Open Bug 1924544 Opened 1 year ago Updated 1 month ago

Sync between Firefox Desktop and Firefox Android is inconsistent

Categories

(Firefox for Android :: Accounts and Sync, defect, P2)

Product:
Firefox for Android
Component:
Accounts and Sync
Version:
Firefox 131
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: vijai.antony, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:131.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/131.0
Firefox for Android

Steps to reproduce:

Enabled sync (with bookmarks and open tabs options selected) on desktop as well as Android

Actual results:

When I first log in using my firefox account on both devices, the sync works perfectly. It shows the open tabs from both devices and when I choose to close them on either , it works. But after a few minutes the sync stops working. Even if I have open tabs on my android phone, desktop firefox does not show them. I tried manually syncing multiple times but it does not work until I log out on the android and log back in. This issue happens whenever I restart my phone for any reason as well.

Expected results:

The sync should display the open tabs under all circumstances without fail. There can be a minor delay and that is acceptable

This bug is reported in the wild by so many other users (you can see that via google play store reviews). Its a known feature issue on Firefox. If sync works perfectly then I would switch over to Firefox as my default browser immediately. Also, I am so looking forward to being a donor as I love the mission of Mozilla foundation (people over profits) and privacy focus. Please fix the sync issues and let the market know this issue is addressed. I think a lot of people would love it. Also, bringing tab groups will be awesome but I know its currently planned in an upcoming release.

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Fenix::Accounts and Sync' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Component: Untriaged → Accounts and Sync
Product: Firefox → Fenix

Is Fenix the same as Firefox for Android App?

Flags: needinfo?(jboek)

(In reply to vJs from comment #4)

Is Fenix the same as Firefox for Android App?

Yes, Fenix is the name we use internally for Firefox for Android.

(In reply to Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond] from comment #5)

(In reply to vJs from comment #4)

Is Fenix the same as Firefox for Android App?

Yes, Fenix is the name we use internally for Firefox for Android.

Thank you. I do believe this is a widespread issue (i.e. sync not working all the time)

Any update on this? Has the team confirmed its a bug and a fix is coming?

Flags: needinfo?(jboek)
Severity: -- → S3
Flags: needinfo?(jboek)
Priority: -- → P2

Possible to change the priority to a P0? Mainly because it's reported by many other users via the app store too. A remedy would ensure more users, like me, would switch immediately to Firefox as default browser (and potentially become contributors to Mozilla foundation).

Due to persistent sync issues between Android and Desktop versions, I cannot make this work. Moving to a Chromium based browser for now until the sync issue is fixed fully.

I can repro: when the Android browser is logged in, the desktop browser doesn't list the tabs on the former. As soon as I log out from the Android browser, the list of tabs shows up on the desktop browser.

Kiki from SUMO here. We got one user reporting what is likely to be the same problem through our X/Twitter account (@FirefoxSupport) recently.

The sync seems to be working okay after the 133 stable release. I plan to see it for awhile and then confirm.

Having this issue recently.

Last Sync on Android was over 2 days ago, and pressing "Sync now" does nothing.

New bookmarks and logins on Android aren't synced to Desktop, and vice versa.

Firefox on Android 134.0.1

Same issue for me. Last sync 7 days ago. How can we see the logs for sync failures?

While the process is a little painful, there's some info about getting logs at https://wiki.mozilla.org/CloudServices/Sync/File_an_Android_bug

Nothing happens.

I can use logcat to see logs but when I hit the Sync button, nothing happens. No logs are produced.

Just want to say that eventually my Android browser synced (both ways). At the moment, it is 14 hours ago. Pressing there doesn't do anything, still. But at least it synced.
There was no update from the Play Store in the meantime.

I don't know what exactly is the criteria for the browser to finally Sync, and I don't understand why pressing on "Sync now" does nothing.

