Sync like git (i.e., more control over sync)

[spap]

Sync is very useful and should become even better when the new Profile Management System lands.

However, there's still a few things that could be worked on. Real-life example: I have 2 PCs, one I use daily and one I use once in a while. Sync normally allows me to keep my bookmarks (among other stuff) up-to-date across both. But, if I log in to the first and apply changes to my bookmarks (say I delete some bookmarks), when I log in on the second a few days latter, sync merges the bookmarks across the two devices bringing back the bookmarks I had deleted. Something similar happens with Homepage.

The way I see it, Sync needs to be more like git and could use at least a few options:

1. One session / machine should be declared as main,
2. Other sessions / machines are automatically branches,
3. When logging in to an account, Firefox should ask whether to "keep the main", "update main based on current branch" or "merge the two" (like what it's doing currently),
4. Doing so should display a summary of changes; this could be like git-diff per synced item (AI-generated summaries is another plausible venue nowadays I guess). Importantly, the summary should highlight which changes come from which session / machine and what are their timestamps,
5. Possibly add a confirmation dialogue as a final step to avoid accidents.

Functionality (3-5) could be exposed to the user as an option per-profile with some default parameters.

[Jon]

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[ana_m]

Hey @spap thank you for submitting both the problem you're running into and the idea!

I work on the sync team, and wanted to fully understand what you are experiencing. I wanted to ask if you frequently login and logout of sync from either devices? Or, do you stay signed in on both devices?

Thanks in advance, we appreciate the time you spent both submitting the idea, and responding!

[spap]

Hi @ana_m,

Thanks for reaching out. I frequently log in and out from both devices, especially the one(s) I don't use on a daily basis.

To give some extra info, say I bookmark a website on machine A, and then sync; the new bookmark is now on my profile - great. I log in the other machine B and the new bookmark is added there. I log out. If I go back to A and delete the bookmark while logged in, the next time I log in to B, the bookmark is added back to the profile and is visible in both A and B. This is also the case for separators and folders. To really get rid of it I have to delete it when logged in both machines, which is very inconvenient.

I'll also give an example of Homepage shortcuts. Say I set them on PC A when logged in - all good. Then, on another device B the shortcuts are different. When I log in then the shortcuts from B are imposed on the profile, therefore next time I log in A they change. This used to be very annoying when syncing for the first time on a new machine because the default shortcuts were overriding mine (along with other settings I presume ? 🤔). I haven't done that, however, in a while so I cannot guarantee the behavior is still the same.

All that could be solved, I guess, if I was permanently logged in every machine, but it feels like this is missing the point; to me sync is the ability to use my profile anywhere and whenever rather than everywhere and every time. That's why I would love to have more control over what changes are actually applied while using sync.