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Where's my sync data?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Gorion

Gorion
Gorion
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I refreshed Windows, reinstalled Firefox, and then went and signed into Sync, and none of my bookmarks or addons are coming back. What's going on? I've refreshed (reformatted I guess would the technically correct term) Windows before and went back to FF, and signed into Sync, and it was all there like I left it.

I refreshed Windows, reinstalled Firefox, and then went and signed into Sync, and none of my bookmarks or addons are coming back. What's going on? I've refreshed (reformatted I guess would the technically correct term) Windows before and went back to FF, and signed into Sync, and it was all there like I left it.

All Replies (2)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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Firefox Sync IS NOT A DATA BACKUP SERVICE. It was not designed to be one, nor does it function as one. The Firefox Sync servers do not always have a complete or permanent copy of your data.

Plus, if you reset your Firefox Account password, any Firefox Sync data is erased from the account.

The proper method of backing up your data is to make a local copy of your Firefox profile before reformatting your computer.

I'm afraid, if your data does not come back automatically when you sign into Firefox Sync, it's not on the Firefox Sync server. Your best option in that case is to copy the data from another device, if you have one.

However, if you used the Windows reset function instead of actually reformatting the drive entirely and selected to keep your personal files, there may be some hope for you. The Windows reset feature tends to keep your application data (including the Firefox data) in a Windows.old folder on your drive.

If it's in that folder, it would likely be under the X:\Windows.old\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles path, or something similar.

Gorion
Gorion Question owner
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Damn. That's rather unfortunate for me, but thank you for the detailed answer nonetheless. On the surface level, the Sync feature just seemed to me like Firefox's more beefy take on Xmarks (since it syncs addons and tabs too), which I used for many years before that and it never failed me. In fact, a lot of what made FF so user friendly and customizable seems gone. I used to use an addon, that basically hid the words from a bookmark, and only showed you its favicon. That was really useful, and there was a replacement for it for the longest time, but its gone now from what I can find.

Eh, maybe it's good I have to start fresh with my bookmarks. I kinda had a hefty amount of useless ones, of pages I found on Reddit and in various dark nooks and crannies around the internet and just said in my head "fukken saved".


I do see a Windows.old folder, but its empty. I am indeed on Windows 10, and did choose the reset button, in lieu of a traditional format.