Sync Passwords broken: not adding pre-existing passwords when entering chain; and deleting synced passwords when leaving chain

Browser Support Sync
1

Description of the issue:
I have 2 issues, after installing android brave 1.73.101 on a (old phone) Samsung S9 and a (new phone) Samsung S24.

ISSUE-A On both phones, I find that the Sync is NOT syncing the passwords that were stored prior to entering the sync chain. It only sync newly added passwords (editing existing passwords in Password Manager does not enter them to the chain, they really have to be picked up as new passwords, while I enter them in the website login form)

ISSUE-B. On the new phone (S24), I notice that any password that is synced via chain is DELETED when I leave the chain (so both passwords received by sync; and those sent out via sync). (I did not test that on the old phone, as I don’t want to risk deleting all passwords).

sidenote: I was eagerly waiting for this version 1.73.101 as on the previous version (.97 and earlier) I was suffering, only on the S9, from the problem of not being able to turn on Password syncing
cfr DISCUSSION Can't turn on password sync
cfr ISSUE TICKET https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/36190

I hesitated making 2 posts about this (as there are 2 distinct issues), but I suspect it’s related.

Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): 1. 2. 3.

  1. on device X make sure to have some saved passwords, and not being part of a chain.
  2. create a sync chain, enable (also) password syncing
  3. observe brave://sync-internals => the “entries” under passwords remains 0
  4. go to any website with a login that is not yet saved
  5. perform login and allow brave to save the password (brave should show a popup)
  6. observe brave://sync-internals => the “entries” under passwords goes to 1. This establishes issue-A
  7. sync another “empty” device (Y) to that chain, and see the password from step 5-6 arrive in the password manager.
  8. leave the sync chain on device X, and observe under Password Manager that the password saved in step 5 is gone.
  9. leave the sync chain on device Y, and observe under Password Manager that the password saved in step 5 (and synced to device Y in step 7) is gone.

Steps 1-9 establish issue-B

I’ve also tested this with just 1 device, SKIPPING step 7 and 9.

Reproduces how often:
every time, tested a 2-3 times so far.

Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu):
android brave 1.73.101

Type of devices currently running on the Sync chain in question:
Only Android brave 1.73.101

Additional Information:
contact me for more.

On the old phone, I was using Brave for 6 years; but only started using sync in the last 2 weeks, to copy over the data to the new phone.

2

follow-up: obviously, deleted data is unexpected when leaving a chain sync. The FAQ is explicit that nothing should be deleted when leaving a sync chain.

3

You are referring to, what is supposed to not happen when deleting a Brave Sync account:

“It will not however delete the data that is stored locally on those devices.”

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Searching the Brave Community issues, finding an ongoing issue:

Failures by Brave Sync, to sync passwords (in particular - Android users)

When trying to sync between desktop and android device - everything else syncs other than passwords

Can't sync passwords on Android

Passwords won't sync on Android

4

Hello 289wk

The 3 links you gave relate to the issue where the Password Sync can’t be activated, and which i mentioned in my first post

This version 1.73.101 is the previous version fixing the problem of not being able to turn on Password syncing
cfr DISCUSSION Can’t turn on password sync
cfr ISSUE TICKET https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/36190

However, now i face other issues, see first post