807456 - Bookmarks deleted on 2 computers - suspect sync issue

Status: REOPENED

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[Mark Wutzke]

Attachment: error-1351710994329.txt

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0
Build ID: 20121010234852

Steps to reproduce:

Yesterday I started FireFox on Win7 PC, and shortly after this, all my bookmarks were missing, and I had repeated sync errors (unknown error) dialogs.

Today I launched FireFox on my Linux laptop (Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, FireFox 16.0.1) - and the same thing has happened.

The only thing I did that could be related is that I changed a domain name of one of the bookmark URLs to reference an updated server. Apart from that I have been using sync for a while now, and have not added / removed any sync devices in a few months.



Actual results:

In both instances all my bookmarks on both PCs have been removed.

I keep getting 'Sync encountered an error while syncing: Unknown error'

Looking at the sync error log, it appears as if some exception occurred during the sync process.

Also, I note that View Quota at one point said I have ~850KB of data, but that both bookmarks and add-ons (the only things I sync) had 0bytes each.


Expected results:

My bookmarks should not have been deleted, and I should not be seeing regular sync errors.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

You can restore the bookmarks with the automated backups in the bookmark manager

Comment 2

[Mark Wutzke]

Matti, I tried that (and manually restoring from a copied .json file) - none of these restore my bookmarks. I've even tried backups from number of different days.

I am still also getting the Sync 'Unknown error' logs.

Comment 3

[Mark Wutzke]

More information: I've started Firefox with a new profile (-ProfileManager). This profile has a number of 'default' bookmarks (both Mozilla and Ubuntu ones). Also, this new profile does not have 'sync' setup.

I then imported a .json backup from my default profile.

Not only do my default bookmarks for my new profile go away, my bookmarks from the .json backup do not appear either.

I was running firefox launched form a shell during this, and I did not notice any error messages in the shell from firefox either.

Is there any other debug I can enable, to either a) figure out what's happening with the 'sync' processing, or b) why the import of the .json backup isn't working either ? I somehow think these are all related.

MarkW

Comment 4

[Mark Wutzke]

As an update, I've now seen the issue on 3 different devices: OSX, Win7, and Linux.

The results of my testing are as follows:

OSX: Firefox 15.0.1, default profile
  - Sync errors
  - Restore before 2Oct2012: 'Unable to processes the backup file.'
  - Restore after 11Oct2012: No error message, but no bookmarks displayed
  - Import from previously exported html: No errors, but no bookmarks displayed

Win7: Firefox 16.0.1, default profile
  - Sync errors
  - Restore before 6Oct2012: 'Unable to processes the backup file.'
  - Restore after 11Oct2012: No error message, but no bookmarks displayed

Win7: Firefox 16.0.1, new profile
  - Restore before 6Oct2012: restore succeeded, can access all bookmarks
  - Restore after 11Oct2012: No error message, but no bookmarks displayed

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Firefox 16.0.2, default profile
  - Sync errors
  - Restore before 8Oct2012: 'Unable to processes the backup file.'
  - Restore after 9Oct2012: No error message, but no bookmarks displayed

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Firefox 16.0.2, new profile
  - Restore before 8Oct2012: restore succeeded, can access all bookmarks
  - Restore after 9Oct2012: No error message, but no bookmarks displayed

- There is some association of the error to the profile
- Using default profile in '-safe-mode' doesn't resolve the issue

Comment 5

[Mark Wutzke]

I think I have a workaround - but one that I'm not too thrilled with - Create new profiles.

I did the following:

Win7:
  - create new profile
  - restore old bookmarks from 6Oct
  - hookup sync
   - Replace all other devices with this computer's data


OSX, Linux:
  - create new profile
  - hookup sync
    - Replace this device with data from sync

I loose all my settings, add-ons, themes, passwords, but at least I have a working bookmark list that is sync'ing correctly.

So a workaround of sorts.

I still have the 'broken' default profiles so if there is some information you would like I should be able to get it for you.

Comment 6

[Mark Wutzke]

After a week, and having recreated the profiles on all my devices, my bookmark sync appear to be working once more.

I will close this issue, and open a new one if the issue re-occurs.

Comment 7

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Have you ever set up Sync on Firefox for Android, Mark?

This line is really surprising:

1351710993353	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	WARN	DATA LOSS: Both local and remote changes to record: places

because none of our clients should upload a places record.

Reopening to track, though I'm glad things are working for you!

Comment 8

[Mark Wutzke]

Yes, I installed Firefox for Android quite a number of months ago (and setup sync at that time). It's been working fine, and I've never had a complaint about it. I have been taking the Firefox for Android updates on a regular basis, and I am currently on 16.0.1.

Comment 9

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Mark Wutzke from comment #8)
> Yes, I installed Firefox for Android quite a number of months ago (and setup
> sync at that time). It's been working fine, and I've never had a complaint
> about it. I have been taking the Firefox for Android updates on a regular
> basis, and I am currently on 16.0.1.

OK. My suspicion is that you hit Bug 806460, possibly with an earlier fix resulting in a Places record appearing on the server.

I'm going to ponder this for a while.