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I use Firefox at work and home, and it seems that my Firefox settings at home and at work are never in sync and would like to change that. What is the best way to sync both bookmarks and add-ons between machines?

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@cletus - after 5 minutes sifting through Google results and finding some perfect reference info, it's nice to be able to hang on to it. – Nathan Long Jul 15 '09 at 15:59
See also: superuser.com/questions/20437/… – arathorn Aug 20 '09 at 15:08
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@cletus: that's like saying nobody needs a fridge because we can all go buy take-away every night. – WebDevHobo Aug 24 '09 at 8:09
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cletus' comment makes me wish I could downvote comments! – Josh Nov 13 '09 at 13:12
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16 Answers

up vote 22 down vote accepted

No one has still mentioned Xmarks, it's perfect to synchronize bookmarks.

I am using it with Firefox and Chrome, but I know that should work also with IE and Safari.

Opera unfortunately it seems not supported at the moment

ps. It solves the problem of bookmarks but still not the add-ons

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Xmarks also allows syncing passwords. – Motti Jul 15 '09 at 18:12
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Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks) is going mental lately. You're better off with "Mozilla Weave" or "Firefox Synch" as it is called now. – lImbus Jul 13 '10 at 17:43
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@lImbus: What's mental about it? Works fine for me. – Sasha Chedygov Aug 23 '10 at 5:05
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Pro tip: if you're using FEBE to clone a Firefox profile to a different machine, reset the extensions.xmarks.machineid setting in about:config – CAD bloke Sep 8 '10 at 21:19
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@limbus - my experience is the opposite. I gave weave lots of chances and they just kept breaking it. At least with Xmarks you can go back to a recent version and restore it. – CAD bloke Oct 14 '10 at 11:39
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up vote 17 down vote

Firefox Sync (formerly Mozilla Weave), now baked into Firefox 4, syncs history, bookmarks, passwords, tabs and preferences, but I'm not sure about the add-ons.

EDIT:

As for add-ons, I keep Firefox up do date on one machine, then restore on other one (in office) using FEBE.

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Mozilla Weave syncs bookmarks, passwords, preferences, history, and tabs. But not addons. – studiohack♦ Feb 4 '10 at 23:39
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Use syphon for addons. The two make the perfect combo. – Hugo Jan 19 at 11:51
It now syncs add-ons – endolith May 8 at 15:13
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up vote 5 down vote

I've used Firefox Environment Backup Extension (FEBE) to sync add-ons, bookmarks, etc.. with great success. You might want to try that extension.

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Yep, I've used this one before too, only it wouldn't ever work on my second computer. I'd imagine it would work okay for synching addons, but as a backup extension, this one is great! – BrianH Jul 15 '09 at 16:34
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up vote 4 down vote

For addons, I use Dropbox.

  1. Make a folder: My Dropbox\App Sync\Firefox\
  2. Find your profile directory ([random string] wil be something like 2b5dk3bs)
    • XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random string].default
    • Vista: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random string].default
  3. Move the extensions folder to My Dropbox\App Sync\Firefox\
  4. Create a link from the Dropbox extenions folder to the profile folder:
    • Windows: Use the Link Shell Extension to create a Junction called extensions in the profile directory. A Junction is kind of like a symbolic link. To do this, right-click the extensions folder in your Dropbox and click 'Pick Link Source'. Then, in your profile directory, right-click and pick Drop As >> Junction.
    • Linux/OS X: Use the command line: ln -s /path/to/dropbox/extensions /path/to/profile/extensions
  5. For every other machine, delete the extensions folder in your profile, and add the junction as before.

Whenever you install a new add-on, it will be added to all of your computers the next time you restart Firefox. I also put my Greasemonkey scripts (gm_scripts) in Dropbox using the same mechanism.

Finally, for bookmarks and passwords, use XMarks.

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Link Shell Extension looks Windows specific. What about syncing between Windows and OS X or Linux? – Dennis Palmer Jul 15 '09 at 20:56
Added a Linux/OS X section. The idea is the same: the actual folder resides in your Dropbox, and then you make a link in the profiles folder that points to the Dropbox folder. – tghw Jul 15 '09 at 23:22
In Firefox, go to about:support. There should be a button to open the profile folder from there. – horsedrowner Aug 13 '10 at 9:12
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up vote 3 down vote

Delicious

Delicious Bookmarks is awesome - I use it from work and two OSes at home, and it's seamless. I can tag things any way I like and find, in seconds, something I barely remember from 6 months ago.

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up vote 3 down vote

There are actually few things people generally would like to sync: bookmarks and addons you mentioned, and also passwords, browsing history, tabs and general browser settings.

There are two major solutions for this problem, none of them perfect at this point: Weave and Dropbox.

Dropbox: I'll start with Dropbox, because that's what I am currently using. The easiest way would be to use FierfoxPortable, and install it inside your Dropbox.

In princpile, this will keep everything synced.

However, there might be some glitches if you launch Firefox on a machine before it finished downloading the latest version. Therefore for bookmarks and passwords I suggest installing a bookmark syncing solution. My personal favorite is xmarks, but there are other solutions, such as Delicious or Gmarks.

You will also want to delete from time to time the "conflicted copy" files that are generated when you launch Firefox before the end of syncronization.

Personally, I also turned off the phishing filter off, so it doesn't have to sync the pretty big urlclassifer database. I trust myself to identify phishing attempts well enough.

