Firefox Sync

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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max2
Posts: 278
Joined: September 17th, 2011, 5:37 pm

Firefox Sync

Post by max2 »

Does it backup addons/extensions ?

What about userscripts and userchrome settings ?
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LIMPET235
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Re: Firefox Sync

Post by LIMPET235 »

Moving to Firefox Support...
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the-edmeister
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Joined: February 25th, 2003, 12:51 am
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Re: Firefox Sync

Post by the-edmeister »

No, Sync does not actually backup the extensions that the user has installed. What Sync does is install the users extensions from the Addons.Mozilla.Org (AMO) servers, but settings, data, and preferences for those extensions may get sync'd or they may not - a real crapshoot depending upon the extension involved. The last time I used Sync I lost all my data for 5 out of 20 extensions - the 5 most important extensions that saved data in their own files. After the fact and after doing a few hours of research I did discover "hidden" settings to get 3 of those 5 to work with "correctly" with Sync - very poor or incomplete documentation for all 3 of those extensions. Might not be that bad with Firefox 57 and later versions due to WebExtensions being far less powerful than Legacy extensions; plus WebExtensions are written in a different era where Sync is a part of the default Firefox installation, unlike some of the Legacy extension which were originally written in the days before Sync even existed as an extension itself - as Weave.

As far as userscripts and userChrome.css - userscripts for Stylish didn't get sync'd for me with Firefox 57; I wasn't using GreaseMonkey with that particular Profile so I can't comment. Neither userChrome.css or the Chrome folder would get synd'd via Sync as that is an optional file and would require the user to create a new pref to get that file to Sync - but a new pref won't create the Chrome folder so Sync for userChrome.css wouldn't work anyways (IMO - or I'm not sharp enough to figure out how to get that done and Sync just isn't worth the effort overall.)
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