Reviews for Session Sync
Session Sync by Gabriel Ivanica
Review by FFxuser
Rated 5 out of 5
by FFxuser, 7 years agoUpdate:
Hi Gabriel,
I am glad that you have fixed the issue of tracking the closed windows, although it took form more time than expected (around a year). Thank you for the fix, it's a very important improvement one. I am changing my rating from 4 to 5. I can also see that your add-on is being used by more people and it is getting high rates as well. Congratulations!!!
I must say that there are some good Add-ons that are similar to SessionSync and they work pretty good. However, in my opinion SessionSyn's unique feature is that it supports storage of the bookmarks on the cloud at least using Firefox account feature and its is also reflected in the Add-on name (the "Sync" part).
So, please allow me to suggest that you append some slides/screenshots with instructions on how that works because I have noticed that there is nothing about this feature in your current slides. As an example, I remember that in a previous version when you right click one of the recent Auto-saved sessions, a popup menu with "cloud" icon on top used to appear next to next to "Save" command, but it is was not clear if it invokes the "Firefox Sync" feature or just a regular command to save a session as bookmark, .etc.
I also have some questions regarding this Sync feature:
1-Consider this scenario: If I used the SessionSync during a browsing session with FF Sync feature enabled, then I ended the FF browsing session and started another browsing session in another device with SessionSync installed and FF Sync enabled. Is it expected to restore the list of all previously saved Sessions.
2-How long it takes to Sync/Save all the saved sessions from/to the cloud. (Lets say 5 session with 200 bookmarks each).
3-What is the maximum number of sessions/tabs/bookmarks that could be Synced or stored in the cloud.
Please note that I am not an expert in FF, so these questions might be ridiculous.
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Hi Gabriel,
Thank you for sharing this great tool and following up the feedback and providing support based on users experience. I do have some comments.
Please let me go back to the feedback provided by "Panorama" as it includes a very important point regarding the issue when auto saving a session with multiple windows.
I faced the same issue and I think that it is related to the "Auto-Save History" feature and in order to replicate it I would suggest the following steps:
-Open Firefox and then add a couple of new tabs within the same window
-Open a second window and add 3 new tabs
-Now you have 2 windows with 5 tabs and the current session in the History list should include both windows
-Close the first window, wait for a few seconds (till the auto save interval period passes) and then close the second window which will exit Firefox
-Reopen Firefox application and go to the "Sessions History" list and select the previous auto-saved session (most recent item)
You will notice that it includes only a list of 3 tabs from the second window while there is no record for the first window and its 2 tabs.
I am not sure if this bug is related to Firefox or to the tool itself. Anyway I think that the "Auto-Save History" function should add a new entry (item) in the "Sessions History" list for each closed window otherwise it would be incomplete feature.
I also have a question, could you please explain where do you store the data of the "Sessions History" list because it is not included in the "SessionSync" bookmarks folder.
Thanks again for your work and support,
Hi Gabriel,
I am glad that you have fixed the issue of tracking the closed windows, although it took form more time than expected (around a year). Thank you for the fix, it's a very important improvement one. I am changing my rating from 4 to 5. I can also see that your add-on is being used by more people and it is getting high rates as well. Congratulations!!!
I must say that there are some good Add-ons that are similar to SessionSync and they work pretty good. However, in my opinion SessionSyn's unique feature is that it supports storage of the bookmarks on the cloud at least using Firefox account feature and its is also reflected in the Add-on name (the "Sync" part).
So, please allow me to suggest that you append some slides/screenshots with instructions on how that works because I have noticed that there is nothing about this feature in your current slides. As an example, I remember that in a previous version when you right click one of the recent Auto-saved sessions, a popup menu with "cloud" icon on top used to appear next to next to "Save" command, but it is was not clear if it invokes the "Firefox Sync" feature or just a regular command to save a session as bookmark, .etc.
I also have some questions regarding this Sync feature:
1-Consider this scenario: If I used the SessionSync during a browsing session with FF Sync feature enabled, then I ended the FF browsing session and started another browsing session in another device with SessionSync installed and FF Sync enabled. Is it expected to restore the list of all previously saved Sessions.
