Closed Bug 721635 Opened 12 years ago Closed 8 years ago

Firefox Sync Problem

Categories

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Sync
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: bugzilla.mozilla.org.boxy, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

FF 9.0.1, running on OS/X 10.7.2, Ubuntu 11.10, the latest version of FF on Android GB, and FF Home on iPhone 3GS, iOS 5.0.1.  The identical problem appears on all of these machines.

This is what I notice.  I set up sync and it works fine.  Then I do some work sorting some bookmarks: renaming a few directories, shifting a few of them around. Not major, but more than just adding a bookmark or two.  I am very careful to sync before leaving one machine and then sync on beginning work on a second.  When I begin work on the second machine, I check my bookmarks and find that some of the changes have been made, but many of the directories are missing, empty, or only partly filled.  Part of the sync, in other words, has occurred, but it is not complete.  The structure of what is there is correct, but only part of it has been copied over, and some of what should have been deleted has not been.  I check my other machines (other than the one on which the changes were initially made) and the problem is there also.  I wait a couple of days, telling the machines to sync over and over, but the problem does not resolve.  Finally, giving up, I "Reset Sync", deleting all bookmarks and downloading from the server.  This resolves the problem.  I have to go from machine to machine to do this.  So the problem is that the sync process is remaining somehow incomplete.

After doing some work last night, I was forced to repeat this resetting process on my present machine.  I then went to check for logs but there were none.  I had to set services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess to true and resync to get anything, which I am putting in the pastebin:

http://mozservices.pastebin.mozilla.org/1449458

Please let me know if I can provide anything else!


Actual results:

It didn't sync (see above)


Expected results:

It should have properly synced.
More than 2 weeks down the line and those same bookmarks have not synced.  If my desktop machines are D1 & D2, then after having edited bookmarks on D1 and reset sync on D2, I have avoided editing/ adding any new bookmarks to either of them.  I am able to store new ones to the "Mobile" folder on the android and it gets synced to all machines, but neither the android nor the iPhone ever completed pulling down the bookmarks from the server.  I am going to guess that D2 would not have done it either, had I not reset it.  So for example, on the android/iphone under Desktop Bookmarks >> Unsorted Bookmarks >> Research Projects I only have 8 of 19 bookmarks and 6 of 23 directories.  ("Research Projects" was a new directory some 2 weeks ago, made up of stuff I had moved from other directories in Unsorted Bookmarks.) Those bookmarks and directories are not in any particular order - eg it's not the first or last 6 or even any contiguous 6.  

My log reported above is from D2.  I have a number of these logs now.  Most are quite small, but there are a few larger ones, like this:

File:success-1327708668610.txt 	4 KB 	        1/27/12 	3:57:48 PM
File:success-1327798449143.txt 	1316 KB 	1/28/12 	4:54:09 PM

I'm a bit scared to use this thing, 'cause I can't depend on it.
Just for the sake of other people finding this, I'll add some keywords: "partial sync", "incomplete sync", "fails to sync", "syncs some bookmarks", "syncs some folders" ... that's all I can think of.
Can you reproduce this on a fresh Sync account? Have you tried resetting your Sync data (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-manage-my-firefox-sync-account#w_how-do-i-reset-my-sync-data)?

Most of the issues with bookmark sync occur as a result of using the old Firefox Sync add-on and not the version of Sync bundled with Firefox itself. If you have a Sync add-on installed on any device in an account, there is an increased chance of bookmarks getting corrupted. Can you verify you don't have the add-on installed anywhere?
(In reply to DiagonalArg from comment #1)
> More than 2 weeks down the line and those same bookmarks have not synced. 
> If my desktop machines are D1 & D2, then after having edited bookmarks on D1
> and reset sync on D2, I have avoided editing/ adding any new bookmarks to
> either of them.  I am able to store new ones to the "Mobile" folder on the
> android and it gets synced to all machines, but neither the android nor the
> iPhone ever completed pulling down the bookmarks from the server.

Getting a log from the Android device would be useful.

> My log reported above is from D2.  I have a number of these logs now.  Most
> are quite small, but there are a few larger ones, like this:
> 
> File:success-1327708668610.txt 	4 KB 	        1/27/12 	3:57:48 PM
> File:success-1327798449143.txt 	1316 KB 	1/28/12 	4:54:09 PM

If you have any named error-*.log, please consider posting them here.

> I'm a bit scared to use this thing, 'cause I can't depend on it.

