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Comment by Sanctor | Hacker News Reader

I really want to switch to Firefox but cannot because it doesn't sync bookmark favicons.

My bookmarks bar is filled with bookmarks without names that I can recognize by the icons. I refuse to re-visit every bookmark when I login from a new PC, which is often.

This has been requested for 17 years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=428378

Every other browser sync solution has this feature. Firefox insists on not implementing it because what, it's too much data to sync? I'd pay for it if it was a premium feature.

If anyone has a browser agnostic bookmark syncing solution that can sync the favicons, let me know.

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I do this as well i.e delete the name of a bookmark using only it's favicon to identify it.

When you login to Firefox. Just right click your bookmarks and hit open all in new tabs. It will open all 500+ tabs. Leave it for a few minutes all all the favicons will be loaded.

The thing is that Firefox has SO MANY papercuts in this category. They all seem minor but they all represent a deal breaker for one user or another. For me it's the address bar on the bottom on mobile (ludicrous decision, whoever came up with that should leave the industry and I mean that) and their refusal to auto fill credit cards on mobile even though I know it works on desktop and I know it works in other regions.

Firefox badly needs someone who gives a shit about user experience.

In the settings on Firefox mobile, under Customize, you can choose between address bar on the top or on the bottom of the screen.

Personally I keep it at the bottom, as it's much closer to my thumbs and also the keyboard, so I don't have to adjust my hands to type in a url or search query.

I think the address bar is on top by default now, and that has always been configurable. (Personally I do prefer it at the bottom.)

I switched from Brave to Vivaldi as my second browser on Android because it's still stuck in the 2010's with it's address bar at the top with no ability to change it. The most sold phones for the last half decade have all been 5-6 inches, and unless you have gigantic hands you need to reposition your hand in order to go from typing on the keyboard to the bottom to tapping the URL bar, so I'm on the other side of the fence, very glad that they default to the bottom URL bar and actually have the option to change it to the top for those that want it.

i am not sure if i understand this post, where else should the address bar be if not at your fingertips at the bottom?

This is indeed exactly the reason why it was placed there in Windows Phone 7 (which is where it first appeared, AFAIK).

> I refuse to re-visit every bookmark when I login from a new PC, which is often.

Why not? How often?

This should take literally 5s using the bookmark manager, right click on "Bookmarks Toolbar", "Open All Bookmarks". Then some more to load the websites I guess.

Some links can only be accessed through a VPN.

I have thousands of bookmarks that also have names but I would still like to see the icons before clicking the link. Sometimes the name doesn't hint at what kind of resource the bookmark was at a glance. Is it a youtube video, is it an article?

I already have access to that information at the time of bookmarking. I don't want to lose it and then have to get it again.

> Some links can only be accessed through a VPN.

Step 1. Connect to VPN Step 2. Open all bookmarks

Firefox's sync is broken in many ways. It doesn't sync search engines or extension settings either. It also frequently stops syncing from Android.

I rely on sync a lot, so that was a dealbreaker for me.

Extension settings can be synced, but the extension must explicitly call the storage.sync api https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...

Unless you're on Android. Android doesn't give extensions access to sync. When I update ublock manually (usually to make things go away on my phone, hence the need) I have to manually export it.

Has anyone found a fix for this? It's very annoying, and has been around for years.

I personally use Checkmarks: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/checkmarks-we...

It just opens every bookmark to load the favicon. Brute force, but it works!

Sweet. After rereading OP and your post, I believe I misinterpreted it. But I will say I have that problem too...

Problem A: What OP and you are talking about: When you switch computers to one that doesn't have the bookmarks, you have to click through every one to get the icon to populate.

Problem B: Once FF has an icon, it will never update it. Even if you delete and re-add the the bookmark. I have no workaround for this.

You don't name your bookmarks?

I delete the name on purpose so I can utilize the horizontal space the bookmarks bar provides more effectively. I name the bookmarks that are not directly on the bar but live in other folders. However I would still not want to lose that bit of metadata. Icons hint at what site the resource is from at a glance.

Makes sense, I don't use the bookmarks bar because I try and keep the UI to a minimum.

yeah, mozilla do need to do some work on the "narrow screen experience" on desktop. Too many builtin things that take up space around the url bar and can't be moved.

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