Forum Discussion
Elliot Kirk
Microsoft
May 01, 2019*Updated 9/3* Syncing in Microsoft Edge Preview Channels
Syncing your browser data in Microsoft Edge Preview builds
We heard your feedback and are committed to making sync a more reliable feature across devices. We’ve rebuilt our sync experience from the ground up and we’re making extra effort to ensure that sync meets your expectations. Our goal for sync is to ensure that you have a consistent browsing experience when you choose to roam your favorites, passwords, history, and other data across your devices.
*Updated 9/3* What is the current state of sync and what is the road ahead?
- You can now sync Favorites, Settings (preference), Passwords & Form-fill data across Windows devices, and across Microsoft Edge on Android and iOS (instructions below).
- Sync is enabled for both Microsoft accounts (MSA) as well as work or school accounts (AAD).
- Note that AAD sync is only available for AAD premium accounts (SKUs which include Azure Information Protection) and is not yet rolled out for macOS.
- We are working on pending attributes and will be enabling them soon (history, extensions & open tabs)
- As we are building a new system, Edge builds are not expected to sync with earlier versions of Microsoft Edge. You can import your existing favorites from earlier versions of Microsoft Edge.
Enabling sync on PC
When you sign in with your Microsoft account on Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you’ll get a dialogue asking for consent to enable sync. Once you give the consent, your favorites should start syncing. Note that you can customize the sync behavior from the sync settings page.
PC Sync Settings
Note that some attributes might be disabled on this page. They will be enabled on this page as we enable sync for them.
Enabling sync on Android
Our Microsoft Edge app on Android can now sync with the Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. But first, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version on Google play.
To sync with Microsoft Insider Channels, sign in with your Microsoft Account, ensure that it is selected as your active account, go to Settings > Account and select your Microsoft account, then select Microsoft Edge Insider Channels > Switch.
After you switch to Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you will be asked how you want to handle your existing favorites. You can choose to import and sync your existing favorites with Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. If you choose no, your existing favorites will be deleted before sync is enabled.
If you choose to import favorites, when you visit Favorites for the first time, you’ll see all your current favorites and they’ll start syncing with your Microsoft Edge Insider Channels on your PC.
Enabling sync on iOS
We are happy to announce that we have expanded our sync support to iOS. To begin syncing your favorites between you iOS devices and your other Microsoft Edge Insider devices, you must first update Microsoft Edge for iOS to the latest version on iTunes. To sync with the Insider Channels you can follow similar steps as those listed above in the Sync with Android section.
First you will need to sign in with your Microsoft Account, ensure that it is selected as your active account, go to Settings > Account and select your Microsoft account, then select Microsoft Edge Insider Channels > Switch.
After you switch to Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, you will be asked how you want to handle your existing favorites. You can choose to import and sync your existing favorites with Microsoft Edge Insider Channels. If you choose no, your existing favorites will be deleted before sync is enabled.
Once you have completed these steps you will see all of your imported favorites in your favorites list.
What do you think?
We are excited about sync in Microsoft Edge Insider Channels and are very optimistic that we are building it right. However, we want to be sure that sync works across your workflows and browsing scenarios. Please give it a try and let us know how it worked for you. If you run into any issues, use the in-app feedback button to submit the details. If you have other feedback for us about sync, please leave a comment below.
Thank you for trying the new Microsoft Edge.
Hi All,
We have rolled out a fix to the problem where clients were reporting error on sync. We expect an app restart should get the client back into a functional state for sync now. We so much appreciate your patience and willingness to help all this while. Apologies that it took us time to get this fix across to you. If you still see any errors, please submit using in-app feedback button (and drop me a private message so that we jump on it faster). Sincere thanks for working with us on building a better product.
Ankur
CC. @Mike_BNL , @DiggsMcGee , @bassoprofundo , @indospot , @Stephen Berard , @billbyrnes
- Et1212Copper ContributorMy understanding is, for Android devices, the history sync is available in Edge Beta. (The selection is greyed out in my non-beta Edge app). My question is how do I get Edge Beta? The Google Play Store page says the Beta program is full.
- ismail sürekCopper Contributoryanıt olarak her defasında bir yorum vardır
- lexcynSteel ContributorI have the Android beta and history sync is still not available.