With respect, Android Sync isn't finished or battle-hardened; you should not be using it with your own profile unless you're taking frequent backups and don't mind possible data loss. It's publicly available for testing.

(I say this as the guy who built most of it!)

Desktop sync should be fine, but it's hard to put trust in the system as a whole when there's a newborn sync client in the mix.
(In reply to Richard Newman [:rnewman] from comment #4)
> With respect, Android Sync isn't finished or battle-hardened; you should not
> be using it with your own profile unless you're taking frequent backups and
> don't mind possible data loss. It's publicly available for testing.

There is no evidence that the rewritten Native Android Sync is being used here. A log from the Android device should help determine that though.

For clarity, the old Android Sync (current stable versions of Firefox for Android) should work just fine. The new Firefox Android version which is in Aurora and soon to be Beta has known issues and shouldn't be used on important data (yet).
Thank you for your responses.

@gps.  I am not sure what you mean by a "fresh sync account"? Are you asking me to sign up with mozilla sync using another email and try the whole thing again? As for resetting the sync data, yes. As reported above, after editing bookmarks on D1, I did the reset on all other machines. After a subsequent try editing on D2, I did the reset only on D1. 

I can confirm that I have used no old firefox sync addons. (I didn't even know there was one.)  All FF versions are up to date on Mac, Ubuntu, Android market and iPhone. Sync was activated and used for first time early Jan and was setup through the preferences menu.

@rnewman. I will look on the web and see if I can figure out how to get a log on the android; but please notice this problem is not confined to the mobiles. When I edited on D1, D2 did not change, and visa versa.  There are a couple of error logs on D2 now, and I will try to post them tonight. I am not certain how relevant they will be since at present the server holds the up to date bookmarks and both desktops are in sync with that.  The problem is not the bookmarks held by the server. They have been up to date. The problem is with the server completing the sync to all other machines when a fair number of changes have been made on one.

(& @gps) I am using the current stable version of Android as available in the marketplace. None of these machines run alphas, betas, nightly builds or whatever. I don't need to be on the bleeding edge! ;)

Thank you both again for your attention.
* when I edited on D1, D2 did not _completely sync_ and visa versa...

(It did change, it just didn't complete.)
Ok, I found error logs on the Android starting Jan 15.  (The first time this problem happened, the only way I could find to delete all bookmarks and reset the sync on the android was to uninstall and reinstall FF. The second time it happened was on the 14h.) There are errors through the 18th and then some later in the month. Problem is, I can't cut and paste from the browser window since it works poorly (please get someone to work in this!) and I can't find the error files with a file manager ( file:///data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/.....  ?? )  and I'm not yet rooted so I don't have find! 

Will keep looking ...
(In reply to DiagonalArg from comment #8)
> There are errors through the 18th and then
> some later in the month.

You can get a log like this:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/Snippets#Get_a_log_from_XUL_Fennec
@rnewman - Thanks, but ... At that link: 

Get a log from XUL Fennec

    View about:sync-log.
    Long-tap the log in question. Choose "Save Link".

I don't get that. I get "open link in new tab", "bookmark link", "copy link".

    Open a mail client. Click Attach.
    Choose "File Manager" as the handler.
    Navigate to "Downloads", pick correct file.

Will keep looking ...
Ok, the only way I could do it was to save the page as a pdf. Then, Acrobat copy/paste works. (Why can't I just save a web page in FF??).  I have copied the first two errors into the pastebin:

http://mozservices.pastebin.mozilla.org/1474130

Unfortunately the lines are all musheded together, but it should still be readable.

Notice what I call D1 is the Tyan. D2 is an iMac. The "VB" is no longer with us and the second iMac is rarely used. In any case, I never moved back and forth between these machines quickly. As mentioned, I always synced on leaving and on starting.
So the error files above are for the Android.  I had also promised to post the error files on the machine "D2" (iMac).  Here they are!

http://mozservices.pastebin.mozilla.org/1477461

I hope that helps....
I'm now looking at the macine "D1" (Tyan) and I'm finding error logs there.  I'm posting them here:

http://mozservices.pastebin.mozilla.org/1481820

Notice the Tyan, running Ubuntu, has been upgraded to FF 10.0.  If you need anything more, please let me know.

(I hope I can find out what's going on here!)
Triage: closing this issue, please reopen if you're still reproducing this issue.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Flags: needinfo?(janywatson456)
Component: Firefox Sync: Backend → Sync
Product: Cloud Services → Firefox
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