537897 - No way to select engines when setting up to use an existing account

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 486333

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[mozilla]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) FirePHP/0.3
Build Identifier: Weave 1.0rc

When using the "Start Over" option, there is no way to select what data to sync and what not to sync. I'm especially missing an option to not sync passwords to certain browser instances.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install, Setup and use Weave Sync normally.
2. Choose "Start Over" in Weave preferences.
3. Follow wizard.
Actual Results:  
All my data from the Weave server will be synced to the browser. I have no way to choose to not sync my passwords. If I select the "replace all data" option, all passwords previously stored in the local browser are lost.

Expected Results:  
The "Start Over" wizard should let the user choose which sync engines to use and which not to use. If the user choose not to use the password sync engine, passwords stored locally should be left untouched in all cases.

Comment 1

[WildcatRay]

I posted the following in Bug 539057:

2. Choose what items to sync before starting to sync with the server.

Background: I do not want to sync prefs as I have some different prefs in
different clients. To not have this happen, I must set up Weave, exit the
setup, go back into the Weave prefs, uncheck Sync Prefs, close Weave prefs and
close the browser as I cannot be sure that Weave will not sync prefs at that
point unless I do that.

It would certainly be nice to have the ability to choose what items/engines to sync and not sync during Weave set up.

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Really, I would like to make the sync behaviour a global, not per-machine, toggle.  That would solve this, without having to add additional UI.  Not sure how to best do this.

Comment 3

[WildcatRay]

If my memory serves, the Start Over process exits the Weave pref UI when it is completed. Could be set to return to the Weave pref UI instead and thus allow the user to pick and choose which sync engines they want with the sync to follow not being allowed to start until the user closes/exits the prefs UI?

Comment 4

[WildcatRay]

I just had another thought. Could Start Over be set to use the users' previously set Browser Sync custom settings rather than assuming the user wishes all of them to be synced?

Comment 5

[mozilla]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Really, I would like to make the sync behaviour a global, not per-machine,
> toggle.  That would solve this, without having to add additional UI.  Not sure
> how to best do this.

I would strongly prefer to keep sync behavior as a per-machine setting. Currently, I'm syncing everything to all of my clients except for my passwords. Those are synced to certain clients, only.

I understand that the UI is supposed to be kept simple, but what's wrong with adding an "expert" mode or section to configure non-standard settings?