Sync has worked in the past, but not now.
There was a time a semester back where I used Firefox on my Macbook Pro, and had it synced to my Samsung tablet. Back then, I remember it working in almost a push fashion, where I could look at something on the tablet and when I needed to do a lot of typing, I could just turn to my laptop and back the other way if needed. Maybe my memory is bad on that, but I remember being able to open a tab on the tablet, and pretty much instantly seeing it show up in the "tabs on other devices" on the Macbook. I actually started using Chrome for a semester for a few reasons, but would like to stick with Firefox.
Here's my dilemma. In Chrome I have found the syncing is instant. I have Firefox set up again for syncing across the 2 devices. Both devices are synced because they were both clean installs of the respective programs and I have the bookmarks in both. Syncing tabs is chosen, and in "tabs on other devices" on either machine, I see the first home screen tab like there was a sync that happened at some point, but it never updates the tabs. I can visit a dozen different web pages on either device and neither device reflects any of them.
Forcing a sync does nothing. Tabs won't show up, even over night.
My inclination is to wipe the sync profile and start over. I have 2 options with that. Option 1, on mozilla's sync web page purge all of the sync data. The problem is it keeps telling me it can't fulfill the request right now. It's been doing that for 2 days. Option 2, delete my account. I am not apposed to setting one up again, but am not sure if my email will be blocked as an old or current account for a period of time and I want to get this resolved soon.
Either way, I have everything set up and have double checked everything and no tabs are reflected on either device. This either is not working, or is extremely slow, which is just as useless if that's the case.
Any ideas?
Modified by TimeDilation
All Replies (5)
Try the latest release version of Firefox - Firefox 25.0
Loaded current version 25 so I'll add that to the list. Still not working so far.
However I am not sure if it is a profile glitch, or if sync is just not that fast. For example, do the sync services actually push changes as they happen or wait for predetermined intervals. At least then I would know what to look for. So far, bookmarks good. History good. Tabs, no updating of changes.
When a new bookmark is added to one "device", Sync immediately sends that change to the Sync Server. And if you are watching a different "device" you should see the newly saved bookmark almost immediately. At least I have seen it happen that fast when Syncing between two Profiles on my desktop PC and I had both Profiles running and Tiled vertically, with the Bookmarks Sidebar open.
Keep in mind that internet congestion and Sync Serve load may slow then seemingly "immediate" action down a bit.
As far as Tab Sync goes, open Tabs are Sync'd to the Server as Firefox is closed. I'm not sure, but I believe Tab History is Sync'd to the Server as each tab is closed.
I'm not sure if a complete Tab History is Sync'd to a tablet device, or if like on a mobile phone the last 25 or so URL's are sync'd as "history" to the mobile device.
Sorry, I can't advise you on whether to purge your data or to create another Sync account, I have never used those features. I am surprised that you don't have another email account to use to set up a 2nd account; it isn't that hard to create another email account at Gmail.
I haven't made another account just because I didn't want yet another account and password to something I don't access often. It was more of a personal choice. Just didn't go that route.
If you think it would help, I'll try that...
Modified by TimeDilation
As far as Tab Sync goes, open Tabs are Sync'd to the Server as Firefox is closed. I guess I thought it was more of a real time, current type of push like the bookmarks. I personally am not so interested in the history of the tabs as much as just having the tabs available on each device.
Update: I am trying the close firefox and open to update the tabs. I got a change in the tabs, but only 1 tab that is like 30 tabs ago and yesterday. Not sure why it hung onto that tab because it was one of many tabs at the time of testing. It's odd it hung onto the one specifically and none of the others showed up.