[GH-ISSUE #111] How to setup sync on a second browser without destroying the bookmarks? #106

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opened 2026-02-25 22:36:09 +03:00 by kerem · 4 comments
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Originally created by @CajusH on GitHub (May 28, 2018).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus/issues/111

Software versions

  • Browser: Firefox 60.0.1 64 bit on openSUSE 42.3 and openSUSE 15.0
  • Nextcloud: 13.0.1 (still using sqlite DB, which is the Installation default)
  • Nextcloud Bookmarks app: 0.11.0
  • Floccus: 2.2.5
    Please read until the end, some issues solved themselves, but might be worth a note in the installation docu or some prevention in floccus...

Steps to reproduce

  1. Empty DB on nextcloud, initial sync with firefox from computer no. 1
  2. nextcloud DB has 457 bookmark entries which looks OK
  3. Deleted all bookmarks on the second computers firefox and installed Floccus
  4. Setup Floccus and "Sync Now". Nothing happend, no bookmarks appear.
  5. I found the bug #83 , so I exported all bookmarks from computer no.1 and imported it into computer no.2.
  6. I clicked "Sync Now" on computer no.2 again. Floccus aborted with "Cannot delete bookmark entry in the DB, index 507" (Maybe the text was a little different, I did not write it down at the moment it appeared) Index 507? There is no such index in the nextcloud DB?
  7. I went back to the computer no.1 and clicked "Sync Now"
    Half of the bockmarks disappeared one after each other... :-(

Expected outcome

It should be possible do do an "initial sync" on a second browser, with the option to remove all the old bookmarks. This should also work on a fresh browse, with no bookmarks existing at all.
...

Actual outcome

I had to restore the bookmarks on both browsers (via import of my saved bookmarks file)
On computer no.1, I clicked "Sync Now" again after the restore and it seem to run forever.
The dialog says "Syncing..." and stays like this (since 20 minutes now), even after restart of firefox.
I deleted the floccus account on computer no.1 and created a new one (with the same user and options). "Sync Now" worked again on this computer (no destroying of bookmarks)
Back to computer no.2: I noticed a message "Reconnect to Sync" on this computer. This Firefox had been connected to an old local firefox sync server, which isn't working with FF 60 any more. I deleted the complete .mozilla folder and setup firefox from scratch. Starting with all bookmarks deleted (even those that are created by firefox on empty preferences) It synced with nextcloud without an error!
All the bookmarks appeared EXCEPT those in the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste". So I copied the complete "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste"-folder into my "Lesezeichen-Menu"-folder and did a Sync.
This new folder did NOT appear on computer no.2 after I did a sync there!??
Then I added one item to the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" on computer no. 2 - Sync - and this one appeared on computer no. 1 after resync.
Delete the new item on computer no. 1 also deletes the item on no. 2 after sync, but the original items from the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" did never showed up, neither as "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" or as folder inside my "Lesezeichen-Menu"-folder.
OOPS: The name "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" seems to be special to firefox. You cannot edit the name of a folder with the name "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" at any place inside your bookmarks
I just moved the bookmarks out of my folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" (which was the copy from the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste") and all bookmarks from the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" disappeaed as well
Then I copied the bookmarks back to the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and deleted my folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste". The bookmarks are now at two places: the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and in a folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"dummy".
Now I cannot sync any more because floccus complains same URL is bookmared twice
...

Originally created by @CajusH on GitHub (May 28, 2018). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus/issues/111 <!-- Hello there! Thank you for providing feedback! Please answer the below questions to allow for as smooth a process of tackling the issue as possible :) (Note: Everything surrounded by arrows, like this text for example, will not be visible.) --> ### Software versions <!-- Please provide the versions of the following software products in your set up --> * Browser: Firefox 60.0.1 64 bit on openSUSE 42.3 and openSUSE 15.0 * Nextcloud: 13.0.1 (still using sqlite DB, which is the Installation default) * Nextcloud Bookmarks app: 0.11.0 * Floccus: 2.2.5 **Please read until the end, some issues solved themselves, but might be worth a note in the installation docu or some prevention in floccus...** ### Steps to reproduce <!-- What did you do? Be as specific as possible --> 1. Empty DB on nextcloud, initial sync with firefox from computer no. 1 2. nextcloud DB has 457 bookmark entries which looks OK 3. Deleted all bookmarks on the second computers firefox and installed Floccus 4. Setup Floccus and "Sync Now". Nothing happend, no bookmarks appear. 5. I found the bug #83 , so I exported all bookmarks from computer no.1 and imported it into computer no.2. 6. I clicked "Sync Now" on computer no.2 again. Floccus aborted with "Cannot delete bookmark entry in the DB, index 507" (Maybe the text was a little different, I did not write it down at the moment it appeared) Index 507? There is no such index in the nextcloud DB? 7. I went back to the computer no.1 and clicked "Sync Now" Half of the bockmarks disappeared one after each other... :-( ### Expected outcome <!-- What did you think was going to happen or what do you think should have happened? --> It should be possible do do an "initial sync" on a second browser, with the option to remove all the old bookmarks. This should also work on a fresh browse, with no bookmarks existing at all. ... ### Actual outcome <!-- What actually happened after you did the above steps? --> I had to restore the bookmarks on both browsers (via import of my saved bookmarks file) On computer no.1, I clicked "Sync Now" again after the restore and it seem to run forever. The dialog says "Syncing..." and stays like this (since 20 minutes now), even after restart of firefox. I deleted the floccus account on computer no.1 and created a new one (with the same user and options). "Sync Now" worked again on this computer (no destroying of bookmarks) Back to computer no.2: I noticed a message "Reconnect to Sync" on this computer. This Firefox had been connected to an old local firefox sync server, which isn't working with FF 60 any more. I deleted the complete .mozilla folder and setup firefox from scratch. Starting with all bookmarks deleted (even those that are created by firefox on empty preferences) It synced with nextcloud without an error! All the bookmarks appeared EXCEPT those in the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste". So I copied the complete "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste"-folder into my "Lesezeichen-Menu"-folder and did a Sync. This new folder did NOT appear on computer no.2 after I did a sync there!?? Then I added one item to the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" on computer no. 2 - Sync - and this one appeared on computer no. 1 after resync. Delete the new item on computer no. 1 also deletes the item on no. 2 after sync, but the original items from the "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" did never showed up, neither as "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" or as folder inside my "Lesezeichen-Menu"-folder. OOPS: The name "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" seems to be special to firefox. You cannot edit the name of a folder with the name "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" **at any place inside your bookmarks** I just moved the bookmarks out of my folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" (which was the copy from the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste") **and all bookmarks from the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" disappeaed as well** Then I copied the bookmarks back to the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and deleted my folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste". The bookmarks are now at two places: the root -"Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and in a folder "Lesezeichen-Menu"-"dummy". Now I cannot sync any more because floccus complains _same URL is bookmared twice_ ... <!-- Thanks! Now, hit Submit and wait for a reply :) -->
kerem closed this issue 2026-02-25 22:36:09 +03:00
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@CajusH commented on GitHub (May 28, 2018):

