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Author Topic: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?  (Read 7469 times)

Cloq

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Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« on: May 13, 2013, 01:23 PM »
What happened to all the extensions (firefox) that would allow you to sync your bookmarks and settings to your own server?

It seems there are plenty of extensions that are happy to *host* and sync to their servers but are pretty vague on privacy.

Makes me wonder if  I am beating a dead horse especially after doing a few google searches.. grumble gumbrle..

app103

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2013, 06:40 PM »
Firefox now has the built-in ability to sync to Mozilla's servers, and it's encrypted, so don't forget your secret phrase (they can't recover that for you). And it doesn't just sync bookmarks and settings. It can also sync open tabs, history, passwords, and add-ons. I believe Mozilla added this feature to put an end to the security risk of 3rd parties wanting that data and releasing their own add-ons to collect it.

From their Privacy Policy:

To safeguard your privacy, the Firefox Sync Service is purposely designed so that the amount of data that Mozilla has access to is limited, either by encryption or not collecting it in the first place. This is why User Data and your password and secret phrase are either encrypted before being sent to Mozilla’s servers or not sent to Mozilla’s servers at all. And this is also why Mozilla doesn’t collect other information at all like your name or phone number.
For that set of information that Mozilla does have, Mozilla only makes Personal Information and Potentially Personal Information available to its employees, contractors, and selected contributors who signed confidentiality agreements that prohibit them from using or disclosing your Personal Information other than for Mozilla purposes to provide the Firefox Sync Service. Furthermore, Mozilla will not knowingly disclose Personal Information or Potentially Personal Information to other third parties unless required to do so, such as in order to comply with any law, regulation, or valid legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, court order, or if necessary or appropriate to address an unlawful or harmful activity. Do note, however, that even in this case the key issued by the Firefox Sync Services to decrypt certain portions of your data resides on your computer and not on Mozilla’s.

Cloq

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2013, 08:53 PM »
Thanks for the heads up, I vaguely remember reading that awhile back but was miffed that Firefox was forcing you to choose it's service only and not provide another external secure source method (https, webdav, sftp, etc.) to a location of your choosing.

Just miss not being able to sync my own data to my own device (pogoplug, or my own web server). :(

I hope the external sync devs will someday start making compatible extensions again.

ajfudge

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2013, 11:46 PM »
I think Firefox Sync allows you to choose your own server to sync your data to.
Check out their own help page.

It so happened that I did not save my recovery key and I had to reinstall Firefox to scrub away those preferences set up by add-ons that I uninstalled. But I recovered my account just fine when I logged in to Firefox Sync account page.

4wd

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2014, 12:50 AM »
It's an old thread but what the hell ...

Just miss not being able to sync my own data to my own device (pogoplug, or my own web server). :(

FWIW, you could install ownCloud on your webserver and then enable its Mozilla Sync app - you can then enter the details of your sync server into Firefox/Pale Moon/Waterfox/etc - I just started doing it, (running ownCloud on a VPS).

2014-01-22 17_36_23.pngFirefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?

2014-01-22 17_38_02.pngFirefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?

MilesAhead

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2014, 09:29 AM »
The original author of SyncPlaces,SortPlaces,CheckPlaces has abandoned those AddOns. But they are being maintained available for download.  If you have your own FTP access you can sync using SyncPlaces.  The fly in the ointment seems to be if the FTP uses a port other than the default.  I cannot find anyplace to put the port number in SyncPlaces.

http://daniel-lange....Firefox-add-ons.html

Edit: what I'm doing as workaround is just syncing using a file on the HD.  Now and then I upload the file to FTP using FileZilla.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2014, 09:37 AM by MilesAhead »

4wd

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2014, 01:05 AM »
The fly in the ointment seems to be if the FTP uses a port other than the default.  I cannot find anyplace to put the port number in SyncPlaces.

2014-01-23 18_03_05.png

That was after I chose FTP, BTW.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 03:03 AM by 4wd »

MilesAhead

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2014, 09:43 AM »
It likes the port.  But I get "unrecognized user or password." I just checked with FileZilla and that connects fine.

Edit: likely the encryption is messing it up.  I'm not sure what all these encryption protocols are.  So I don't really know if SyncPlaces supports them.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 09:56 AM by MilesAhead »

4wd

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2014, 07:10 PM »
Edit: likely the encryption is messing it up.  I'm not sure what all these encryption protocols are.  So I don't really know if SyncPlaces supports them.

So you're using FTPSw (FTP over SSL/TLS) or S/FTPw (FTP over SSH) ?

MilesAhead

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Re: Firefox Bookmarks and Settings Sync?
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2014, 09:33 AM »
FTP over SSL/TLS
is it.