Firefox 11 will Synchronize Add-ons

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 20, 2011
Updated • Mar 11, 2015
Firefox
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Firefox Sync is Firefox's synchronization feature that allows you to synchronize data such as bookmarks, passwords, open tabs and the history between multiple computer systems running Firefox.

Up until now it has not been possible to synchronize add-ons using Firefox Sync. Users who wanted to use add-ons, and even more so their configuration, on multiple systems had to find other ways to keep the data in sync.

Plenty options are available to do that. Firefox users can use of tools like Mozbackup or Firefox Environmental Backup Extension, use a service like Dropbox to host the Firefox profile in the cloud, or use the Siphon extension to synchronize add-on data.

All of this may soon be a thing of the past. Mozilla aims to integrate add-on syncing into Firefox 11. All Firefox users who use Firefox Sync can then synchronize all installed add-ons across all their computer systems.

It is however not possible to sync add-ons between desktop and mobile Firefox installations and only add-ons hosted at Mozilla's official add-on repository can be synchronized this way.

Users with third party add-ons, for instance from security suites who install add-ons into the browser, need to find other ways to synchronize those between the browsers.

It is also interesting to note that all add-ons, regardless of their activation status, will be synchronized by Firefox Sync. The activation status refers to the state of the add-on, whether it is enabled or disabled in the browser.

The add-ons will retain their activation status on the target computer. There is no functionality at this time to synchronize only selected add-ons between devices.

firefox addon syncing

Existing sync users won't have the new feature enabled by default. They need to enable add-on syncing in the Firefox Sync preferences to enable it.

This is done with a click on the Firefox button, the selection of Options, and a click on the Sync tab in the opening preferences window. New Firefox Sync users will have add-on synchronization enabled by default.

Additional information about the planned implementation are available on the Bugzilla website. (via Sören Hentzschel)

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Comments

  1. General said on April 1, 2012 at 11:28 pm
    Reply

    I am getting real annoyed that majorly used plug-ins like .net and firebug get trashed every 4 months or so. Then I just will not upgrade Firefox, but even then it annoys me constantly to upgrade with allusions to potentially security holes. What are they doing that breaks this stuff? And you know you’ve got a bunch of stubborn people who won’t admit their new policy is wrong when they get near 100% negative feedback and their response is a bunch of excuses on why what they are doing is right. No, it the users don’t like it, it’s not right. This is something I saw with MS Office 2007.

  2. Chocolat said on December 30, 2011 at 2:40 pm
    Reply

    Great! This was the one bugbear that has stopped me using sync in the past.

  3. akn said on December 20, 2011 at 4:19 pm
    Reply

    Ahh..as i was switching from my old to new PC, I was wondering today why the hell this is opted out.

    Now its nice to have this feature!!!

    Thanks for the info!!

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