In the mean time both browsers seem to work as expected.
I created two accounts on each browser: one for "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and and one for "Lesezeichen-Menu". Both accounts write to a path with the same name on nextcloud. With this configuration you can sync both.
I had one more issue with bookmarks getting lost on sync, but I couldn't reproduce it.
When the sync on computer no. 1 runs and/or get stuck, a sync on computer no.2 seem to trash half of the bookmarks.

<!-- gh-comment-id:392547703 --> @CajusH commented on GitHub (May 28, 2018): In the mean time both browsers seem to work as expected. I created two accounts on each browser: one for "Lesezeichen-Symbolleiste" and and one for "Lesezeichen-Menu". Both accounts write to a path with the same name on nextcloud. With this configuration you can sync both. I had one more issue with bookmarks getting lost on sync, but I couldn't reproduce it. When the sync on computer no. 1 runs and/or get stuck, a sync on computer no.2 seem to trash half of the bookmarks.
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Owner

@marcelklehr commented on GitHub (Jun 4, 2018):

I'm not sure I was able to follow you. :S Could you sum up the issues you are able to reproduce and/or how you would improve the documentation?

<!-- gh-comment-id:394407274 --> @marcelklehr commented on GitHub (Jun 4, 2018): I'm not sure I was able to follow you. :S Could you sum up the issues you are able to reproduce and/or how you would improve the documentation?
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@CajusH commented on GitHub (Jun 4, 2018):

I'm sorry, I wrote the bug report during the testing and trying. The result is a spaghetti-like report :-)
I saw you have released 3 more versions in the meantime.
With 2.2.7 I did not have problems with disappearing bookmarks again.
Sync from my 2 computers seem to run now without getting stuck.
Currently I only have 2 minor open issues:
1.) bookmarks deleted from one computer don't get deleted on the second computer and may re-appear on the first computer after syncing the second computer
2.) The order of the bookmarks gets mixed sometimes, which is not nice.
You might decide to create a separate issue for 1.), but it is hard to reproduce, as it does not happen every time. For the 2.) I saw #113 already complains about this.
About improving the documentation: My first tries with floccus were done on a browser, which had an old Firefox-Sync account setup. Although this account wasn't working any more, some issues seem to disappear after I cleared the Firefox preferences. I am not sure, if this non-working sync account could have confused floccus. If this could be the case, you should mention it in the installation ReadMe. There might be more guys like me, searching for a replacement of the old Firefox Sync protocol, which was easy to host yourself.

<!-- gh-comment-id:394443113 --> @CajusH commented on GitHub (Jun 4, 2018): I'm sorry, I wrote the bug report during the testing and trying. The result is a spaghetti-like report :-) I saw you have released 3 more versions in the meantime. With 2.2.7 I did not have problems with disappearing bookmarks again. Sync from my 2 computers seem to run now without getting stuck. Currently I only have 2 minor open issues: 1.) bookmarks deleted from one computer don't get deleted on the second computer and may re-appear on the first computer after syncing the second computer 2.) The order of the bookmarks gets mixed sometimes, which is not nice. You might decide to create a separate issue for 1.), but it is hard to reproduce, as it does not happen every time. For the 2.) I saw #113 already complains about this. About improving the documentation: My first tries with floccus were done on a browser, which had an old Firefox-Sync account setup. Although this account wasn't working any more, some issues seem to disappear after I cleared the Firefox preferences. I am not sure, if this non-working sync account could have confused floccus. If this could be the case, you should mention it in the installation ReadMe. There might be more guys like me, searching for a replacement of the old Firefox Sync protocol, which was easy to host yourself.
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@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2023):

This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.

<!-- gh-comment-id:1478009363 --> @github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2023): This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.
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