620493 - Allow Sync Key to be viewed in Fennec UI

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

The new 26 character Sync Keys are pretty much impossible to remember. We're telling users it's ok because they can either use easy setup when they need to set up a machine ad-hoc. Or if they ever lose a machine, just look up the Sync Key on their other devices (the Firefox UI actually says that!). Only problem is, the Fennec UI now no longer exposes the Sync Key anywhere. *facepalm*

Could we fix somehow without having to rearrange the UI all that much?

Comment 1

[Thomas Arend [:tarend]]

Madhava: anything we can do in the Fennec UI to show sync data and sync key?

Comment 2

[Madhava Enros [:madhava]]

Whenever we do this, I think it's going to involve a button that launches a full-screen panel displaying the sync key in large characters, so that a person can read it easily while they punch it in on their desktop or other device.  This would all live within the "Details" section in Sync prefs.

A very very low-touch (but also not very satisfying) way to just get it in would be to have it be a "About:config" pref.

Comment 3

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Whenever we do this, I think it's going to involve a button that launches a
> full-screen panel displaying the sync key in large characters, so that a person
> can read it easily while they punch it in on their desktop or other device. 
> This would all live within the "Details" section in Sync prefs.

That sounds like a good idea. I suggest using the string "My Sync Key" for that button since that's what the corresponding menu item on the desktop is called.

> A very very low-touch (but also not very satisfying) way to just get it in
> would be to have it be a "About:config" pref.

Not sure I understand this correctly. You'd like to show the Sync Key as a preference in about:config? This isn't how the Sync Key is stored by Sync and I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea to go there. I know Fennec doesn't have a master password feature yet, but once it gets one, you want to make sure your sensitive data is protected by it. We definitely need to use the password manager on the desktop. But maybe I misunderstood you?

Comment 4

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

We have no plans to show the sync key for FF6

Comment 5

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

In response to some support.mozilla.org posts from users who wanted to use a mobile device to set up sync (or recover a sync key), I wrote a simple add-on to show the sync key from Fennec's prefs screen:  http://limpet.net/key/

Comment 6

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

That's funny. I wrote one too: https://addons.mozilla.org/mobile/addon/aboutsynckey/