Sync ignoring setting "services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID" = false
Categories
(Firefox :: Sync, defect)
Tracking
()
People
(Reporter: vector_flys, Unassigned)
Details
Attachments
(1 file)
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8.43 MB,
video/quicktime
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Details |
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:74.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/74.0
Steps to reproduce:
Firefox installed on two separate computers - I want a separate theme on each one.
Found and set the following (in about:config / default = true):
services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID = false
Actual results:
Selected / Active theme is still being synchronized across computers
Expected results:
Each computer should retain its Active theme independently
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Comment 1•6 years ago
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Bugbug thinks this bug should belong to this component, but please revert this change in case of error.
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Comment 2•6 years ago
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The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:markh, could you have a look please?
For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.
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Comment 3•6 years ago
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Sorry for the delay, but I can't reproduce this.
What themes are you using? Sync only syncs builtin themes, so I'd first like to make sure this is what you are talking about.
If you are talking about builtin themes, then could you please arrange for verbose, success logs as detailed here, then reproduce the problem (ie, change the theme on a different device, then sync on the device where the logs are being created such that the theme changes), then upload the resulting success logs .
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Reporter | |
Comment 4•6 years ago
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Well, Mark. Thanks for getting back to me. I am a software developer and believe in thorough testing. I would not have opened the bug if I wasn't able to consistently reproduce it... Having said that, attempting to do so this morning I can no longer demonstrate the problem either !? I believe there has been an update to 75.0 so maybe it was fixed - or maybe it was user error to start with. Anyway, to answer your question:
I have MacOS Catalina (which was also updated to 10.15.4.1 since I filed the bug) on both my desktop as well as a VMware Fusion virtual machine with Firefox installed on both - and that's where I was having the problem between the two. On my desktop, I have a custom theme, I installed through the extensions/theme preference setting (Fantasy of Lights - N.Lights Series 1). When I installed Firefox in the VM and enabled sync, the new browser immediately adopted my custom theme, no surprise. I changed the VM back to the default / OS theme as a differentiator of when I'm in the VM as opposed to my desktop. It was then, within about 30 seconds, that Firefox on my desktop changed back to the default as well. I could change the theme either on my desktop or in the VM to a custom theme or one of the standard ones, and the other would change in a short period of time to match. At that point, I set about Googling and found the setting which looked like it would do what I wanted. I changed the setting on both browsers and tested again. I made sure I had the latest Firefox updates, and I THOUGHT I restarted the browser in both places as well, but who knows.... Maybe I didn't. Or maybe I only changed it in the VM initially.
In any case, I have changed the theme back to default in the VM this morning and I've been working here for at least 20 minutes with Firefox still using my custom theme. I have also changed the custom theme on my desktop and at least 5 minutes passed with the VM still using the default. While I reviewed this message before sending, I also changed the VM to a different custom theme and at least another 5 minutes has gone by with each browser still sporting its own independent theme.
Finally, I changed the setting back to default on my desktop, so that my custom theme would propagate everywhere except where the setting is set to false (see attached), and so far, the VM is still using its own theme. So, I my problem may be solved, and you have my sincere apologies for bothering you. But let me run this way for a while before we mark it resolved.
Let me say, it is amazing what you all have accomplished with this browser. I switched from Netscape (yeah, like almost 20 years ago) and Firefox has been my browser of choice ever since. This is the first time, I've had a bug that bothered me enough to report.
I have made donations in the past, but as I am getting near retirement, perhaps I will be able to contribute as a developer at some point.
Cheers and keep up the great work!!
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Reporter | |
Comment 5•6 years ago
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Sorry for the quality - I had to lower resolution to 480p to get under 10MB
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Reporter | |
Comment 6•6 years ago
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OK - I got it... Here's how to reproduce. I see the real problem now. When I changed the setting back to true on my desktop, and restarted Firefox, the SETTING ITSELF propagated to the VM, and then the VM subsequently and dutifully changed theme to match the desktop.
So... I can see how this is probably accurately classified as "works as designed". And, it looks like I've identified a potential feature request: it would be great to have the ability to mark specific settings locally that are not propagated to this browser.
GOAL: Leave profile propagation setting default/true in Firefox so that the theme propagates everywhere EXCEPT where a browser local setting is false.
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Comment 7•6 years ago
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Another quick update. I changed the setting back to false on the Desktop and restarted to observe the setting change propagate to the VM. The VM automatically reverted back to the default theme at the same time (without a restart), while the desktop continued to use its custom theme.
