Firefox 80. No persistend login, not syncing with own sync server

Question

After upgrading to FF 80 (on Linux Mint 20.04 (Ulyana) and Windows 10), syncing bookmarks via my own sync server doesn't work any more. It seems that FF doesn't store my login into my ff account. After entering my credentials (and usually entering the six-digit code mailed to me), i get a short success information, but immediately afterwards, in the menu symbol, there's a yellow warning sign again, telling me to login again into my ff account.

I think it's not a matter with my sync server since on my corporate pc (with FF < 80), syncing still works. Additionally, i didn't change anything regarding the sync server, i've just upgraded FF to version 80.

See also this reddit thread (workaround proposed there works only for android version of FF, i think...)

See additionally bugzilla #1663249 and Syncserver Issue #231.

Would be very happy for any help or workaround!

Answer 1

This problem may be caused by an outdated version of syncserver, as it was in my case. If syncserver was installed by cloning the github repo, it can easily get updated using git pull.

As an alternative, install a fresh syncserver parallel to the old one and migrate personal settings. In my case, i did this, following those steps:

1. Backup syncserver dir before proceeding
2. Install a fresh syncserver 1.8.0: git clone -b 1.8.0 https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver.git
3. Proceed to commit e1aab54 (not sure about the "minimal" commit required by FF 80 for persistent login, but that worked for me): git checkout e1aab54cbcb6e570979835789f7b4624eebdc875
4. Compile the syncserver sources: make build
5. Copy your previously used syncserver.ini and syncserver.db from old installation to new installation;
6. If you encounter the error described in syncserver's issue 232: Edit your syncserver.db with your preferred Sqlite db tool, add fields keys_changed_at and node (both BIGINT) to table users manually.