How do you sync tabs between computers with Mozilla Firefox Sync?

Question

Mozilla says that with Firefox Sync if you are working on one computer with 5 tabs open you can then switch to another computer or device and Sync can or will update the second computer with those tabs. How do I do this?

BACKGROUND
I have setup Firefox Sync on both devices and they have been synced. How do you sync them again? Is it automatically syncing them in the background? How often? How do you sync the tabs? Are the passwords synced?

Documentation
The documentation below describes how to add another device or computer to Sync. It says that when you add the device it syncs it. But it doesn't describe how and when it keeps it in sync or how to sync the tabs.
[1] http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-firefox-sync

Answer 1

2018-05-10 Update:

see this article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-synced-tabs-other-devices

It seems like, you can't see it without logging in now.

---

The following method no longer works.

Bookmark the following

about:sync-tabs

and use it. Since UI elements have gone as mentioned above and it is only accessible by shortcut (Alt+S+T) or toolbar menu (History>Tabs from other devices)

Tabs from other computers

Answer 2

It's Nov, 2021, and all of the answers here are a bit old. I just struggled through this, and thought I'd share what I learned:

Preliminaries:

Make sure you've got your "Settings" for Sync correctly set up - in this case that Open Tabs are enabled, and you're properly signed in to the same account on both/all computers.

Firefox has a native Sidebar Button. If it's not installed on the "Target computer" (explained below), follow this procedure to install it in Firefox.

I'll call the two computers involved the "Source computer", and the "Target computer". The computer that currently has the open tabs is the "Source computer"; the computer that is to receive the tabs is the "Target computer".

Instantly Opening Sync'd Tabs on "Target" Computer:

• Click the Sidebar Button on the "Target" to show the Sidebar in the active FF Window. It can be clicked again to hide the Sidebar.

• At the top of the Sidebar, click the drop-down, and select Synced Tabs. This will reveal a list of potential "Source" computers & devices, and beneath each a list of Synced Tabs on that Target. From this point you have several options, most of which will be obvious on inspection:

  1. You can right-click individual tabs in the "Source" listing in the Sidebar to open it on your "Target" computer,
  2. you can search the tabs listed in the Sidebar, and Select All tabs for opening on the target computer, or
  3. you can select a computer/device in the Sidebar list (perhaps with many open tabs), right-click that computer, and choose the Open All In Tabs item in the menu to open all tabs on the "Source" computer in the "Target" computer.

Any feedback is appreciated as it's possible I've failed to cover a step - perhaps due to settings made previously.

Answer 3

Update! Mozilla has removed all traces of it!!! It's removed. The following doesn't work anymore...

How to get or show tabs from another computer
In the upper right corner of the browser (Mac OSX, FF10) there is a "List all tabs" dropdown button. It's small and hard to notice without looking for it. Clicking this shows a pop up menu with "Tabs from other computers" (it also contains Tab Groups). Selecting this option shows a new page that has a list of tabs from another computer. Note: I don't remember seeing that option until I clicked the Sync button. I'm not sure tho.

How to sync
• Tools > Sync Now
• You can also right click on the toolbars > select Customize and add the "Sync" button. Hovering over this button shows the last sync time.

Answer 4

In about:config set services.sync.sendTabToDevice.enabled to true. Then right-click on the tab you want to send to another device and use the new "Send Tab to Device" option.

Answer 5

Go to the Firefox menu on the right of the navigation bar. It looks like three horizontal lines. Clicking on it will open a drop-down menu, which has a "Customize" option (left bottom). This option takes you to an interactive editor of the Firefox user interface, where you can easily add or remove buttons by drag & drop. Customize your Firefox to show the Synced Tabs button wherever you like:

You can put the button to the navigation bar or to the menu, it's up to you. The Synced Tabs button opens a list of tabs from other devices.

Answer 6

In 117.0.1 the synced tabs menu you can get to either from the Synced Tabs button (which you can add from Customise Toolbar) or three line menu doesn't seem to have a way to open all synced tabs at once.

My current solution:

• Right-click on the top toolbar select Customise Toolbar from the context menu.

• From the Customise Toolbar window, add the Sidebars button to your toolbar and click Done.

• Click on the newly-added Sidebars button. This will open a sidebar on the left of the browser window. For me it opened showing Bookmarks.

• Click on where it says 'Bookmarks' at the top of this sidebar. This will open a drop-down of different sidebars.

• Select Synced Tabs in this sidebar drop-down. Each synced 'source' device will be listed, with an expandable drop-down containing all the tabs open on it.
  

• Right click the device name you want to open all tabs from and select Open All in Tabs.

Answer 7

Wow. Looks like it is now buried in the history menu from the menu bar ONLY!! Not the history pane, not the tab menu, ...

To temporarily open the menu bar if it is hidden, press "Alt"

Using FF 15 Win

Answer 8

I guess you missed a part of the article you just pointed to..

Check those links out. They explain everything.