972585 - Existing sync 1.1 user who "unlink's device" can't ever go back to sync 1.1

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[Edwin Wong [:edwong]]

1. setup old sync in a profile with old version of Fx
2. with nightly - use that profile
3. click preferences > unlink device

actual: you can't go back to old sync 1.1. There should be messaging that you're moving to FxA.

expected: there should be a message or I should be able to go back if i already have a sync 1.1 account.

Comment 1

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

AFAIK, this was an explicit decision and people who want to reset legacy sync should use a pre-29 Fx.  IF that's correct, then maybe this should be exposed somewhere obvious - but CCing Gavin for confirmation and thoughts.

Comment 2

[Edwin Wong [:edwong]]

I remember thinking users are blocked from creating new sync 1.1 accounts but existing users could continue to use sync1.1.  I'm not dogmatic about this but I think we should inform users, that they are in effect 'upgrading to fxa sync 1.5'

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

They can continue to use Sync 1.1 as long as they don't unlink their browser from their 1.1 account.

The support page at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-sync-works-old-version-firefox should probably mention this scenario.

Comment 4

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

So someone wanting to link a new device using a target Firefox version (still with Sync 1.1 support) has to install/use a version <29 (like 24 ESR), create a new profile with it, link this against an existing 1.1 account and then can run the target Firefox version with that profile?

Will 1.1 usable during the whole 24 ESR life cycle (and thus offer a way to run recent nightlies with 1.1)?

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall] from comment #4)
> So someone wanting to link a new device using a target Firefox version
> (still with Sync 1.1 support) has to install/use a version <29 (like 24
> ESR), create a new profile with it, link this against an existing 1.1
> account and then can run the target Firefox version with that profile?

Yes. But a more realistic solution is for those people to just update all of their Firefoxes and switch to account-based Sync.

> Will 1.1 usable during the whole 24 ESR life cycle (and thus offer a way to
> run recent nightlies with 1.1)?

We don't have any near-term plans to decommission the 1.1 service. We'll need to devise an existing-user migration strategy, which we'll need to tackle in 30/31/32.

Comment 6

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Asked about the user doc in bug 972524.

Comment 7

[Joni Chan]

@Gavin, Thanks for the heads up. I've included this information in: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-update-to-the-new-firefox-sync