How do I use sync to replace the tabs and bookmarks on one device with tabs and bookmarks from another device?
In the new Firefox 29.0 they removed the ability to specify how devices are synced and help is completely worthless on the issue. I need to pair a device so that all the settings on Device A are replaced by the settings on Device B and the new Sync does not give this option. How is this done? I do NOT want to merge the settings.
All Replies (5)
I'm sorry, you can't do this in the new sync. In order to accomplish that you'd have to downgrade both devices to Firefox 28 and setup the old sync. Once you've done that you could upgrade again, disconnect old sync and and then continue using the new sync.
So Firefox has removed the functionality of Sync in its new release. That's pretty counterproductive don't you think?
When will you restore the only use for Sync to the Sync function?
Seriously, what is the point in removing from Sync the ability to sync one browser with another?
Now that Mozilla has removed functionality from Sync in the new version, the only way to duplicate Firefox settings from one computer to another is to copy the Mozilla directories from one computer to another using Windows Explorer. Those directories are under the Users directory, your user name, then there is one directory under Local and another under Roaming, both called "Mozilla." It does the task, but it is a step backward to before Sync was developed but Mozilla has left users with no alternative. Really a shame.
Note that bookmarks and History are in the file places.sqlite so overwriting that File alone will sync the bookmarks to another device.
Possibly easier and simpler would be to backup bookmarks and then overwrite the bookmarks by restoring those backups in the other device
An alternative is to use the html export and import facility, that appends rather than overwrites bookmarks, but does not include any tags you have added.
Open tabs can be transferred by overwriting sessionstore:js but I tend to think of that system as rather fragile at the best of times I sometimes even loose the sessionstore.bak before I have made a copy and think it is far easier to let sync handle that.
I have not used this for many years but it may still be working and useful
(On XP I used to just write bat files to perform some of these tasks but that adddon looks pretty flexible with what it could do)