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  • Browser syncing Without iCloud (Firefox sync or Orion sync) - via Kagi servers for paid users

  • SuggestionsDesktopNofix

Hi! I use Firefox as my primary browser on my Android phone and my Mac laptop.

Switching to Orion on Mac is difficult, because I wouldn't have my history synced with my Android phone.

Would it be possible to sync my bookmarks/history between the two different browsers (Firefox on Android and Onion on Mac)?

Firefox calls this feature Firefox Sync.

I know "Firefox Integration" sounds like a strange feature request, but look at it this way:

  1. Firefox has a huge userbase, most of which is on Android/Windows.
  2. If Orion could sync its history with Firefox, then it would provide incentive to switch on Mac (while keeping Firefox on Windows/Android).

Using two different browsers is difficult. That's why right now I use Firefox as my main browser on Mac.

Right now syncing history/bookmarks is the biggest thing preventing me from switching to Onion. I plan on continuing to use Firefox on Android, and it's very difficult switching back and forth between Firefox and Onion.

Making an extension API could also possibly help with this and allow someone to implement it as a web extension.

Note that Firefox's code for syncing bookmarks & history is open source and well documented, so it shouldn't be too hard to implement: https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev/blob/71515d047cbdd02687a1b9b7265f2ffb51300bf1/services/sync/docs/engines.rst

Thanks,
Techcable

    Not possible as Firefox would not be able to sync from Orion (Keychain)

    2 years later

    wouldn't it be possible if orion just did not sync with iCLoud keychain, and synced directly with firefox? (this does mean that certain things wont be able to sync)

    • Vlad replied to this.

      eirk If there is an API to use, then it would be possible, the question is of resources

        yes so i suggest marking as under review

          Since I originally wrote this post, I have found an alternative for bookmark sync. I now use raindrop.io to sync my bookmarks across all my browsers.

          It has extensions for Orion, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It also has mobile apps for iOS/Android, a web interface, and a desktop app.

          This has mostly mitigated the issue with cross-browser bookmarks and has allowed me to use Orion as my primary browser on my MacBook! 🎉

          The built-in functionality to migrate bookmarks from Firefox -> raindrop missed some things, so I did have to write a custom script to migrate correctly. However, aside from that, things are working flawlessly now 🙂

          Hopefully, this can help someone trying to work across multiple browsers. Although I still think it would be very nice if this issue could be fixed (especially the history problem). It is encouraging that Firefox sync has an API 🙂

          • Vlad replied to this.

            Vlad no, its just the chrome/ff extension, which works pretty well

            a month later
            Merged 8 posts from Possible to sync history/bookmarks with Firefox (i.e. Firefox integration).

              Merging another discussion as Orion could potentially allow users to use Firefox sync.

              Main problem with this is it is not trivial to do, so should we focus our resources on supporting something knowing that Firefox usage is very small (<4% browser users) with trends pointing to further drop in users.

              Vlad changed the title to Bookmark Syncing Without iCloud (Firefox sync or Orion sync) .
                a month later

                What is the status of this issue considering users have plenty of alternatives like 1password, Bitwarden, and upcoming Proton pass extension support? Kagi sync would be nice, but there are major issues with security building your own password management system. Personally I believe the team’s efforts are better spent ensuring that existing password managers work properly with Orion.

                It possible to do, but very technically demanding and then on top of it addresses only a fraction of our userbase who also user Firefox. For that reason waiting for this to have many more upvotes.

                  6 months later

                  I know this is an old thread and iCloud sync is great but I would also love some kind of option to opt out from iCloud. Atleast for bookmarks. I used iCloud sync before and it worked well, but my use case would be similar to one mentioned above - my work recently decided to turn off iCloud, I can login to my personal Apple ID on my work machine, but iCloud is turned off and cannot be turned on.

                  What if Orion could store bookmarks somewhere locally? Then we might have an option to use syncthing or similar software to sync the bookmarks between different machines without depending on iCloud sync.

                  • Vlad replied to this.

                    mantas Not sure how would different machine see your local machine

                      I also have the no-iCloud work problem. Maybe it could sync to your Kagi account? This would increase the desirability for people to sign up to Kagi…? Thanks for reading all these suggestions Vlad 🙂

                        9 days later

                        Vlad what do you mean?

                        What I meant was if Orion would let us store bookmark data locally, e.g. /Users/x/Documents/Orion - we could use software like syncthing and sync that folder between different machines. But hmm, I'm not sure how my work machine would sync with my personal iOS device. Maybe gaki idea is a bit more robust, but I guess it would require some costs - a server to store the data

                        Love to have something like Brave Sync. I don’t know but would the storage be a big concern? Because we are talking only about tabs and urls which is all text. So, storage shouldn’t be a concern with compression etc, right? If we are talking about extensions or other binary things, yeah, storage could be a concern.

                        What do you folks think?

                        • Vlad replied to this.

                          BO Who would pay for storage?

                          • BO replied to this.