Is sync even doing anything ? 1 chain with 1 Android + 2 Windows

Brave Browser Sync
, , , ,
1

Description of the issue: Sync not doing anything, is sync even performing any action ?

Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary):

New to the Brave world, installed yesterday, so brand new.

Step 1. Install brave on my Android Samsung phone (Android version 12 with Kernel version 4.14.113-25741823)

Step 1b. On the phone, create tabs, groups of tabs, login to Youtube

Step 2. Install Brave on Windows 11

Step.3 Install Brave on Windows 10

Step. 4 Copy the sync chain code (25 words) from Android to both Windows

Results: chain creation works, I can see Android, Win 10, Win 11 PCs in my chain.

Step 5: in Sync menu on Android and on both Windows select “sync all” in what to sync.

Expected behaviour. I expect on both PCs to see the same groups of tabs, to be already logged in to Youtube, to see the history of sites visited with Brave for Android.

Actual behavior: as if Sync was not happening, can’t see on the Win PCs anything present on my phone: no history of sites visited on Android, no open tabs, no nothing.

I find the sync interface very minimalist, making it impossible to troubleshoot anything:

  • No information on the date of the last sync
  • No information on the status of last sync (pass/fail)
  • No button to “force” a sync manually, like there is in Vivaldi browser.

Reproduces how often: 100%

Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu):slight_smile:

Android Brave 1.85.117, Chromium 143.0.7499.146

Win Brave v1.85.118, Chromium 143.0.7499.169

Type of devices currently running on the Sync chain in question:

1 Android + 2 Win PCs

Additional Information:

2

@ppbe

[Desktop machines] In a Brave Browser New Window, go to: brave://sync-internals/ and take a screenshot of the whole page . . . and then try to post that screenshot, here. (<-- You might have trouble, being a new member of the forum.)

@Mattches of Brave Support may arrange for you to be able to upload, or some Brave Community members have used ‘https://postimages.org/’ (something like that).

3

Brave Sync
Brave Sync1467×1000 266 KB

4

@ppbe

Thanks - that screenshot will help @Mattches

Meanwhile, lots of Brave Sync info for study, whenever you get the time:

Daily Expiring Sync Codes: Not Meant for Backup
‘Helpful Info & FAQ for Brave Users - #36 by Saoiray’

How to start a new sync chain
‘Helpful Info & FAQ for Brave Users - #37 by Saoiray’

Adding a device to an existing Sync chain
‘Helpful Info & FAQ for Brave Users - #38 by Saoiray’

Can’t Scan QR Code or Enter Sync Phrase
‘Helpful Info & FAQ for Brave Users - #47 by Saoiray’

5

Hi, thanks for those links, I actually have no issue creating a Sync chain / scanning QR codes, entering a Sync Phrase, or adding devices to the chain. The issue is that sync does not seem to do anything.

6

@ppbe I’m guessing part of the issue is your expectations and where you expect things.

Tab Groups

For example, you mention Tab Groups, but this isn’t something that gets synced on Android.

image
image551×708 27.3 KB

Open Tabs

This doesn’t just automatically open the tabs on all devices. It simply shows what is open.

  • On Android you access this via the hamburger menu (three dots) → Recent Tabs

image
image337×409 17.4 KB

image
image548×302 13.9 KB

  • On Desktop you go to History → Tabs from other devices .(It’s also in the hamburger menu, so whichever)

HIstory

Should show up. But it can take a little while. Honestly, I recommend you don’t sync history. In the past this has been the primary one which hits limits and breaks sync for people, or where history from multiple devices pushes things out and you lose history you want.

There are limits to how many entries show up in history at any time. I forget the number right now. But then it also deletes based on like 90 days as well. Between the two, the benefit for synced history is almost non-existent.

Cookies

These do not and likely will never sync. You should not ever be able to be logged into websites like YouTube on a Desktop just because you signed in on Mobile. This would be a very dangerous thing to implement in terms of privacy and security.

If you have your passwords saved then the username/password should be synced so you can easily login.

