Unable to find control for auto/manual sync (Firefox 89.1.1 on Android 8.0.0 on Samsung S7 (AT&T) 7/13/2021
I have installed Firefox 89.1.1 on Android 8.0.0 on my Samsung S7 (AT&T) and logged it into my mozilla account; it completed sync and my bookmarks are all now on the phone.
Here is the problem - I cannot find any way to ensure that sync ONLY happens when I manually press Sync now in Firefox's account settings window (I am working to be certain that mobile data usage is kept to an absolute minimum as I am on a very small allocation.)
I could not find any control that enables/disables auto sync in Firefox's settings on the device.
I could not find presence of Firefox in Android Settings -> Cloud and accounts -> Accounts (only entry there is the google account for the device and "Add account" which does not offer FIrefox as an option.)
My goal is to ensure that Firefox will not sync at any time unless I specifically request that as above.
Thank you for any advice!
Dave
Alle svar (8)
I failed to note that in Android Settings -> Cloud and accounts -> Accounts , there is a switch for "Auto sync data" but no explanation of what this controls, and the setting does not appear to be specific to any account -- it is at the bottom of the list of accounts (which in my case has only one account.)
Hi
The control that you are looking for is not currently available in Firefox for Android.
Firefox Sync is either on (and working in the background) or off.
Is there a way to leave android firefox signed in, but turn off sync entirely, or is it just on autopilot so I need to sign out?
My workaround would be to disable sync and just turn it on when I want to sync manually, however, I don't see a way to do that. For the time being, I signed the Android device out of firefox account entirely (the bookmarks that got transferred are still in place.) It's going to be cumbersome if I have to sign in each time to do a sync then sign out again.
Hopefully the developer community can take some incremental step towards making this controllable!
Thanks for the reply.
Please appreciate what Firefox Sync us designed to do. It is constantly making sure that your bookmarks, user credentials and other data are available when you sign into a second copy of Firefox on another device.
Your follow-up, while appreciated, does not address the original intent of my forum posting.
It is not a good design choice in my opinion (depriving user of a control function), however, I am not a mozilla developer and this is not the first mozilla design choice I have disagreed with, so I am left to devise a cumbersome workaround.
I want the choice of *when* mozilla sync, just as other synchronizing applications I deploy offer that choice. Is there a bug/feature submission portal for mozilla where I can file this request (for auto sync enable/disable)?
Hi,
The people who answer questions here, for the most part, are other users volunteering their time (like me), not Mozilla employees or Firefox developers. If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues.
You can also file a bug report or feature request. See File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products for details.
OK, I'll file bug/feature report.
No problem, glad we could point you in the right direction.