Sync search engine settings

[Arvid]

It would be nice if I would not have to set up all my search engines and their short codes with every new installation but could sync them just like my add-ons and history.

[neilzillamk2]

Howcome you can add AI slop but not sync search engines?

[Larkster]

This seems to be a basic and simple feature request yet is a large enough omission to make people stop using Firefox.  The ROI on this is huge.  JUST DO IT!

[Chris-toph]

Is it still the case in March 2026 that Firefox is not synchronising the Search Shortcuts ?

[Beau_Frederick]

@Chris-toph, yes — https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=444284 (2008-07-09)

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Firefox

[Chris-toph]

..or a way to export them and import them

[Tony2077]

You can always take the search.json.mozlz4 file from a previous Firefox profile to a new one. But that's far from ideal. The search engines should simply be synchronised with the rest of configs in the Mozilla account.

[kanoni]

Yea, it's one file added to sync.. We are talking 20 lines of code tops and some ipred compliance stuff maybe if we stretch it, something other is blocking this. Something more important than the actual users is prioritized.

[friskyplatypus]

This baffles me. It was changed to a trending idea in 2022 and 4 years later it's still not implemented. If it weren't for the fact that chrome is making ad blocking such a hassle I would switch back.

[JBBdude]

It's frankly bizarre that this hasn't always been the case, let alone that it still doesn't work this way. I switched to Firefox for Android while using my last phone. I expected my move to a new phone to be entirely seamless. Why doesn't Firefox simply copy over all settings? That's the idea of sync! Instead, I'm stuck manually re adding search options.

[JBBdude]

It's frankly bizarre to me that this wasn't always how this worked. Syncing settings should sync all settings. I transitioned to Firefox for Android on my last phone. I assumed all settings including custom search would transfer over to my new phone. Now, I'm stuck re adding custom search engines one by one, disabling and reordering. Why doesn't Firefox sync all settings, desktop to desktop and mobile to mobile? Users can manually adjust on each device, but a key benefit to Firefox is granular customization. Obviously, those preferences should follow the user. Especially very common and obvious ones.