860107 - Desktop Bookmarks folder cannot be removed after syncing

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Brian Nicholson (:bnicholson)]

STR: Set up Sync so your Desktop Bookmarks appear under Bookmarks.

After doing that, there's no (in-app) way to remove the folders. Disabling Sync doesn't remove any actual data. Clear Private Data also doesn't work since it doesn't clear bookmarks. The only way to remove it is to clear all Firefox data (app settings > Clear data in Android).

Perhaps we could remove the Desktop Bookmarks folder if the user disables Sync?

Comment 1

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

(In reply to Brian Nicholson (:bnicholson) from comment #0)

> Perhaps we could remove the Desktop Bookmarks folder if the user disables
> Sync?

Is this really a problem? We could make to code hide (or remove) a folder if there are no children in the folder.

Comment 2

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Not sure what the user expectation is here.

Some set of users use Sync essentially as a profile importer, and then turn it off. (And some set use enable/disable/remove device for fine-grained control of when syncing happens, unfortunately.)

Probably the best bang for the buck is to allow users to delete desktop bookmarks. If you want them gone, just delete them. (But bear in mind that it'll sync to your desktop...)

Comment 3

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) from comment #1)

> Is this really a problem? We could make to code hide (or remove) a folder if
> there are no children in the folder.

The issue is that it's not empty -- we don't delete your data if you disconnect from Sync. (And we probably should not do so.)

Comment 4

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

(In reply to Richard Newman [:rnewman] from comment #3)
> (In reply to Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) from comment #1)
> 
> > Is this really a problem? We could make to code hide (or remove) a folder if
> > there are no children in the folder.
> 
> The issue is that it's not empty -- we don't delete your data if you
> disconnect from Sync. (And we probably should not do so.)

Right. I was implying what you said explicitly: The user deletes bookmarks, the folder is empty, we drop hide the folder.

Comment 5

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Currently you can delete individual desktop bookmarks (from the context menu), and it does sync back to desktop. We don't provide any UI to delete folders. The "Desktop Bookmarks" folder isn't actually a real folder, so if we do add a "Remove" context menu item for folders, we'd need to choose what that's going to do.

I feel like this bug is really about providing a way for users to get rid of that "Desktop Bookmarks" folder without blowing away all of their bookmarks on desktop.

But really, is this actually an issue that upsets users?

Comment 6

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #5)

> I feel like this bug is really about providing a way for users to get rid of
> that "Desktop Bookmarks" folder without blowing away all of their bookmarks
> on desktop.

This is a long and storied issue which touches on exactly what a user means when they remove something. For example: Bug 578694 comment 16.

Sometimes users want to wipe some/all of their device without it propagating -- they want to make this device different. We get fairly frequent requests for choosing which folders to sync, setting some prefs as local, not wanting 'home' history to move to 'work', etc. Some users even go so far as to delete their Sync configuration and manually set up each time in order to implement one-way syncing, which horrifies me.

Sometimes they're trying to work with their "cloud profile", and they *do* want it to propagate: they forgot to use Private Browsing mode, and they want that history gone everywhere.

Sometimes they're actually trying to work with the UI, not the data -- they want to hide the folder, or their mental model doesn't really draw a distinction.

It's probably hubris for us to decide what every user means when they tap "Delete folder", or "Clear private data", which is the issue in that bug.

There are only a few almost-invariants: when they delete the app's data in Android, we start over, and when you deactivate the Sync device your data doesn't go away (at least not by default). Everything else is a matter of careful UI.


> But really, is this actually an issue that upsets users?

For that we need user research. This *particular* issue, I haven't heard complaints (other than Brian's, of course). I think most users who set up Sync either leave it set up, want their data to stick around after they turn it off, or will be satisfied clearing all data to get rid of it after experimenting. But that's speculation on my part.

Comment 8

[Rafael Teigão]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #5)
> I feel like this bug is really about providing a way for users to get rid of
> that "Desktop Bookmarks" folder without blowing away all of their bookmarks
> on desktop.

Yes, that would be great! I mistakenly synced my [gigantic] bookmarks to my phone, and now the bookmarks results show first when I'm using the address bar for Googleing, instead of my previous similar searches and visited sites.

 
> But really, is this actually an issue that upsets users?

It upsets me because I took great care on my older phone to not sync my desktop bookmarks, but I let it slip by when configuring the new phone, and now I can't remove it. I don't need them there, but I'd rather not have to erase my whole profile just to get rid of it.

Comment 9

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Rafael Teigão from comment #8)
> (In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #5)
> > I feel like this bug is really about providing a way for users to get rid of
> > that "Desktop Bookmarks" folder without blowing away all of their bookmarks
> > on desktop.
> 
> Yes, that would be great! I mistakenly synced my [gigantic] bookmarks to my
> phone, and now the bookmarks results show first when I'm using the address
> bar for Googleing, instead of my previous similar searches and visited sites.

Local visits on your phone should be very high priority in the awesomebar, FWIW.


> It upsets me because I took great care on my older phone to not sync my
> desktop bookmarks, but I let it slip by when configuring the new phone, and
> now I can't remove it. I don't need them there, but I'd rather not have to
> erase my whole profile just to get rid of it.

The only way to have your phone and desktop syncing, but not have your desktop bookmarks on your phone, is to turn off bookmark sync globally.

If you've already synced bookmarks, the easiest thing to do to get rid of them is to blow away your phone data.

The only way to do it that preserves your Android profile is quite involved:

- Turn off bookmark sync.
- Disconnect from Sync on your Android device.
- Create a new Sync account. Connect to it from your Android device.
- Connect a new desktop profile to that Sync account.
- Delete all of the bookmarks on desktop after both devices sync.
- Sync the phone. All of the desktop bookmarks should disappear.
- Disconnect from the new Sync account.
- Reconnect to your previous Sync account.

That will leave your desktop bookmarks on your main desktop profile, and remove the previously synced bookmarks from your phone.

Comment 10

[BMO Automation]

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