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Synchronization randomly overwrites data locally on PC or online on Mozilla's servers

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  • Siste svar av gab2201

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Good day,

Firefox Synchronization restores my old data as soon as I sign in, even though I do not push synchronization.

I have absolutely no power to decide what gets restored. I do not see any possibility to update the data stored on my Firefox profile online.

But the oddest behavior is that I opened a new account from another PC in order to save my actual Firefox data. I then synchronized my data from the first PC with the new account, and this time, instead of overwriting my local data from my new account, it is the data from the new account that got overwritten from my local profile containing the old data.

To sum up things, it seems that:

- I cannot choose what gets saved or restored neither on my PC locally nor on my Firefox profile online.

- When I synchronize Firefox, my data gets randomly overwritten either on my PC locally or on my profile online, without giving me the choice to either backup or restore these data.

Is there any way to avoid this ? And how do I choose if synchronization overwrite my local profile from my online one or the other way round ?

Good day, Firefox Synchronization restores my old data as soon as I sign in, even though I do not push synchronization. I have absolutely no power to decide what gets restored. I do not see any possibility to update the data stored on my Firefox profile online. But the oddest behavior is that I opened a new account from another PC in order to save my actual Firefox data. I then synchronized my data from the first PC with the new account, and this time, instead of overwriting my local data from my new account, it is the data from the new account that got overwritten from my local profile containing the old data. To sum up things, it seems that: - I cannot choose what gets saved or restored neither on my PC locally nor on my Firefox profile online. - When I synchronize Firefox, my data gets randomly overwritten either on my PC locally or on my profile online, without giving me the choice to either backup or restore these data. Is there any way to avoid this ? And how do I choose if synchronization overwrite my local profile from my online one or the other way round ?

All Replies (4)

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If you use Firefox sync and use one login your going to get one overwritten the other data. If you want separate sync account you need separate Firefox sync account with different email and password to keep Firefox profile accounts separate and not merge or overwrite the data from one and another.

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I only opened the second account today from a second PC to backup my actual data, as the ones from the first PC got overwritten.

Let’s say I have only a single PC and a single Mozilla account, how do I overwrite (update) the data from my PC to my Firefox account and not the opposite ? For example, I have an old Firefox account that I did not use for a while. I want to update it from my PC with the new bookmarks and addons in order to restore everything if I reinstall my OS or buy a new one. How can I do that ?

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Then as stated you need two separate Firefox sync account with different email and password login and then on the PC have two separate "user" account so no two Firefox are the same and separate from the other "Local user" accounts. A old pc not accessed will not be able to sync if the sync log is the same it will replace sync data with the new computer login and the old will be gone. What you do is really backup your firefox profile to insure the data is saved but if that old one doesn't sync then chances that data won't move over. It sync from which device logs in first and is primary computer so if you don't keep pc user account separate and separate Firefox sync accounts your going to loose data regardless as one will replace or over-write the other data when using sync.

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Let's put it another way. Usually, with any backup system, you have the possibility to backup and restore, or eventually to export and import data. But with Firefox, I only see synchronization.

Therefore, when I synchronize, I cannot chose to backup up my PC profile to the Mozilla online one or to restore my save mozilla profile online to my PC locally.

Is there a way to choose if the synchronization backs up or restore my profile ?

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