Microsoft is doing a crap job with Edge on Android - still using Chrome 77.
- HaHoangCopper Contributor
Elliot KirkI cant see the Microsoft Edge Insider Channels switch option on my Android Phone (Samsum Note 10). Please help me.
- rayn1515Copper Contributor
- hallowienersCopper ContributorStill unable to sync properly, always get the "Couldn’t connect to the sync server. Retrying…" This is with stable, beta, and canary builds. And edge://sync-internals/ gives me this: "Unrecoverable error detected at OnEngineInitialized@../../components/sync/driver/profile_sync_service.cc:1466: BackendInitialize failure"
- akhator
Microsoft
hallowieners Sorry that you are running into problems with sync. Can you submit in-app feedback (with all diagnostic info) so that we can look into this deeper? Drop me a message with your email address once you do this. Thanks again for your patience.
- allis070215Copper Contributor
- akhator
Microsoft
ismail sürek Hi All, apologies for delay in updating this thread. We ended up disabling favorites sync temporarily in past to fix some critical bugs which could lead to corruption of user data (for instance duplicate favorites). Bugs have been resolved and we have enabled favorites sync across all the channels. As the clients come back to life, we expect some instances where users might perceive some deleted favorites come back. However once all your clients are syncing, any subsequent actions should propagate fine. If you see unexpected behavior, please continue to submit in-app feedback. Thanks again for your patience.
- akhator
Microsoft
Just to add - we always publish known issues on the edge insider page - https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-new
- ikjadoonBronze Contributor
akhator Thank you for sharing the known issues page. Do you know if that will be updated to include that some Settings still aren't being synced?
"Preferences", yes, but not Dictionary, not Search Engines, not Site Permissions, etc. Perhaps that would be useful to share in the "Known Issues" page.
- csrswalchBrass Contributor
Great post! Are there any plans to allow the management (by policy) of the "sync consent" so that sync can be enforced? It's more of an Enterprise request... the use case is for a more seamless UX during FirstRun when logging onto stateless VDAs. Our Edge pilot is firmly locked down for business use with the "default profile automatically signed in with their work or school account" policy, "Enable browser sign-in" is forced and "Restrict which accounts can be used as Microsoft Edge primary accounts" to our domain. Thanks and keep up the great work!
- akhator
Microsoft
csrswalch Thanks. Just to make sure we understand your requirement - you need a management policy which can be used to suppress sync consent so as to achieve a simpler first run for your users. Is that correct? On a related note, are you planning to turn sync on for all the users as part of this? Note that currently we have a policy for admin to disable sync but we don't have a policy with which admin can force enabling of sync.
- csrswalchBrass ContributorThat's correct. I'd think a new preference would be needed eg "Enable synchronisation of data using Microsoft sync services with a work or school account". In preference mode, if configured as enabled, the user would not be prompted by the wizard and would sync by default; they could choose to "Turn off sync" afterwards.
- VladimarCopper Contributor
What about sync with UE-V in an enterprise AD environment? Will there be an UE-V Template available? If not, what would you recommend?
Thanks
Vladimar
- akhator
Microsoft
Vladimar we are exploring ways to support sync for on-prem AD ecosystems. This will not be available in the first release but will be added in subsequent releases. Have you assessed UE-V as well as RoamingProfile policies and have a point of view on which approach works better for your scenario?
- Michael RennieBrass Contributor
Still cannot sync. Now it says we are having trouble verifying your account details then had a "Fix it" button. I click on fix it, sign in again and get the same error. It pulls my photo correctly though.
- Hi,
which Office 365 plan do you have?
I have the same problem like you
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/Sync-problem-with-Office365-business-account-and-profile-picture/td-p/998515
but my picture is not showing.
I have Office365 business premium- Michael RennieBrass Contributor
We use E3 and AzureAD P1
Now I am getting the error "Couldn't connect to sync server. Retrying..."
- ikjadoonBronze Contributor
Elliot Kirk Is there a reason there are a few Settings that are still not synced? This one has been on my radar for ages: sync address bar search providers. If I set "w" + tab to search on Wikipedia, sync that across all of my systems.
A bit frustrating to keep copying over "Settings" between systems when apparently Settings are already synced.
Just sent a smiley; hope the Sync team can prioritize these critical features so we can test & give feedback before the launch.