Mozilla Sync 1.4, clone your firefox dynamically across machines

[clevin]

Note: this was previously written for " mozilla weave", its now called "firefox sync", and is available as an addon.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/...0-take-your-tabs-and-bookmarks-everywhere.ars

to install, goto your addon manager and search for sync.

its a syncing method, that allows you to sync your browser experiences across different devices and computers over the air.

the items can be synced OTA:

bookmarks
history
passwords
preferences
tabs opened
personas themes

the data is stored on mozilla server or a personal server of your own, encrypted with a pass phrase which is stored on your computer.

Your data is always fully encrypted when it is on Mozilla's sync servers. Mozilla never has access to your pass phrase and consequently cannot read, access, or manipulate your data.

once you install sync on your browser on different computers, and/or firefox mobile on N900.

you can choose how to sync:

and what to sync.

you can open a bunch of tabs at home computer/devices, run to work, and open exactly same tabs from your home computer.

as mentioned, this works on firefox mobile as well

With history sync, your awesome bar performance will be same everywhere you want them to, even on a computer you use for the 1st time.

With Password sync, you don't need to remember all the passwords when you moving around using different computers.

 

[mgirg]

Hi,

I have been using weave for a while now and for the most part it is great, but I am having problems keeping my bookmarks synced with it, and I wonder if you can help.

I have it installed on 2 macbooks, both running the same version of weave and firefox, and it works fine on my main computer but when I sync weave on my second computer it reorders my book marks in an annoying random way. It is so irritating, and only ever happens on my second computer.

As a result I have had to turn off the bookmark syncing on the second computer and go back to foxmarks which syncs my bookmarks perfectly.

any idea what is going wrong?

 

[ZachsMacDaddy]

Doesn't Xmarks already do this quite well? Plus Xmarks can sync your info with Chrome, Safari, IE....

 

[clevin]

Doesn't Xmarks already do this quite well? Plus Xmarks can sync your info with Chrome, Safari, IE....

xmarks only sync bookmarks, while weave syncs history, bookmarks, preferences, opened tabs, passwords.

try out for yourself, its almost like a over the air clone of your firefox across different computers/devices (extensions and none-personas-themes excluded)

I have it installed on 2 macbooks, both running the same version of weave and firefox, and it works fine on my main computer but when I sync weave on my second computer it reorders my book marks in an annoying random way.

i dont know, however, if you already have everything on your first computer, you could try to "start over(an option in weave preference)" on second computer and choose "override local with weave information".

 

[mgirg]

i dont know, however, if you already have everything on your first computer, you could try to "start over(an option in weave preference)" on second computer and choose "override local with weave information".

I have tried that already, and when it load up my bookmarks fresh on the second computer it still reorders them!

I have no idea why.

 

[ZachsMacDaddy]

xmarks only sync bookmarks, while weave syncs history, bookmarks, preferences, opened tabs, passwords.

Xmarks syncs passwords too. The rest, no, but bookmarks and passwords, yes.

I'll give Weave a chance tho. The downside is that it is just for Firefox while Xmarks goes across several browsers and that's a feature I do use.

 

[clevin]

Its now called "firefox sync", and support latest trunk build.

The history sync is also awesome, with history sync, your firefox awesome-bar behavior will be same everywhere, even if you are out on a world trip and using a completely different computer for the first time.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I use this in conjunction with Firefox Home for my iPod touch. Works beautifully and exactly as advertised.