I have found that doing the following steps helps with this issue on my phone (running on Android 15) :

  1. Close app

  2. Disable "Allow background usage" : Settings -> App -> Firefox -> App battery usage -> Toggle off "Allow background usage"

  3. Force stop the app : Settings -> App -> Firefox -> "Force Stop"

:scott Regarding logcat I use the following method :

  1. Clear log using :

adb logcat -c

2)Run log without any filtering :

adb logcat -v time

This continues to annoy me, constantly.

The sync just works "whenever it decides to", and it can be several days in between...

Clicking "Sync now" never does anything, when it's hanging. It only worked once for me, when I got it at a time that it was working.
Other than that, it can be "3 days ago" (like now), that it won't matter.

Google Chrome can have many problems, but Sync is something that actually worked very well, at least...

Other people are also complaining here: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1g6gyn5/firefox_on_android_refuses_to_sync/

I don't mind much that it takes a while to automatically sync. But at least pressing "Sync now" should just do it...

Close app
Disable "Allow background usage" : Settings -> App -> Firefox -> App battery usage -> Toggle off "Allow background usage"
Force stop the app : Settings -> App -> Firefox -> "Force Stop"

Tried all of these. Still "3 days ago", and still not doing anything when I press "Sync now"

This comment on Reddit might be helpful:

This started happening a couple of months ago. I don't know where I saw it, but it seems like Firefox Android sends an invalid json and the sync server will reject it eventually. This can be tested with https://github.com/Mikescher/firefox-sync-client

Could it be the case that JSON is not being properly escaped, or something like that?

E.g. using special characters in Bookmarks, that make the JSON invalid, if not properly escaped...

Others complaining about the same: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1489278

I moved to Ironfox and it now syncs as expected. The problem is/was definitely in the Firefox Android client.

This has been a consistent issue for me since ~3 months ago. I tried logcat and a few other methods to identify an error but nothing comes up when I attempt to sync manually. The buttons in sync settings and synced tabs view don't seem to be doing anything. Automatic sync does occur sporadically. I'm using "send tab to device" a lot now, so at least that's working properly.

Sounds a little like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1812111 - I also think there is another bug on file where it was identified that a UI revamp regressed this, but I'm not sure what else we can do here to get it treated as a priority by the Android team.

This bug is maddening. Please fix or at least acknowledge!

Have started hitting this buy on Android as well: both a Pixel Tablet and a Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Sync will break and stay broken for hours/days at random. Sometimes it starts working again, but I've had it broken for over a week on my phone. The only fix is to clear all app data (essentially the same as a clean reinstall), upon doing so it works perfectly until the next time it breaks.

Tons and tons of Reddit threads about this going back years; this is the most recent: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1tbjjq1/firefox_android_sync_issues/

It seems like the issues here have evolved. In the current state, tapping "sync now" does nothing, and the sync button in the synced tabs area is constantly spinning, without doing anything. Logging out and back in does nothing; clearing cash does nothing; force stopping does nothing; rebooting does nothing.

Desktop sync appears unaffected.

Sorry you are hitting this. I think we've finally got a better understanding of what's going on - haven't quite worked out exactly how to fix it yet though, but are actively looking at it. I think bug 2041554, bug 2041555, bug 2041557 and bug 2030949 cover this, some of which will be in the next release version in 11 days or so.

A random comment mentioned that they don't have this problem with IronFox, and it actually does work perfectly! So, I'm not sure if that's helpful for troubleshooting, but it might be something to do with how push/autosync is integrated with Google Mobile Services. Ironfox rips that out, and it's noticeable: every time I navigate to the "shared tabs" section, I need to wait a second for it to update, whereas on Firefox proper, it would already be updated (unless the sync were in one of its broken states).

I wonder if some breakdown isn't occurring between GMS and Firefox, and causing some timeout loop when it tries to wake up and perform background sync.

There are so many threads on Android sync problems here it's getting hard to keep track. I responded to a different threads a couple weeks ago but can no longer find it.

The issue seems to have surfaced at different points for different people. In my case things were (mostly) ok until a few months ago. Now it works and fails for days at a time with no discernible pattern.

