices is merged in the Sync server; any differences in data on each device is "made the same" - respecting the the data types choices the user has made per device. "Data Types" being Tabs, Bookmarks, Passwords, History, Add-ons, and Preferences; that is the only "user control". There is no UNDO as data is sync'd real time with backups or "restore points".

As far as saying it was "implemented poorly"; it works as intended by the Sync developers as far as the perceived faults that you mentioned. Sync isn't intended to store data like with a "cloud service" (its not like iDrive or OneDrive); over the "long term". Sync was made to "synchronize data" across multiple devices continuously; whenever Firefox is launched and when any data is added or removed from a connected device. And it's not intended to be used to sync data only when the user feels like doing that; it should be "connected" all the time.

And I don't necessarily like how Sync works wither; but my "list of perceived faults" differs greatly from what you mentioned. The biggest has to do with the "over the top security - the encryption of user data", which other than for user login data (passwords) is ridiculous. But all data is handled the same way; the different "data types" are all encrypted the same. But, it is what it is; warts and all.

Sorry that your experience with Sync was poor.

These can't get your data back but will help in the future.

These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backups of files that you choose.

OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences

the-edmeister said

Sorry you had a problem, but clearly you have misconceptions about what Sync does and how it works. "I just tried to setup Firefox Sync after a year of not using it and it removed a years worth of bookmarks, passwords and god knows what else." Doing a "setup" would have created a new Sync account. Sign in would be the action to take to connect to an existing Sync account. And a new Sync account wouldn't have deleted any data from the devices that you where using; the data on that devices would have been sent to the Sync server.

---

There is no "new data" vs "old data", there is one set of data and no backups are made of the data sitting on the Sync server. There are few "user controls" beyond "disconnect" and "sign in". There no "direction control", all data that is in devices is merged in the Sync server; any differences in data on each device is "made the same" - respecting the the data types choices the user has made per device. "Data Types" being Tabs, Bookmarks, Passwords, History, Add-ons, and Preferences; that is the only "user control". There is no UNDO as data is sync'd real time with backups or "restore points".

As far as saying it was "implemented poorly"; it works as intended by the Sync developers as far as the perceived faults that you mentioned. Sync isn't intended to store data like with a "cloud service" (its not like iDrive or OneDrive); over the "long term". Sync was made to "synchronize data" across multiple devices continuously; whenever Firefox is launched and when any data is added or removed from a connected device. And it's not intended to be used to sync data only when the user feels like doing that; it should be "connected" all the time.

And I don't necessarily like how Sync works wither; but my "list of perceived faults" differs greatly from what you mentioned. The biggest has to do with the "over the top security - the encryption of user data", which other than for user login data (passwords) is ridiculous. But all data is handled the same way; the different "data types" are all encrypted the same. But, it is what it is; warts and all.

Sorry that your experience with Sync was poor.

I'm not about to get into a flame war about why poorly thought-out user control is still poor implementation even if it was planned to be implemented in precisely that way. The path to hell, as they say.

I will say that my user passwords that had entries on both sides were overwritten by the older Sync data, and as I change my passwords often, this is a problem I was not anticipating, or at least I imagined being given the option of which data would be retained and which would be replaced

I will certainly go forward keeping in mind that my expectations are very often not met and general incompetence is abundant .