1213094 - Remove services.sync.enabled preference

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Sync, defect, P5)

Description

[[e-mail]]

I need to disable the sync service - my data must not leak into a cloud.
I can find no documented configuration setting to disable this service.

Comment 1

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

Sync will not activate unless you explicitly enable it.  If you go to about:preferences#sync and it doesn't say you're connected, nothing is syncing or going into any cloud.  And if you *are* connected, that page should give you the ability to disconnect.

Comment 2

[Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly]]

(There also appears to be a "services.sync.enabled" option in about:config, but I've no idea what its precise semantics are)

Comment 3

[[e-mail]]

I found the about:config option and thought it was probably for enabling/disabling sync, but could find no documentation on these settings / semantics.
This sounds like a documentation bug more than a software bug.

Comment 4

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

We don't currently need or use that preference, so I'm happy to remove it given it causes confusion.

Comment 5

[akurnya]

I would like to take this up as a newcomer. 
Any preferred article would be helpful to understand how about:config is listing key values and how to remove.

Comment 6

[sakshivaid95]

Attachment: Removed services.sync.enabled preference

Removed services.sync.enabled. Please review.

Comment 7

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Comment on attachment 8712738 [details] [diff] [review]
Removed services.sync.enabled preference

Review of attachment 8712738 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

That's a good start, but you basically need to revert https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/933b795a1fc1 in its entirety.

Comment 8

[sakshivaid95]

Attachment: Made changes as per comment 7.

Please review.

Comment 9

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Comment on attachment 8714282 [details] [diff] [review]
Made changes as per comment 7.

Review of attachment 8714282 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the delay. That looks great, and I'm sorry for the confusion, but we *also* want the change to sync.js that's in your earlier patch (although instead of just removing that pref set we can go much further - the entire onPreferenceChanged() function can be removed and the |onchange="gSyncPane.onPreferenceChanged();"| line in sync.xul can also be removed)

Again, sorry for not being clearer in my previous comment - thanks for the contribution and I'll look at the next version quickly after it is uploaded.

Comment 10

[sakshivaid95]

Attachment: Made changes as per comment 9.

Please review.

Thank you.

Comment 11

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Comment on attachment 8715296 [details] [diff] [review]
Made changes as per comment 9.

Review of attachment 8715296 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Looks great, thanks! Are you able to push a try run (https://wiki.mozilla.org/ReleaseEngineering/TryServer)?

Comment 12

[sakshivaid95]

Sorry, but I do not have level 1 commit access.

Comment 13

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=3161d44ad425

Comment 14

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Note that the checkin message needs to have the bug number added.

Comment 15

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

(In reply to Mark Hammond [:markh] from comment #14)
> Note that the checkin message needs to have the bug number added.

thanks mark, added this myself during the checkin-needed runs :)

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/eb76ccb9bc17

Comment 17

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/eb76ccb9bc17

Comment 18

[Nazir Ahmed Sabbir [:NaSb]]

Successfully reproduced the bug with Firefox Nightly 44.0a1 (2015-09-22); (Build ID: 20150922030204) on Linux, 64 Bit

This Bug is now verified as fixed on Latest Firefox Nightly 47.0a1 (2016-02-25)

Build ID: 20160225030209
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0

Comment 19

[Mohammad Maruf Islam]

I have reproduced this bug with Firefox Nightly 44.0a1 (Build ID: 20151008030232) on 
windows 8.1, 64-bit.

Verified as fixed with latest Firefox Nightly 47.0a1 (Build ID: 20160226030256)
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0

As this bug is also verified on Linux(Comment 18),I am marking this as verified!

Comment 20

[Dakota]

services.sync.enabled is still used here https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/services/fxaccounts/FxAccountsManager.jsm#622

Maybe it's also checked somewhere by the branch and ".enabled", so that this search would not reveal it:
https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?q=services.sync.enabled

Maybe worth checking to make sure this supposedly "removed" preference doesn't interfere with anything. Thx