How do I clear my bookmarks from the Firefox browser on a public computer, having synced my account to see them during a browsing session?
Here's what I'm trying to achieve:
1. I use Firefox on someone else's computer and sync my account to retrieve my bookmarks. (This works.) 2. After finishing my browsing session, I sign out of my Firefox account, and my bookmarks are cleared from the Firefox browser. (This doesn't work.)
I have tried the following options:
a) Open menu > Options > Sync > untick 'Bookmarks' > OK. This doesn't clear my bookmarks from the browser, not even if I close and open it again. They all show up.
b) Open menu > Options > Sync > under Firefox Account click 'Disconnect' > OK. This doesn't clear my bookmarks either, only necessecitates me signing in to sync again.
I understand there used to be an option to 'unlink this device', which may clear all data including bookmarks, but I can't find it anywhere. I've also read an article suggesting clearing bookmarks etc can be achieved by deleting your Firefox profile from a device, but I fear this will delete global options such that I won't be able to access them on my home computer.
Surely there must be a way of siging in then out of the Firefox account on different computers, like you can with e-mail, without leaving all your bookmarks etc open for every other user to see afterwards? I'm transfering to Firefox from Chrome precisely because it doesn't have the capacity to do this (scarily), and to clear my bookmarks from a friends' browser, I had to uninstall Chrome on her computer!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Chosen solution
Action (a) means that in the future, even when you're signed in, your bookmarks will not re-sync.
Action (b) means that no syncing to your account will occur in the future unless you sign out.
I hope that helped you! Happy browsing!
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (3)
1. Sync wasn't intended to be used in that manner. You would be better off carrying around a USB Flash Stick with Portable Firefox for use on "strange" PC's.
2. You could open the "Library" {Ctrl + Shift + B} and highlight all those bookmarks and then delete them all at once. But that would also delete all the other bookmarks, and it isn't foolproof. All another person would need to do it to restore a bookmark backup file that has your bookmarks. Beyond that, a new Profile could be created and then the current Profile deleted; but that's "messing with" someone else's computer - an action that is worthy of terminating a friendship over, IMO.
And if that "public" computer was set up properly, Sync should have been disabled.
Thanks for your response, I was not aware that sync wasn't intended to be used this way as it's so handy to do so, and every other common application with a 'sign in' feature always has a 'sign out' one, too. I guess I'll not sign in on devices that are not mine in future, although it would be really good if someone would develop the capacity to sign out in later updates.
Quick question, though: what does performing actions (a) and (b) above achieve, if not un-syncing bookmarks and signing out of the account, respectively? Does this just stop future syncing?
Chosen Solution
Action (a) means that in the future, even when you're signed in, your bookmarks will not re-sync.
Action (b) means that no syncing to your account will occur in the future unless you sign out.
I hope that helped you! Happy browsing!