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Firefox Sync actually works

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111–120 of 343 posts

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#111

I'm surprised one can write an entire article on browser sync and not mention Safari, Chrome's main competitor.

Safari works great if you run 100% Apple devices, and breaks the moment you want to mix and match with even one non-blessed device. Firefox will happily sync to everything, and so will Chrome.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#112
post #99
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assertion doesn't match my experiences. I can't recall the last time a site gave a clear complaint about "we don't support firefox". I remember doing useragent modification 10-15 years ago, but more recently, when I tried to do it (I forget why), it seemed like changing the useragent has gotten less convenient, too (installing an addon feels worse than whatever I used to do). I also have the impression from podc…

Bing AI chat wants edge, change the user agent to that and it works on firefox

Hey look more anticompetitive behavior from Microshit. I can't believe that they get away with requiring you to use Bing and Edge when you search from the Windows task bar either.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#113

It does work very well, but personally I'd appreciate a mechanism that I could implement manually and without the cloud. Something like "copy files Foo, Bar and Baz on the source device to folder DooDad on the target device". I appreciate that this doesn't work for mobile devices with their filesystem-free presentation, but even there I'd rather explicitly import data from a file I downloaded than have it move throug…

You can copy around profiles, which are just directories, or if you only want bookmarks you can export/import them to HTML or JSON easily enough from in Firefox.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#114

Last time I tried sync with Firefox it saved all the extensions I installed but not the customized layout I used, so every time I installed Firefox I had to redo my toolbar again so it didn't get swamped in dozens of addon icons. It was always a mild pain point that disincentivized me from using sync. (But I haven't used Firefox in a while, so it may have been fixed.) It was also pretty annoying how all the extension…

You could disable syncing extensions?

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#115

One of the headline features for me is the Firefox recommended extensions program, where the extension code (and updated code) is manually vetted for malware and privacy violations. > Recommended extensions are expected to: Function extremely well. All Recommended extensions should not only perform as they promise, but do so at an exceptional level. For instance, there may be many ad blockers out there, but not all a…

It’s honestly things like this that make me respect (more than I already do) and stick with Firefox. They do not need to do that and in a lot of ways it’s just sticking their neck out for other developers/their users for very little gain on their part. Obviously, there are some benefits for them, but I think most people would agree that it’s mainly a risk at the end of the day.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#116
post #68

As an avid OSS supporter, I used to be a Firefox user until I got frustrated by its restrictive policies. For example, the addon store would block certain addons from being installed, or some settings were hidden or disabled by default. On Android, they only allow a handful of whitelisted addons and prevent you from installing anything else. This goes against the spirit of OSS, which is supposed to be highly customiz…

What do you use instead? Most other browsers, especially the big blue and yellow one, provide even less control. I am always annoyed that Firefox won't let me skip an invalid cert warning though, while Chrome always will by typing "thisisunsafe" into the error page.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#118

I have tried firefox, Vivaldi. But in terms of speed, when different sites load chrome fares better than them. I'm back to using chrome. I like customisation feature of Vivaldi but it lags in terms of speed. I still use Vivaldi on case basis (to read some sites' articles which have by default ads enabled)

When was the last time you tried? I reached the same conclusion a few years back, but I've been back to FF on all my devices for about 6 months now and haven't looked back.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent raised a good point tho. If you can add devices without entering encryption info, how can it be properly E2E?

I don't know what criteria is required to meet an E2EE (End to end encryption?) standard. In general though, the info is stored on Mozilla's (or an affiliate's) cloud.[0] 1. If you lose your password and didn't setup a separate password recovery code (one time codes), then your data is toast. You can't reset your password via email without wiping your cloud data because mozilla uses your password in a hashing algorit…

> I don't know what criteria is required to meet an E2EE (End to end encryption?) standard.

Only sender and receiver (the “ends”) can decrypt the data, ie have the keys. In this case both ends are “you”, and the passphrase is the authentication for new devices. For e2ee to hold, neither the passphrase nor the key can be shared with another party, for instance Mozilla.

> 1. If you lose your password and didn't setup a separate password recovery code (one time codes), then you're toast.

That sounds right, and is similar to password managers. Your data is encrypted as a vault with a key derived from the passphrase. The vault is opaque to anyone without the key. Though you still have to trust the software.

Re: Firefox Sync actually works

#120

It’s too bad that Firefox has such a great UX and privacy-focused cloud features like this, yet is being held back by its engine. As a heavy FF user for the last few years it’s become more and more clear that the world just doesn’t care about making sites work on FF and I’m more frequently having to switch to Chrome. My dream is that FF would switch to Chromium while keeping all the great features around the browser…

It's too bad this is always one of the most upvoted comments on every FF thread when it just doesn't reflect reality.. been using Firefox for basically it's entire existence and it just works. It's always worked. Never been significantly slower than Chrome, at least to an extent that it matters, and now it's not slower at all. I don't have Chrome installed on my computer since everything works. What parallel reality…

Some smaller sites (for example local restaurants) will recommend chrome, but Firefox still works just fine for me.
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