Weave. Weave is a very promising application from Mozilla that I have yet to try. It has a potential of doing much better than Dropbox, as it's tailor-made for Firefox. It's a solution for a mixed-os situation (e.g. if you want to sync your profile between a Windows and a Linux machine), and also might work better behind some Firewalls.

Right now, it syncs bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs. That is, not extensions, and not other settings. So for extensions you'll have to use FEBE and manually (though easily) sync after installing new extensions. This might not be that bad if you don't install and remove extensions very often.

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+1 for portable apps! – Miss Cellanie Feb 4 '10 at 23:02
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up vote 2 down vote

GMarks and Google Bookmarks are good for syncing your bookmarks

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up vote 2 down vote

Use the FEBE extension along with CLEO to package your backup into a single XPI file.

  • FEBE is Firefox Environment Backup Extension
  • CLEO is Compact Library Extension Organizer

You can then encrypt (if you want; check bcrypt/truecrypt) and upload it to any of the multiple options available these days (gmail?) or, carry it on your usbdrive.

If you are happy with just the list of extensions and want a fresh install elsewhere,
Check out firefox extension collections.
Its good for referring your favorites to others too.

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up vote 2 down vote

I'm using a Subversion repository to keep my Firefox (and Thunderbird) profile in sync on different machines. The profile is put in a separate folder and whenever I make any change in my addons, bookmarks or other configuration file I simply commit the directory (I'm sure this can be automated to be done when you close Firefox in case your bookmarks change in every session).

This approach has the drawback, that you don't get a real sync / merge of bookmarks. But since I don't switch machines hourly or have changes on several machines at the same time that need a merged sync, this works for me.

The advantage is of course that you have a revision of your changes, e.g. if you delete a bookmark or a new addon does something nasty to your Firefox profile everything can be restored. And in case you need your Firefox configuration on any other machine it's as simply as an svn co command to get your current Profile with ALL addons, bookmarks and settings, right down to the accepted SSL certificates.

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This is not a bad idea, AND keeps a good history of everything. The huge drawback is that you NEED to close firefox on all except one PCs at a time. Personally, I never close firefox at my desktop, and almost always use two pcs at once, so it's a no-go for me. – Hugo Jan 19 at 11:44
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up vote 2 down vote

I plan to try this :

  • Point the profiles on both computers to a folder on Dropbox (Note: this is a referral link, which entitles both the new user signing up through it, and me, to 250MB extra space)
  • All data will be automatically synced via the internet.

If you have privacy/security concerns, you can also use truecrypt to contain the firefox data.

Will post again once I have this working. Theoretically, I don't see any issues. I have already implemented this for another program, gnucash, without any problem.

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this is something I have thought about, but my work firewall doesn't allow use of anything like dropbox or live mesh. – Jon Erickson Jul 15 '09 at 17:17
Basic guide below: superuser.com/questions/2528/… – tghw Jul 15 '09 at 23:23
One thing to watch out for is that Firefox changes its temp data etc. very often, and by default, Dropbox does popup notifications for changes... you may have to fiddle with it. – Miss Cellanie Feb 4 '10 at 23:02
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up vote 1 down vote

You could setup your own Collection and then use the Add-On collector to install the new add-ons when you log onto your 2nd computer. This is also very handy for when you setup a new computer or a re-install of your OS.

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up vote 1 down vote

I use mozbackup (windows only).It is a standalone application which you can use to create a backup of your entire firefox. It works flawlessly.

You don't need to install an addon in the firefox in order to use your backup created.

Even if you don't have an internet connection you can restore and backup your entire firefox. :-)

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up vote 0 down vote

I use the Delicious Favorite Tags Tool bar to get a drop down list of my favorite Tags on all my machines.

I do have a DropBox account, too. That method looks interesting but I already have the Delicious setup.

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up vote 0 down vote

I use portable Firefox with Live Mesh. Everything gets synched, including the program itself. When you upgrade firefox or any add-on, it all syncs when you close the program. I also just use Delicious for the bookmarks.

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If by "portable" you mean "installed with the setting on it's own directory", this means you NEED to have the same OS on every computer you use. Also, how do you resolve conflicts? (a bookmark added on two pcs between syncs)? – Hugo Jan 19 at 11:48
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up vote 0 down vote

I'm using both Chrome and Firefox, and want my bookmarks and passwords to sync between the 2 browsers on multiple computers.

I use Xmarks to sync bookmarks. Please remember to UNCHECK Firefox's and Chrome's built-in bookmark sync to avoid messing up the bookmarks.

I use LastPass to sync passwords. Works well.

Chrome has excellent built-in sync for Add-Ons, which is one of my reasons for Chrome to be my default browser.

For Firefox, I use "Siphon - Add-on Synchronizer" to sync Add-Ons. It's much better than FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension). Unfortunately it's not supported in FF4 yet. Hope FF4 version of Siphon will be released soon.

I don't see a need to sync history, open tabs, autofill, and themes.

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The drawback of both of these, is that they're both closed-source solutions, so you can't be sure if your passwords are safe or not, nor set up your own server. – Hugo Jan 19 at 11:46
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up vote 0 down vote

I use Mozilla Weave (now renamed to Firefox Sync), that's integrated into firefox 4 for passwords, bookmarks, etc, and Syphon for addons.

Weave lets you set up your own server, and encrypts everything client-side, so it's pretty secure (vs xmarks and others).

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