Sync duplicates bookmarks and restores old deleted bookmarks.
I need advice on strategy on how to eliminate the following problem: I have two desktops and a laptop, all using the same Firefox version. Two are Linux Mint 18.2, but the main Firefox desktop is on Windows 7 Ultimate. To clear out old bookmarks and create a fresh sync data, I deleted the sync account and created a new sync account using the same email account and password as I had before. All this was done on the same Windows desktop while the other desktops were turned off. Sync created a new data set as I wanted, (bookmarks, add-ons, passwords and preferences). But the next day it synced and re-added bookmarks from the old account, as well as duplicated several hundred new bookmarks. I don't know how to avoid this problem.
I zipped 30 small text logs from the weave subfolder, but I cannot attach it.
Chosen solution
First, there's no "main device" - each desktop / laptop device has equal weight in Sync; only "mobile" devices (Android / iOS) devices are treated differently by Sync. Clearing data from the Sync server is done by resetting the password; data is encrypted / decrypted by a "key" which is created from the current password and data is useless when the password is changed due to having a different "key" to unlock the data.
Sync retains only one set of data, with no backups - period. Your old data must have come from one of the other devices. As far as the duplicated data goes, that is an indication of a corrupt places.sqlite file that started on one of the devices and that corruption was then propagated thru Sync to the other devices.
Disable Sync on all devices, then use the Places Maintenance extension to clean up each device. Change your Sync password to clear the corrupt data from Sync, then connect each device one at a time to Sync and allow each device to interact with the Sync server for awhile before connecting the next device - don't rush getting them all connected back to Sync or you risk having that corruption reoccur. The same can happen if you don't cleanup all the devices, even a device that may not seem to be corrupted.
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Chosen Solution
First, there's no "main device" - each desktop / laptop device has equal weight in Sync; only "mobile" devices (Android / iOS) devices are treated differently by Sync. Clearing data from the Sync server is done by resetting the password; data is encrypted / decrypted by a "key" which is created from the current password and data is useless when the password is changed due to having a different "key" to unlock the data.
Sync retains only one set of data, with no backups - period. Your old data must have come from one of the other devices. As far as the duplicated data goes, that is an indication of a corrupt places.sqlite file that started on one of the devices and that corruption was then propagated thru Sync to the other devices.
Disable Sync on all devices, then use the Places Maintenance extension to clean up each device. Change your Sync password to clear the corrupt data from Sync, then connect each device one at a time to Sync and allow each device to interact with the Sync server for awhile before connecting the next device - don't rush getting them all connected back to Sync or you risk having that corruption reoccur. The same can happen if you don't cleanup all the devices, even a device that may not seem to be corrupted.
the-edmeister, thanks for clearing up the issues. Now I understand how sync works and what I have to watch out for.