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.
This is not working for me either with version 83 Stable. What are the basic settings for this to work? So far I have these 2 settings:
RoamingProfileSupportEnabled = 1 (Registry)
and GPO - Configure Automatic sigin with an AD Directory
And one question, in my work profile, it is displaying 'not syncing' 'sync isn't available for this account' - not sure if that an issue also.
simsoo thanks for your registry settings. I tried but no luck either. All my policy settings for edge are in HKLM. I'll try those four registry settings in there also.
This is a frustrating problem, we rolled new Edge out, to effectively get rid of needing multiple browsers. That part worked well, all websites work fine under the new Edge browser. Unfortunately people started "losing bookmarks", when they logged into anew computer to socially distance, or into Citrix. Fortunately Citrix handles the roaming fine, but when those Citrix users gets back to the office, I can see a whole lot of people not getting their bookmarks updated and a lot of complaining. I can't see an easy way to automate or script this either.
Well, what can I say ... I can confirm that local sync similar to the "RoamingProfileSupport" in Chrome does in fact work in the new Edge, if you know how to enable it - for the most part anyway.
Microsoft is currently running a pilot and I've shared my feedback with them regarding it. There are still some bits that need to be ironed out (e.g. what happens when a user is running multiple Edge instances on different computers) before they can make the whole thing public. I just had a Teams conference with them about it yesterday and they said that they should have something ready in the coming weeks.
(And before anyone asks, I'm not sure I am at liberty to share how to enable the local favorites sync from the pilot, especially since it is by no means ready for production yet, so I won't. Just wanted to let you guys know that Microsoft is hearing us and is putting time into this.)
narutards Interesting insight. We would be very interested in roaming profile support (a la chrome) but combined with AAD logon since we would like to keep users browsers data platform and location independent.
Google's implementation of roaming profile support switches off cloud sync (sync to AAD), which is not something we are very interested in.
At the moment we use UEM to roam what's needed, essential Edge files and AAD logon data, but it is reverse engineering...
- Thanks for your settings - I had the registry key in the wrong hive. Still it is not working but will keep investigating - or maybe it is Edge unrelated. Hopefully we will get official documentation from MS soon.
This has been a very painful thread to read! And its not as if the OP was speaking in an alien language or not making his points clear. If you are a sys admin or project delivery engineer, you will understand what the requirement is.
So here is my understanding (and i am in the same boat as the OP)
Current Setup
- Currently using IE with favourites redirected via GPO
- Legacy Edge also in play due to the functionality that allows IE and Legacy Edge to keep their favourites synchronised
Expected Setup when migrated to Edge Chromium
- Deploy Edge Chromium and STILL have favourites redirected via GPO just like IE used to do. This is to be achieved WITHOUT using ANY cloud based sync method
- Optional - Be able to have the IE/Legacy Edge favourites synchronisation functionality available for the initial deployment. This takes care of the headache of figuring out how to migrate thousands of existing favourites from IE to Edge Chromium as that IE/Edge favourite synchronisation will take care of that problem
IE mode is NOT the solution to the problem as it only fixes issues with rendering webpages that are still dependent on IE/activeX.
I hope I was able to break down this request into a more understandable format, so we can move forward with a more concise solution to the problem. Looking at the RoamingProfileSupport, this might be the solution if we can get Microsoft to implement it properly and provide some documentation towards it
We've heard the feedback and understand the request. We're working on it! You may see some things appearing in the bits we're shipping (particularly if you are running Canary or Dev builds) but we're not quite done yet. When we are done, we absolutely plan to make sure we document it and understand if it meets your needs or if we have more work to do. Thank you for your patience!
