Brave Sync is really buggy!

glad its on desktop version but i really prefer it in the mobile version. btw, i don’t see an option to sync bookmarks and extensions with the Brave account, is it in making?

yes i have some of them synced to my desktop Brave.

OK, but than just establish a new sync chain and bookmarks should sync again. I have also tried it with two Android devices. Both were synced. I then deleted Brave on one device and reestablished the sync chain. I never lost any bookmarks.

But yes, Sync on Android is extremely buggy, often just stops syncing and not reliable in any way.

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I guess this is a good thread to report about my experience with Sync on mobile devices:

In one word: Crap.

The longer version: Every single time I update Brave (via PlayStore or using apk files) the sync chain got lost on the first device I update. Building the sync chain again is a pain in the neck. To say the least. Deleting a chain can take time … minutes and minutes.

As I’m writing this I have not been able to delete the non-working sync chain at all for 10 minutes. You can click delete over and over again. Nothing happens.

The only way to get rid of the non-working sync chain is to delete browser data … and lose everything.

Sorry Brave, this is ridiculous. Please get rid of sync on mobile until you figure out how to get it running. But this is frustrating and unprofessional. This is not beta, not even alpha. And it does not shine a god light on Brave at all if people try it and get absolutely frustrated.

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Same problem here. I do not exactly know when it disconnects from the chain but when I reconnect it, it just duplicates my bookmarks across all devices :smiley:

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Yes, I absolutely want to sync bookmarks in Brave (and password, history, tabs,…) but at this moment is unusable. On desktop and android it seems to be working, but on IOS it’s a disaster.
I have a big number of bookmarks (more than 20k organized in many folders and subfolders) gathered during years of browsing. I have imported them into Brave on windows 10 and android.
It seems to work ok, but on IOS it has messed up the bookmarks: many are saved into the root, instead of their correct subfolder. many bookmark icons are wrong, and for some reason I got some red folders. what this means? is it an error? please brave fix iOS sync engine.
Thanks.

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When you try to sync from decktop to mobile it don’t workat all .

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Thanks for the feedback. Certainly it will help team to find root cause for the issues.

@Brave_user instead of just criticizing the feature could you add on more details.

Are you using mobile on Data or on Wifi? Have you tried removing the app from memory and restart and then try to delete sync chain?
There is no need to delete browser install. You can just remove the device from the sync chain so that sync is reset and you can restart. This is better than removing the browser install.

What devices are on the sync chain? Is it only Mobile or desktop as well. How often does this happen? Does the device keeps switching between wifi/data? Can you add more info on how the mobile device is being used and any changes you are making to bookmarks on the Android device?

On iOS you might see bookmarks in root while sync is in progress. The colour of folders are also due to this. Once complete sync is done you should not see any coloured folders or any bookmarks on root folder. You might have to wait for sometime because you are trying to sync 20k bookmarks which is a huge number of data to be sync’d so it should all be good on iOS once its sync’d.

Please add more details. Are both devices getting listed or not? One way to test is both devices should show the same code words(do not share this with anyone)

Request to any one who is following or reading this thread. Please include as much details as possible while responding on the thread. Its really not possible to find a solution to a problem without having enough info and just says “Its not working for me as well”

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I was using Wifi. And yes, of course I removed the app from memory, restarted it and did this like three times. Removing the device from sync chain did not work. It took 15 min or even longer until finally I got a clean sync chain.

The problem is that every time I install a new version of Brave on a mobile device the sync chain in the updated Brave install has been deleted. Even worse is that sync just stops from time to time. No error, nothing. Or in other words: totally unreliable.

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thanks for answering me.
I cannot say if the sync is still in progress, however it is syncing from 20 april!. if it is still syncing then it’s too slow and you should improve it (other browsers are faster, with chrome the fastest, then firefox, then opera mini the slowest). but if the sync is still in progress then it should say so (like a label or spinning icon). also add the time of last sync.
thanks.

hello,
after some testing I’m sure sync is complete, but bookmarks are still messed up: like I said before many are saved into the root, instead of their correct subfolder. it happens not only for bookmarks but for folders too, and happens only on ios, the bookmarks on android seem ok. this is definitely a bug.

This is a design bug on our side, sorry for that.
There are few folder hierarchy differences between iOS and chromium(android, desktop) and we didn’t account for that.

So currently it is like you said, bookamrks from bookmarks panel and other bookmarks are all saved in root folder on iOS, often with messed up order

I talked to our product manager recently about it, and we are definitely going to fix it(no ETA yet)

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hello, many thanks for your response! I’ll wait for the new version :smiley:

New Brave version and again - as always - shortly after at least on one device the whole sync chain is just gone. This happens time after time after time. Resyncing one device is futile. You have to completely delete the sync chain in both devices and create a new chain. I’m also tired of it … especially that I cannot see any improvements. Even the most basic features does not work.

Using sync in mobile is risky. Never ever rely on it for some form of backup.

@Brave: I would rather you deactivate sync on mobile until you are able to assure at least the most basic functions to work somewhat reliably.

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I have Windows 10 and Android (OnePlus 6T). On Android, the sync keeps disappearing/disconnecting after several days. I think it usually happens after the app updates.
When it’s disconnected on Android, the sync chain is still active on Windows. On Windows, under Sync settings, the panel says the Android is still part of the sync, even though it’s not. Under these conditions, if on Windows I try to remove the “ghost” of the Android from sync chain to keep only Windows in it, the whole sync chain disappears.
Every few days I’m forced to re-create the sync chain and sync thousands of bookmarks.

Turning off a feature is not the solution. The more users use it and report edge cases we can fix them and improve the feature/product. The feature is opt-in and not opt-out

@sriram thanks for the updates. could you tell me why Brave went with QR code and some random code words to sync instead of just signing in to the Brave account and all the bookmarks gets synced??

There is no Brave account concept where you can sign-in and sync. The reason for going into QR Code and Code words is the data is kept on the user machine and not on any server.

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If turning it off is not the solution what is? I have been using sync on mobile for quite some time. Sync has not gotten any better … not for me and my two devices at least.

Every time I update to a newer Brave version the sync chain gets lost. I have to delete it on the other device as well and try to establish a new chain. This often needs several tries before it will finally work.

You are right, turning it off is not the solution but making it work. How many years before sync will work?

Maybe you should think about what impression this buggy feature makes to people who try Brave for the first time … and maybe the last time. Maybe turning it off until it will work more or less decently is the best solution. Don’t you agree?

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@sriram ok. could you tell me why the bookmarks import and export option is missing in Brave mobile?? at the least bring, it will be helpful until the sync works flawlessly.