Bug: Synchronise feature blurs Profile separation
Status: RESOLVED
Priority: --
Resolution: MOVED
Created: 2021-10-21 00:58:42+00:00
Resolved: 2021-10-26 00:31:23+00:00

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:94.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/94.0
Firefox for Android

Steps to reproduce:

This has been a burden for somtime, I wasn't able to identify the circumstances until this week when I needed to configure a new Firefox Developer install on a fresh laptop.

 1. I have separate profiles: personal, work, programming (for example)
 2. I have been using the Synchronise feature.  Very good in itself, thank you.
 3. I also use the "Multi-account containers" feature.

According to the firefox documentation: 
  * https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

"All of the changes you make in Firefox, such as your home page, what toolbars you use, extensions you have installed, saved passwords and your bookmarks, are stored in a special folder called a profile. Your profile folder is stored in a separate place from the Firefox program so that, if something ever goes wrong with Firefox, your information will still be there. It also means that you can uninstall Firefox without losing your settings and you don't have to reinstall Firefox to clear your information or troubleshoot a problem. "


Actual results:

With a new PC and Firefox install I am seeing the following outcomes.

  *  Containers established in one profile are "migrated" to other profiles via the Synchronise operation.
  * Containers are duplicated and propogated across profiles.  This seems to happen when I remove a container.
  * Removing a container never seems to persist.  On many occasions I've seen a removed container reappear, and sometimes a duplicate can appear as well.
 * Worst of all change in the "Manage containers" box do NOT appear to be synchronises/propogated to 
  ** Firefox windows in the SAME Profile
  ** Firefox windows with the SAME Profile on another machine
* As far as I can tell Synchronise, appears to synchronise to one "back-up" and it looks like different  sync-runs are replacing Profile data/settings from one Profile instance with data/settings of another Profile.
* I can't understand the outcomes for a Synchronise operation.  Even is I make a change, then immediately initiate a sunc.  Expecting that change to be the "most recent" and 'stick'; It doesn't!

In a nutshell, after a little time all Profiles tend to wind-up with something like a merged version of profile stettings from all Profiles used.

This is not useful.  There seems to be no effective way to correct a "Manage containers" problem.  Changes don't persist.



Expected results:

 1. Synchronise should respect a Profile as the unit of synchronisation.
 2. I expect Profile data/information for two profiles to be separate -- To be the same as me having two installed Firefox directories.
 3. Synchronise on different machines should match the running Profile.
 4. I expect that for efficiency Firefox would only need to synchronise one "blob" with all the profile information.  And each running profile would ONLY load its own relevant data. 
 5. Realistically some information might be shared between one or more Profiles, I can see how that's important.  That being so, these sharing or common data examples Must be documented.
  5.1  More useful by far would be if sharing were configurable with a page of check-boxes.
 6. I expect the profile synchronised with Firefox on my mobile and tablet to be documented.  As it stands the phone (for example) seems to get stuff from All profiles.  It may be the "blurring" described here, how can I know(??).
 6.1 it might be best to have a Profile attribute like "Platform": all/any, phone, tablet, desktop.  
 6.2 Better I think would be to adpot a naming convention so we users can set things up to best suit us.  E.g. Profile:  "work.mobile"  "self.home", "self.mobile".  So when profile sync or sharing is displayed it is clear where/what profiles are being associated.

This is definitely a big problem.  At least 20 times today, I needed to remove github from a "site list" in two different profiles.  It keeps coming back.  That was an early mistake in configuration that destroys several work-place workflows now.  I admit to the mistake, however there appears to be No Method that can fix it.

I had thought with a new PC, and new Firefox I am able to start fresh.  That did not work.  It seems that if I want independent profiles I ought not use the synchronsiation.  Or I need to set-up "synchronsation email accounts" on per profile basis.  Neither option is agreeable.