New symptom: After a few minutes with no other changes or restarts, the desktop also changed back to the default theme !? I think this is what was causing my confusion initially.
Anyway, I restarted the browser in the VM and so far all seems stable with both browsers again retaining their own theme setting.
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Comment 8•6 years ago
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(In reply to vector_flys from comment #4)
On my desktop, I have a custom theme, I installed through the extensions/theme preference setting (Fantasy of Lights - N.Lights Series 1). When I installed Firefox in the VM and enabled sync, the new browser immediately adopted my custom theme, no surprise.
That is a surprise to me - only builtin themes should be touched by Sync. There are only a couple of builtin ones - in practice, this means only the "default" and "dark" themes should sync.
(It actually sucks that we limit things in that way and we should work out how to do better, but that's what we have now)
I changed the VM back to the default / OS theme as a differentiator of when I'm in the VM as opposed to my desktop. It was then, within about 30 seconds, that Firefox on my desktop changed back to the default as well. I could change the theme either on my desktop or in the VM to a custom theme or one of the standard ones, and the other would change in a short period of time to match. At that point, I set about Googling and found the setting which looked like it would do what I wanted. I changed the setting on both browsers and tested again. I made sure I had the latest Firefox updates, and I THOUGHT I restarted the browser in both places as well, but who knows.... Maybe I didn't. Or maybe I only changed it in the VM initially.
Yeah, that pref is the right one - it's just that we ignore that preference change in sync if the theme isn't builtin.
In any case, I have changed the theme back to default in the VM this morning and I've been working here for at least 20 minutes with Firefox still using my custom theme. I have also changed the custom theme on my desktop and at least 5 minutes passed with the VM still using the default. While I reviewed this message before sending, I also changed the VM to a different custom theme and at least another 5 minutes has gone by with each browser still sporting its own independent theme.
Finally, I changed the setting back to default on my desktop, so that my custom theme would propagate everywhere except where the setting is set to false (see attached), and so far, the VM is still using its own theme. So, I my problem may be solved, and you have my sincere apologies for bothering you. But let me run this way for a while before we mark it resolved.
I actually suspect there's still something strange going on here, but I'm not sure what, and I can't reliably reproduce anything wrong - but I also see some confusion when testing. I don't change my own themes very often, so the only time I would see an issue is when explicitly looking for one.
Thanks for the report, and feel free to keep us informed of strangeness.
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Comment 9•6 years ago
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(In reply to vector_flys from comment #6)
OK - I got it... Here's how to reproduce. I see the real problem now. When I changed the setting back to true on my desktop, and restarted Firefox, the SETTING ITSELF propagated to the VM, and then the VM subsequently and dutifully changed theme to match the desktop.
So... I can see how this is probably accurately classified as "works as designed". And, it looks like I've identified a potential feature request: it would be great to have the ability to mark specific settings locally that are not propagated to this browser.
GOAL: Leave profile propagation setting default/true in Firefox so that the theme propagates everywhere EXCEPT where a browser local setting is false.
Right. Unfortunately (for you :), there's been a policy decision that syncing must work across either all devices, or across none. So you can set the pref to change that the theme does or doesn't sync, but it applies to all devices. This is very similar to the policy that you can't, eg, disable bookmark syncing on just one device - it's either everywhere or nowhere. We are considering changing this in bug 1215415, but it's much trickier than it sounds - it introduces various edge-cases and just swaps one set of "strange" behaviour for a set that, in some ways, is even more "strange" - and whatever we do, someone if going to have a compelling use-case for something else.
So yeah, this is "works for me" - but I'm happy to reopen this if you experience other strangeness which can't be explained by the above.
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Comment 10•5 years ago
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Hi. I'm experiencing this same issue, but even with the setting set to False, theme setting is propagating.
I have 3 PCs. 2 Linux, 1 Windows. All using latest version of Firefox available (86.0.1) and synced to the same account. I check on all of them that the setting services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID is set to False. All instances have the default theme selected and all are running.
I then switch to a custom theme on one of the Linux machines. Nothing happens for 10/15 minutes. Then the Windows PC suddenly changes to that custom theme. Then a minute later, the other Linux PC also changes to that theme.
I check the settings again, and that setting is still set to False. I change back to the default theme on the last PC, and the other two PCs change back shortly after.
I'm not sure if the issue is specific to me somehow but it seems to me that services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID is certainly not doing what it should.
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Comment 11•3 years ago
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I have the same error in Firefox 104.0. The narrative made by @sykuningen applies for me too.
Description
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