Forum Discussion
Keep Favorites Synced between Internet Explorer and Edge NOT available in Edge Chromium
Chris Jackson Deleted
I'm not quite sure what's so hard to understand about the issue.
This has nothing to do with Windows 7 or with Internet Explorer specifically. How IE mode suddenly came into the picutre - I have no idea. This is all about where to store the favorites in the new Edge.
The issue is the following:
- Users are using multiple computers. To have the same desktop, documents and favorites on all those computers Microsoft's "Folder Redirection" is used and configured through GPOs.
- So Internet Explorer's favorites are stored on e.g. \\server\users\%username%\favorites
- The old Edge has a GPO that allows it to automagically sync its own favorites with Internet Explorer's favorites that are stored on that network path. If you add a favorite in either IE or the old Edge it is automagically synced to the other browser instantly.
Now the new Edge comes along and we have to face the following limitations:
- Any kind of cloud-sync or usage of Microsoft accounts is not possible due to data privacy regulations
- The new Edge is storing its favorites in the local file deep inside the %LOCALAPPDATA% folder of the user.
This causes issues for us in a number of ways.
While the first-run import of favorites (from the redirected Internet Explorer favorites) is currently broken in v80 (its supposed to be back in v81) it only provides a momentary snapshot of the redirected favorites.
The bookmarks file being a local file means that we cannot easily back it up either. And when the user receives a new PC or uses a different machine than he usually does he'll have to import all the favorites again, from the redirected Internet Explorer favorites. But all the favorites he has managed in the new Edge in the meantime are not available (or even gone for good in the case of a new PC).
Importing the same old IE favorites on different PCs will soon result in having different favorites on all those PCs. And there is no way to easily merge them either.
This is a real problem.
We really need a way to redirect the bookmarks file to a network location so that it can be:
- used from multiple PCs
- be backed up easily during the regular server backup
- not get lost when the user's PC dies or gets replaced for another reason
All this was easily doable with the redirected favorites folder used by Internet Explorer and thanks to the "keep favorites synced" GPO in the old Edge Browser.
Also, please do not suggest to use the "UserDataDir" policy. This would redirect the entire user profile to a different location. Cache and everything. It is also not quite certain whether a redirected UserDataDir can actually be used by multiple instances of Edge on different computers at the same time (locked files issue and such). But even if it was possible, we really don't want to roam 100MB+ of useless data.
All we are really looking for is the possibility to specify a network location for the "bookmarks" file that is by default stored under "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default". That's all we really want and need.
Bonus points for actually bringing back the "keep favorites synced between IE and Edge" policy that the old Edge supported. But that would really only be the cherry on top.
HotCakeX lforbes narutards simsoo Thank you all for your valuable input. We've been actively discussing this behind the scenes, and I have an update to share from Scott, a senior program manager from the Microsoft Edge Services team.
"We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear for a need to manage on-premise favorites sync in the new Microsoft Edge, and I know that it is a deployment blocker for many of you. I’m part of a team that is looking into how we can support this as soon as we can. For example, we are evaluating the pros and cons of Chrome’s RoamingProfile* policies as a starting point.
For those of you that are considering cloud sync, we are also planning additional documentation around Microsoft’s protection of synced cloud data, which will be particularly interesting to customers who adhere to regulations such as HIPAA or GDPR. We have some documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-enterprise-sync which covers some related topics like how admins can leverage Azure Information Protection for synced data; you can expect to see more detailed information in the coming weeks."
Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge
Deleted
I recognize that Edge Chromium is based on the Chromium project, but it appears that Chromium's implementation for Roaming Profiles has some limitations. If Microsoft can help address/solve those for Edge, especially in a Windows environment, that would be very helpful. Here are some potential improvements based on my reading of https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7349337 (I assume these same limitations would apply to Edge Chromium when implemented):
- If cloud sync has not otherwise been disabled, allow the user to continue to sync with the cloud, in addition to backing up the favorites to the specified RoamingProfileLocation path. Based on the link above, it indicates that if RoamingProfileSupportEnabled is enabled, that cloud sync would no longer work, which is not something we want to explicitly disable in our environment since we want to allow users to continue doing this if they choose to, but still allow us to backup this data.
- Support for more than one profile. The link above indicates that with the RoamingProfileSupport option enabled, the user cannot use more than one profile, so if this can be addressed, that would also be very helpful too so that we don't have problems with power users, or developers in our organization who may be using Edge Chromium.
- It's not clear to me if profile.pb is damaged, whether the user will get a notification about this damage, but the article does indicate that future profile changes won't be synchronized. It would be helpful if the user were made aware of this so that they can report the problem to local IT, so that we can address this problem for the user, and not find out months later after their computer may have crashed, that their favorites were not backed up, and that we don't have the latest backup.
In our environment, our primary goal is to ensure that we have a backup of the user's bookmarks in case the computer crashes, and to allow them to see these favorites regardless of what domain computer they log into. Also, if the user chooses to also sync with the cloud, we also don't want to prevent that.
Thanks!
I've been trying to wrap my head around the RoamingProfileSupportEnabled policy in Chrome while it is not yet fully available in Edge. And even though I said that it would solve all of our problems and do exactly what we want I'm reading about more and more red flags the more I look into the whole thing.
Damaged profiles are a serious issue, but https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1024814 suggests that there will be an improved "auto-healing" functionality starting in v81.
But the biggest issue I have with roaming profiles is the following statement: "We recommend that users never run simultaneous Chrome sessions when they use Roaming User Profiles." on https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7349337
While this is probably not much of an issue for 90%+ of our users (they only have access to one machine (at a time)) we have plenty of users (including me) who are working on 2, 3 or even 4 machines in parallel. I've done some preliminary testing and it was quite easy to get two browsers on two machines sharing one roaming profile to go out-of-sync .. and I actually was unable to get them 100% synced again. One machine now has 1 more bookmark than the other machine. I've only tested with bookmarks though, since thats what our users will be focusing on the most.
But either way, in regards to the RoamingProfileSupportEnabled policy .. will be be getting the two very important improvements Google is currently implementing for Chrome in the newer Edge builds too?
- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=649062 talks about the ability to actually select which items will be synced in the profile.db file with the ability to keep certain items local while still roaming things like bookmarks
- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1013546 is talking about limiting the number of writes to the profile.db file, supposedly targeted for release with v82 (I guess v83 now).
The more time I invest into digging into this the more I wish the good old days of an individual file-based favorites folder back, like IE gave us. None of that JSON/database stuff.
Is there a remote chance that we could be getting an Edge-exclusive feature that allows us to utilize the old IE-style individual file-based favorites folder again? Something like two policies:
- "FavoritesMode" = "IE|Chrome" ("IE" = individual files, "Chrome" = singular 'bookmarks' file)
- "FavoritesLocation" = "\\path\to\somewhere" (Configure an alternative location for the bookmarks. Default value "$systemdrive$\Users\$username$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\$EdgeVersion$\User Data\$profile$\")
Wishes over wishes.