Selfhosted @lemmy.world Object @sh.itjust.works 21h ago

Has anyone successfully self-hosted Firefox Sync?

I use around 10 browser profiles, each of which has its own set of bookmarks, plugins, self-enforced rules, etc. I want to synchronise browsing history, bookmarks, plugins using a single account. They are managed with a dedicated Firefox account, but I was wondering if I can self host accounts so that I can synchronise stuff over my VPN, and I don't have to do mail verification every time I create a new profile. But I can't find much on how online.

I know syncserver-rs but that is not enough. The accounts are still registered with Mozilla's server.

14 comments

I don't think you can sync all those items anyway. I use Mozilla's sync, and it doesn't sync all my settings or extensions.

Last time I checked, some people were using syncthing to sync the whole profile folder, but I feel like that's just a recipe for profile corruption. I don't know if it works cross-platform either.
- It syncs my extensions, except for mobile the ones that aren't available (obviously)
Yes. But it was a while ago (pre Rust) when I ran my own accounts server. I only self-host sycserver-rs now.

That being said, I'm pretty sire the mail verification is built in, so even if you self host accounts you'd have to make modifications.
- Can you do something with syncserver-rs alone? Even after I log in with Mozilla account and setting sync server URL to point to mine, nothing appears in the database.
  
  Yea, it works for me, but there were no great guides. If nothing is in the DB, try checking HTTP error codes, or setting the RUST_LOG to trace (which gives you a log line for every item synced).
  
  A problem I had that seemed like nothing was saving was the nginx proxy wasn't doing things right, and I couldn't tell. Using the local IP worked, and after making some nginx config tweaks I got it working.
  
  I ended up making suggestions here based on my experience: https://github.com/porelli/firefox-sync
  
  I didn't exactly use that repo, but started with it and use their images. Their nginx config works, though.
As far as I know from my own attempt, you can't easily self host the accounts part, only the syncserver
- An the Syncserver still runs on Python2 with multiple known vulnerabilities.
  
  There is a new Syncserver written in Rust, but it seems in continous half finished state or so.
  
  Yeah, the new one was seemingly always just shy of being ready to use
  
  ~~Not for years. It's Rust now~~.
  
  Doh, should have kept reading 😆 Rust is used in production now.
- You can, it's just more complex.
  
  That why I said 'easily', there's no ready to go solution you could just plop into a compose file

14 comments