Dec 20 2019 11:34 PM
@HotCakeX I should be more clear - if you had any tabs set aside in Classic Edge, they are put in a Favorites folder called Tabs set aside at install time, but this folder won't sync. Even if you move items out of that folder, they never sync. I wonder if that is what is causing the slight ordering differences between different installs, since you don't have the exact same set of items on different devices to begin with.
As for the situation being identical to 6 weeks ago, I don't really know. If deleted Favorites no longer return when I update any of the installs (which used to happen), I guess it's an improvement. One thing I did notice during my experiment last night was that if not all browsers were online when I deleted duplicates on one install, they would return as I signed in. I have to do some more testing to see if this is true for any new Favorites.
Dec 21 2019 12:10 AM
Quick follow-up: Last night all 5 installs had more or less the same Favorites, no duplicates (after me deleting them for the n:th time). I made some modifications in the Beta and then - bam! - all duplicates returned on the Dev channel. Where did they come from? Furthermore, the sync button is now disabled on that browser (wasn't last night), so they're not (yet) spreading to the other browser instances. But when sync is enabled again...
I'd say the situation is pretty much as before.
I also made some experiments to see what happens if you sign out of a browser or disable sync. I learned that every time you re-enable sync or sign in, the set of Favorites will be come the union of what you have on that browser and the others that were signed in. That is, any deleted Favorites (on the signed-out or signed-in browsers) will return, and any renamed will be duplicated. This doesn't appear to happen if I just close the browser, but I'm not 100% sure that there isn't some background process left. I guess that's good to know. There doesn't seem to be any delta tracking while sync is disabled. What if sync is disabled because of network problems? I don't know yet, but it's soon Christmas and I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised.
Dec 21 2019 12:47 AM
Dec 21 2019 01:40 AM
@HotCakeX You're absolutely right - Favorite sync on Edge has been a dumpster fire for years. IE11 on Windows 8 had its share of problems, but as I remember it, sync worked flawlessly.
I have had all my Favorites and Reading List wiped on all but one device (where sync has been permenently broken) - twice! - on Legacy Edge. The problems in New Edge are slightly different in nature, but it's clear that you can't trust the browser to store links for you and need a backup plan.
Taking a step back, Favorites/Bookmarks are a very 90's thing, and just like organizing your email into neat folders is a waste of time, so is probably also bookmarking pages of interest. Links rot, so solutions for more short-lived links like Reading List, tab and history sync are probably more useful. However, they also require a working sync engine, and Favorites sync is a good litmus test for how reliable the underlying tech is.
My Favorites collection is now a disorganized graveyard that I use for testing only. Pages I like to keep go into OneNote (so it doesn't matter if they 404), and Sticky Notes can be used for short-term link storage etc. Your Phone and Timeline mostly work for handing off between devices. At no point do I rely on Edge for handling links, which makes you wonder why I just don't switch to another major browser (and maybe also get some more relevant ads thanks to better tracking).
Dec 21 2019 02:20 AM
You're doing good job using OneNote because once you find something useful on the Internet, you can't be sure if it will be permanently on that server.
I still have high hopes for the new Edge, I'll even give it a year to fix its sync problems before I get disappointed
for tracking prevention and ad blocking on other browsers or even on Edge itself, try using ublock origin + ublock extra + 3rd party cookie blocking
Dec 30 2019 02:20 PM
@MissyQ
"If there's anyone in here who is currently on Dev, please sign out of your browser and sign back in. Let me know if you see favorites sync enabled under ... > Settings > Profiles > Sync. ", Missy
Missy, I did this ⬆ and, still, no, not On nor available; toggle is not live. Same for Collections in Dev, also.
Cheers,
Drew
Dec 30 2019 02:32 PM
Dec 30 2019 02:35 PM
Dec 30 2019 03:41 PM
@Dennis5mile @MissyQ
Dennis,
So it goes w/ these Controlled Roll-outs. As I said, (my) Dev does not have Fav or Collections (yet) whilst, (my) Canary does have Collections, but, still, not Favs.
Cheers,
Drew
Dec 31 2019 02:52 AM
Dec 31 2019 08:35 AM
@Drew1903 Just wanted to hop in here and let you know that not everyone will have it, but thank you for the update! We're still working hard on getting this resolved. :)
Missy Quarry (she/her/hers)
Community Manager - Microsoft Edge
Dec 31 2019 01:59 PM - edited Dec 31 2019 02:19 PM
@MissyQ
Yes, and that was/is, really, my point of 'status reports'. Good to have indicators (data) on who, where, how many as the situation is addressed & the work is done on it. AND sometimes whatever behavior changes* which, is critical to know, as well, of course. For example, seemed, Favs repopulating was fixed, yet, some are reporting it, currently. Good Folks being aware that features AND fixes don't always, necessarily go to every device simultaneously; a good thing to remind, periodically. A good caveat, Missy.
* I had it after the certain update and causing NO PROBLEMS; More lack of universality Only without it (now) since Team disabled it while looking into the issues it caused for some other Users.
Cheers,
Drew
Dec 31 2019 10:23 PM