It's interesting that sending and receiving tabs still works fine, it's just the sync that's broken.

My Pixel 8 forced an android update on me 2 days ago, and since, my sync doesn't work. It says "last sync: 2 days ago" and pressing the button does nothing.

151.0.4 from the Play store. Android 16 build CP1A.260305.018 -- I'm not actually certain that's the latest version for the Pixel 8.

It makes the "security generated password" feature pretty frustrating when the passwords won't sync.

Let me know if i can provide more info.

(In reply to Tyler Griffin from comment #30)

A random comment mentioned that they don't have this problem with IronFox, and it actually does work perfectly! So, I'm not sure if that's helpful for troubleshooting, but it might be something to do with how push/autosync is integrated with Google Mobile Services. Ironfox rips that out, and it's noticeable: every time I navigate to the "shared tabs" section, I need to wait a second for it to update, whereas on Firefox proper, it would already be updated (unless the sync were in one of its broken states).

I wonder if some breakdown isn't occurring between GMS and Firefox, and causing some timeout loop when it tries to wake up and perform background sync.

Ugh, sorry everyone. My IronFox instance has been stuck for two days now, so my entire hypothesis here is wrong. It behaves exactly the same way as regular Fennec. The sync behavior is different insofar as it doesn't sync in the background thanks to the lack of Firebase, but that doesn't seem to do anything about the problem.

If the backoff issue is indeed the bug, try changing the system time forward by like 4-8 hours (or even more) to "trick" the backoff. I'm not sure what made sync to fail in the first place.

And maybe, try capturing the logs after changing the system time and (start capturing here, see notes below) then re-opening Firefox as an attempt to sync, then just in case it failed again (as in the first backoff "skipped" with changing the system time so that the state went back to "before syncing" instead of unclickable button, then Firefox would attempt syncing, but made another backoff due to failure), at least there are logs that can be investigated to find the root cause of why it failed in the first place. There is actually logs from bug 2038290 comment 6, but another log can be useful for confirming the common root cause. It might not really be necessary to post the logs except if it actually failed, or someone interested in investigating/fixing this requested it.

Notes for capturing logs for the paragraph above:
Preferably all logs from all running processes starting from here with adb logcat -T 1 2>&1 | tee OUTPUT.txt, and doing the grep thing later for OUTPUT.txt. After filtering with grep, make sure to remove long tokens/numerical IDs like on 1.5 endpoint requests before posting for privacy and security.

Bug 2047406 is a related (but a different bug) report of mine where that system time workaround is also mentioned, with additional details for this bug (described as "point 1" there for this backoff bug, however that report focuses on "point 2" specifically because I managed to reproduce that bug only).

Yes! Changing the Android system time forward by 12 hours got the sync to work!

Alright, in attempt to atone for my wild goose chase around Ironfox, I have some useful information to add this time. I force-stopped the app (Ironfox, technically, but I'm almost certain now that it doesn't matter) and waited a few hours. Sync immediately worked upon re-launching (this after having it broken for two full days). Combined with @stevedcsf's confirmation on the system time trick, I think we can infer the following:

  1. It's definitely timeout-related.
  2. The app continues to try to sync in the background, fails probably due to network errors, and by the time the user launches it, the sync is already well into a deeply backed-off state.

I suspect this is related to Android's battery/network management. Once the phone enters Doze, it shuts off network access for most apps. I wonder if FF is waking up in the background but for some reason not properly requesting or properly being granted network access? So it keeps trying to sync in the background, keeps failing, and the backoff continues to increment. My phone was largely at home or in very reliably cell coverage this entire time, so I doubt that the network was actually flaky.

Anyway, this is at least another workaround for now.

There we go, I finally managed to encounter this bug on Firefox 152.0.1 Android. Details posted on bug 2038290 because I felt that the OP description there matches more than this bug comment 1 does

See Also: → 2038290, 2041557, 2041554
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