7

Huh? That’s not true:

image

Screenshot_20251231-122539_Brave
Screenshot_20251231-122539_Brave1080×2400 71 KB

I literally just added this community tab to it’s own group on my PC, and it shows up on Android appropriately.

Do you mean one-way around, or were you referring to both-ways around?

EDIT: So I tried from Android to PC:

Screenshot_20251231-122955_Brave
Screenshot_20251231-122955_Brave1080×2400 81.7 KB

image
image437×215 43.5 KB

It’s there. Not sure who said Android Brave doesn’t sync grouped tabs, but that might be either outdated information, because it absolutely should be. (The “Tab” sync options includes groups.)

8

@MasterLink just remember it not happening and when looking at settings:

Android:

Notice how Tab Groups isn’t an option?

image
image551×624 27.2 KB

Desktop

But on Desktop, it is. (along with a lot of other things not listed on Android)

image
image677×856 19.9 KB

-Note-

Screenshots are not from my primary profiles or devices, so settings are different than I use. But yeah…

And it could be things were enabled while I’m not tracking, but no setting for it if they did. :man_shrugging:

cc: @Mattches

9

I understand it’s not working for them, hence we need to help, because I verified it should be and does.

On Android, the “Tab” setting under sync includes Grouped Tab’s. On desktop it’s a separate option but on Android that toggle is actually for both, it’s a combo all or nothing setting.

Again I verified this behavior should be working as intended and thus:

but this isn’t something that gets synced on Android.

as phrased, is telling the user that tab groups don’t sync to Android, yet it absolutely should be.

There’s also this setting which would only exist if Android should be syncing grouped tabs as well:

image
image1080×845 41.6 KB

So yes, “Open tabs” includes Grouped Tabs on Android, it’s a combo box.

I would check this article to see if it states anything regarding tab group syncing but ironically I cannot:

https://support. brave. com/hc/en-us/articles/4402426130573-How-do-I-Enable-Disable-Tab-Groups-on-Android

(URL intentionally broken with spaces to prevent Discourse from converting it to the sign in URL, making you seeing the proper URL impossible otherwise).

image
image1011×658 32.6 KB

I uh, have no words here. It’s not asking for the community sign in credentials, this article is login-walled for some reason. I’m not creating a sign-in for one help article when others never needed one. I don’t even know “what” sign-in it wants to create, apparently for the support portal but this result was in a Brave search and readable:

image
image862×288 28.7 KB

So when crawled by Brave Search, it did not require a sign-in then.

10

Thanks for that explanation, my expectation was that every tab opened on Android would show up as tabs in Windows. Such that if I open a new tab on Android it would open in Windows in Sync.

Thanks for the screenshot… I did not realize I had to press the button with the 4 squares (representing groups, I guess) to actually select and open a group on Windows. I though it was all in sync (a tab opened/closed on 1 device would automatically open/close on the other device, without having to press any button).

Other point where I might have over-expectations regarding sync. One of my tabs is a Youtube playlist. I was expecting like, if I was at 02:32 into the 3rd video of the playlist on Android, then opened the group/tab in Windows, it would resume playing that same 3rd video of the playlist at 02:32. Well actually it opens the 3rd video (which is a good thing), but from the start…

11

And yes, tab groups do sync now.

12

This will likely not be the case – the information sent in a scenario like this is just the URL of the YT video but not the timestamp. Are there any other issues you have with Sync or is everything cleared up now?

That’s because the article is not published. It is outdated and was hidden until it is properly updated.

13

Don’t feel bad, I found out last week after never even using tab groups.

Yea sadly that wouldn’t work, that’s a bit more involved because that requires syncing the cookies themselve, and even if the cookies did sync (which Brave doesn’t do), there’s no promise it actually works.

That I’m glad to hear.

Looks like it’s time for Brave Search to purge that result then.

14

Hi, more or less everything is cleared up now, I need to get my head around the logic of sync in Brave :upside_down_face:

Thanks for your explanations.

15

Thanks for the technical explanation, makes sense. At least syncing the song in the playlist is a good start :slight_smile:

16

Thanks for the tip, I have removed History from Sync on all my devices.