Edge Dev Bookmark Sync change detection

Brass Contributor

I still see the duplication of bookmarks and bookmark folders. Obviously the sync is not able to detect which changes are newer, and obviously it's not able to filter equivalent entries.

I constantly end up with incomplete sync, which a day later turns into duplicate entries.

 

And at the very basic level sync is not able to replicate a cleanup of all bookmarks.  

 

I do not add the browser versions as the bu seems stable across the board.

Origin (Mac, Edge dev):

 Sync Internals 21-44-31 mac.png

Replicated as this on Edge Dev win:

Annotation 2019-09-06 win.png

6 Replies
I think Edge needs a duplicated detection system in the bookmarks/favorites so it won't allow any duplicate bookmarks to be created at all, even accidentally.

@Vla Dunev @HotCakeX I agree with you. Even on the latest 78.0.268.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit) I am seeing the same duplicate folders and Favorites. Twice I received a complete bookmark import from Firefox and Edge HTML (Imported from...) folder, which I did not request the browser to do.

@HotCakeX, if you can point me to where on the edge://sync-internals/ I can see what Edge Dev thinks are duplicates would be cool. 

 

So far I've tested the following steps:

1. completely deleted all bokmarks from Machine1  

2. waited on Machine2 to see when the sync will happen, and indeed without prompting the process started and in the space of 2 hours all bokmarks save 1 have been removed from Machine2. Not 100% success, but ok for now

3. on Machine3 waited for a day to see the process start. I see that Machine3 has Transport State: Active and generally seems authorised to the sync server, but no cigar. Manual triggering or sync restart does not help. Went ahead and disconnected the user, deleting the bookmarks in the process.

4. at the same time, one day later, Machine1 somehow has recovered all deleted bookmarks. Also added a bunch of duplicate folders. Which is totally NOT OK.

 

So in 2 words: the entire sync system is a mess and seems in need to be disabled and developed from scratch. The current state is absolutely useless.

 

I will be looking at the Edge blog in hope that when they announce the next complete overhaul I can try it again.

 

Excuse my blunt description, but all these problems should have been caught during testing phase.

Further testing:

1. Went into my account and deleted a couple of defunct sync devices, bringing the total count from 10 to 6.

2. Logged out and back in Edge on Machines 1 to 3.

3. Deleted again all bookmarks (intentionally leaving only 2 so that we don't trigger some "no bookmarks found" recovery logic) - sync worked correctly and promptly. Good!

4. Imported bookmark backup from file - again sync was very fast, and correct so far.

 

As a side note, we talk Edge Windows + Edge Mac combination. Impressive.

So under lab conditions everything works. I'm quite certain that in a couple of days all bookmarks will be messed again, but let's see.

I would speculate that the problems with sync arouse because Chromium/Google constantly touches some of the bookmarks, thus messing their timestamps/IDs/whatever.

 

So I would guess the problem might not be with MS sync logic, but rather with Google's lax way with other people's data. 

 

P.S. As you can see I'm VERY biased, but one of the reasons I love Edge Dev is that it gives us google-compatible (notice I did not say 'standards compatible'!) engine complete with MS data protection (honestly, I would trust MS over Google any day).

 

@Vla Dunev I would also like to see edge sync the show icon only feature.