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How can I restore my Sync account on another computer?

  • 13 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by mighelon

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Hi all, I've created a Sync Account and it works correctly on a computer. But I cannot find a way to have it "restored" on another computer. If I connect my Firefox Account on a new computer, it doesn't request me if I want to restore data, it only creates a new "device" in my list...so it's not clear to me...it seems to be a one way sync :-( it's quite useless.

In other words, how can I use it as a backup solution?

Bye.

Hi all, I've created a Sync Account and it works correctly on a computer. But I cannot find a way to have it "restored" on another computer. If I connect my Firefox Account on a new computer, it doesn't request me if I want to restore data, it only creates a new "device" in my list...so it's not clear to me...it seems to be a one way sync :-( it's quite useless. In other words, how can I use it as a backup solution? Bye.

All Replies (13)

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Hi there. I called for more help for you.

We need to look at the sync logs.

On each device; Type about:sync-log<enter> in the address bar.

Open the last file created and Copy its contents Now Paste it into this forum.

If the file is too large;


Open a text / word program and load the file. Left-click once. Now <Control> A to highlight everything, then <Control> C to copy it.

Next, have your web browser go to; https://pastebin.com/

Paste <Control> P the content of the file in the window. Note: On the bottom, fill out the boxes as best you can.

Now press Create A New Paste. The page will reload. Copy the new web address, and post it here.


Note: Be sure to label what the reports. Working, not working . . . . whatever.

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Hi Fred and thank you for your time. Maybe my request is not clear...it's quite useless to paste the logs because there is nothing that "fails". I'm trying to understand how to use the same settings on more than one computer. At this moment every time I set up Firefox Sync Account from a different computer, the system creates a new connection but I cannot find a way to use a previously saved synced connection to another computer. How can I restore a Firefox Sync Account to a different computer? Cheers.

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Are you using the same user e-mail?

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Yes, exactly and Firefox always creates a new device connection without asking me if I want to restore and use one of the existing connection.

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I called for more help.

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Note that Sync isn't designed to used as a backup device or used to transfer files from one computer to another computer if that is your intend to achieve. Also an initial Sync isn't instant, but can take a longer time, especially when a lot of data is included.

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Ok, so I'm honest, I cannot understand the feature...if I sync to Firefox cloud but then I cannot restore...in what case could the sync option be useful? My achieve is to have the same bookmarks, tabs, history password on different computers/servers.

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Sync is a way to share data between several computers/profiles. It is not meant as a backup.

Note: With sync, there is no master. Any change on one member of the sync is sent to all others.


Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.{web link} I use an add-on that makes backups of my user profile, Just In Case. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the current Firefox.

Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.

If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.

Note: In case you need to restore from these backups, you may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.

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Hi Fred and thank you for your effort. I continue to think sync feature is completely useless. You say "Sync is a way to share data between several computers/profiles." and "Any change on one member of the sync is sent to all others.", ok so follow me: my laptop name is computer1 I have a Firefox profile with lots of data and a Sync Profile, I decide to format my laptop or to change it with a new one with the same computer name (I'm supposing in some way Firefox Sync bases its logic on computer name but I'm not sure), I install a brand new Firefox (with a clean profile obviously) and I configure the Firefox Sync as first step. You are saying Firefox will not sync back all data from previous profile, but it sends this clean profile to the Firefox Sync account....maybe deleting everything...great.

I was a FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) user since years but unfortunately Firefox has decided to not support extensions anymore :-( I perfectly know the process about to copy the profile and restore it manually but I'm searching for a solution "managed" not a manual one. I'm a Firefox fan since more than 15 years but I think it's a great fault to not having included something for managing backup/restore of profiles. This is my personal opinion.

Modified by mighelon

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mighelon said

I was a FEBE . . . user

I am still using FEBE with Firefox v54. It's for this and other great add-ons that I refuse to update.

Not to mention all the problems with the current browser that we see posted here.

my laptop name is computer1

Have you tried a different computer name? First, disconnect from sync, change the name, then reconnect.

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I agree with Mighelon that the current documentation misrepresents the actual service of "Sync". My expectation was as well that it could be used as a "restore"-service to be able to migrate or use several devices in parallel. I carelessly fragmented my old OS with about 200 tabs organised in "Simple Tab Groups", because I was convinced Sync would recreate my organisation in one click. Sucks for me for not having informed myself better, I guess. But that is a not a convincing answer given that "Sync" implies "restore" as well imho.

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bloodmandarin,

You should have started a new question thread for help with your issue with Sync. IMO, your question is different than what this thread was discussing 4 months ago; doing a "restore" of data via Sync. The OP in this thread made it sound like he wasn't using Sync correctly, and that is what the answers were about. And he disappeared before "we" got into the nitty-gritty of trying to help him.


As far as your issue with the "Simple Tab Groups" WebExtension.

I found this open "issue" ticket for "Simple Tab Groups" about Sync: https://github.com/Drive4ik/simple-tab-groups/issues/291 see the Jan 3 posting by Drive4ik "You can store up to 100KB of data using this API. If you try to store more than this, the call will fail with an error message." IMO, 200 tabs will exceed that limitation.

But with the extensions data being changed with Firefox 66, it could be that the "Simple Tab Groups" can be updated for handing more data with Sync.


Oh, as far as "one-click" with Sync, as cor-el mentioned - it may take some time for an initial synchronization to be completed on a newly added device, Sync isn't instantaneous.

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Just to clarify...I'm not disappeared, but the feature has nothing to do with "its name", no one can help me, simply because this FF feature is completely unuseful.... Why does FF call it "sync" if you cannot sync anything?