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Please, synchronize more preferences, e.g. search engine, tab cycling order, overflow menu items...

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Many preferences don't sync, and it is sooo annoying to change them again every time I log in into a new Firefox instance. Can you please get more options to sync, such as the ones mentioned in the title?

Related to this, extensions that are installed not for the first time should not open new tabs (or at least an option should exist for this). And the preferences from the extensions themselves should also be synced.

Many preferences don't sync, and it is sooo annoying to change them again every time I log in into a new Firefox instance. Can you please get more options to sync, such as the ones mentioned in the title? Related to this, extensions that are installed not for the first time should not open new tabs (or at least an option should exist for this). And the preferences from the extensions themselves should also be synced.

Asịsa ahọpụtara

Hi Daniel, we can't help implement your requests here in support, but I have a few comments based on my research:

> search engine

Search engine preferences have not been stored in the main preferences file (prefs.js) for many years, which could be why preferences Sync doesn't include them. If you are looking for a file to copy to a new profile, try search.json.mozlz4.

I saw a request on file to Sync at least the default search engine if not all of them, but it doesn't have a high priority, so most likely someone with strong motivation will need to step forward and figure out how much to do and then code it up. (I imagine it will be a whole new category, alongside bookmarks, history, etc.)

> tab cycling order

What Ctrl+tab does -- recent order vs. left-to-right order -- should sync (assuming services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder is true in about:config). However, as far as I can tell, tab Sync is limited to URLs. Did you need the date-time of the last access to sync?

> overflow menu items

I don't think any of the toolbar layout information is set up to sync. You could maybe transfer this using the following preference, at least for the built-in buttons and any matching extensions:

browser.uiCustomization.state

For example, you could update the value of the preference in the prefs.js file (while Firefox is closed).

And the preferences from the extensions themselves should also be synced.

Extension authors have the option to use either "local" storage or "sync" storage. However, sync storage is relatively small, so authors might be discouraged from using it.

You could ask the authors of extensions important to you whether sync storage could be added to their extensions.

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Asịsa Ahọpụtara

Hi Daniel, we can't help implement your requests here in support, but I have a few comments based on my research:

> search engine

Search engine preferences have not been stored in the main preferences file (prefs.js) for many years, which could be why preferences Sync doesn't include them. If you are looking for a file to copy to a new profile, try search.json.mozlz4.

I saw a request on file to Sync at least the default search engine if not all of them, but it doesn't have a high priority, so most likely someone with strong motivation will need to step forward and figure out how much to do and then code it up. (I imagine it will be a whole new category, alongside bookmarks, history, etc.)

> tab cycling order

What Ctrl+tab does -- recent order vs. left-to-right order -- should sync (assuming services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.ctrlTab.recentlyUsedOrder is true in about:config). However, as far as I can tell, tab Sync is limited to URLs. Did you need the date-time of the last access to sync?

> overflow menu items

I don't think any of the toolbar layout information is set up to sync. You could maybe transfer this using the following preference, at least for the built-in buttons and any matching extensions:

browser.uiCustomization.state

For example, you could update the value of the preference in the prefs.js file (while Firefox is closed).

And the preferences from the extensions themselves should also be synced.

Extension authors have the option to use either "local" storage or "sync" storage. However, sync storage is relatively small, so authors might be discouraged from using it.

You could ask the authors of extensions important to you whether sync storage could be added to their extensions.