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Firefox Sync does not Sync after clean installs.

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by pmyers389

pmyers389
pmyers389
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I support several Firefox browsers on desktops, laptops, and portable versions on flash drives. I use the latest version of Firefox on all browsers. I have been trying to get Firefox Sync to work with no luck. My main interest is in syncing extensions. What I find is that while extensions are synced, none of the extension preferences are synced. Is syncing extension preferences supposed to be supported by Firefox Sync? If not, then the App is totally unusable for me, if it is supported, then I’d have to say it’s not working, at least for me.

So here’s what I did. I started with a clean install of Firefox on a Windows 7 machine. I modified some options, installed an extension from the Firefox library (addons.mozilla.org), set some preferences for the extension, and set up a Firefox Sync account. The sync logs indicate no errors.

Then I did a clean install of Firefox on a Vista machine and signed onto my Firefox account. Some of the options were synced and the extension was synced without any of its preferences synced. The sync logs do not indicate errors. Of the options synced, Firefox did not sync the Default Search Engine and in Applications it did not sync “mailto”. These results are consistent with my efforts over a 2 week period.

So, am I doing something wrong? Or is it fair to conclude that Firefox Sync doesn’t work properly?

Thanks to anyone who is willing to help.

I support several Firefox browsers on desktops, laptops, and portable versions on flash drives. I use the latest version of Firefox on all browsers. I have been trying to get Firefox Sync to work with no luck. My main interest is in syncing extensions. What I find is that while extensions are synced, none of the extension preferences are synced. Is syncing extension preferences supposed to be supported by Firefox Sync? If not, then the App is totally unusable for me, if it is supported, then I’d have to say it’s not working, at least for me. So here’s what I did. I started with a clean install of Firefox on a Windows 7 machine. I modified some options, installed an extension from the Firefox library (addons.mozilla.org), set some preferences for the extension, and set up a Firefox Sync account. The sync logs indicate no errors. Then I did a clean install of Firefox on a Vista machine and signed onto my Firefox account. Some of the options were synced and the extension was synced without any of its preferences synced. The sync logs do not indicate errors. Of the options synced, Firefox did not sync the Default Search Engine and in Applications it did not sync “mailto”. These results are consistent with my efforts over a 2 week period. So, am I doing something wrong? Or is it fair to conclude that Firefox Sync doesn’t work properly? Thanks to anyone who is willing to help.

All Replies (2)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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That all depends upon the extensions involved. Some do support Sync for prefs, but from what I have seen most don't support syncing of preferences; and there's no "spec" set up for the Addons.Mozilla.Org website for extension developers to indicate if the extensions does or doesn't support Sync. And some extensions have their own "preference" added to about:config for syncing prefs for the extension.

The "trick" is that extensions aren't really sync'd per se; they are installed from AMO (and possibly the developers own website if so specified in the install.rdf file and an HTTPS server is used) - they aren't synchronized thru the Sync service like the user data is synchronized - bookmarks, history, passwords, etc.

Overall IMO, Sync for extensions isn't of much value depending upon each users mix of extensions. The two times I used Sync for extensions I spent more time fixing what didn't "sync" than it would have taken for me to setup my mix of extensions from scratch; but I tend to put the most important extensions setting in a user.js file to help me when I set up a new Profile.

pmyers389
pmyers389 Question owner
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Thank you very much the-edmeister for your reply. The fact that Mozilla does not for all practical purposes sync extensions with their preferences is something that I suspected. For me, this makes Firefox Sync useless. I use third party extensions to sync my bookmarks and passwords and do not need/want backup of tabs and history. I use FEBE to backup my extensions, themes, cookies, preferences, and permissions. This works fine but is mostly a manual process. I was hoping to have a more automated syncing process as I have to support 7 different browsers, so syncing basically manually gets to be a bit tedious. For what it's worth, Chrome syncs everything I need beautifully, but has a horrible portable solution. That's why I'll stick mostly with Firefox even though it looks like I'll have to live with the tedium of syncing. Thanks again for your input. I'll stop fooling with Firefox Sync.

Modified by pmyers389