2-How long it takes to Sync/Save all the saved sessions from/to the cloud. (Lets say 5 session with 200 bookmarks each).
3-What is the maximum number of sessions/tabs/bookmarks that could be Synced or stored in the cloud.
Please note that I am not an expert in FF, so these questions might be ridiculous.
-----------------------------------------------
Hi Gabriel,
Thank you for sharing this great tool and following up the feedback and providing support based on users experience. I do have some comments.
Please let me go back to the feedback provided by "Panorama" as it includes a very important point regarding the issue when auto saving a session with multiple windows.
I faced the same issue and I think that it is related to the "Auto-Save History" feature and in order to replicate it I would suggest the following steps:
-Open Firefox and then add a couple of new tabs within the same window
-Open a second window and add 3 new tabs
-Now you have 2 windows with 5 tabs and the current session in the History list should include both windows
-Close the first window, wait for a few seconds (till the auto save interval period passes) and then close the second window which will exit Firefox
-Reopen Firefox application and go to the "Sessions History" list and select the previous auto-saved session (most recent item)
You will notice that it includes only a list of 3 tabs from the second window while there is no record for the first window and its 2 tabs.
I am not sure if this bug is related to Firefox or to the tool itself. Anyway I think that the "Auto-Save History" function should add a new entry (item) in the "Sessions History" list for each closed window otherwise it would be incomplete feature.
I also have a question, could you please explain where do you store the data of the "Sessions History" list because it is not included in the "SessionSync" bookmarks folder.
Thanks again for your work and support,
Developer response
posted 7 years agoUpdate: Sorry but I was not able to finish the update yet. I will update the message once it's done.
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Hi, and thanks a lot for the detailed information.
Sadly everything you mentioned is correct and the reason is that I implemented the saving mechanism without taking into consideration that closed windows should be saved. I realized that the behavior is not what is normally expected from a auto-saving feature. It should store all windows no matter how many are opened and closed and that's something that I quite failed to implement properly.
I will try to fix this ASAP (I should be able to fix it this weekend) and latest by Monday a new version to be ready.
Regarding saved location. Sadly the auto-saving functionality is not stored into Bookmarks. They are saved into the browser "localStorage" that is hidden from users. Most addons out there will store everything into this storage and you won't have access to the data unless the addon offers some kind of an export functionality. I decided to store what user would consider important data into "Bookmarks" because they users will be in control of it and not the addon and data will be there (visible) always. Please understand that not saving everything into bookmarks is not an issue but the other way around. I tried to offer something better by saving only those things that matter to you (every user) in the most transparent way possible (through bookmarks).
The reason why auto-saved data can't be stored in bookmarks:
- because it is saved periodically and saving into Bookmarks would create performance issues for many users as well as possible sync errors (bookmarks are not really intended to be changed that often, I mean not once every 10 seconds)
- bookmarks are usually intended for things that you want to keep for a longer period of time
- auto-saved sessions are usually intended only as recovery options/backup restoring: browser crashing, system crashing or getting back to a certain site that you know you visited a few hours ago/days
Because of this decision only bookmarks are synced across Firefox accounts. But I would say that is ok because you can always decide if you want to promote an auto-saved session to a synced session by saving it into Bookmarks.
Usually there are many things to consider when building such an extension and I tried to keep a good balance between functionality and features. It won't be perfect for everyone but as I receive feedback I try to improve it. Thanks again for feedback. Promise that I will have an update for this ASAP. I will update this comment as soon as the implementation is ready.
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Hi, and thanks a lot for the detailed information.
Sadly everything you mentioned is correct and the reason is that I implemented the saving mechanism without taking into consideration that closed windows should be saved. I realized that the behavior is not what is normally expected from a auto-saving feature. It should store all windows no matter how many are opened and closed and that's something that I quite failed to implement properly.
I will try to fix this ASAP (I should be able to fix it this weekend) and latest by Monday a new version to be ready.
Regarding saved location. Sadly the auto-saving functionality is not stored into Bookmarks. They are saved into the browser "localStorage" that is hidden from users. Most addons out there will store everything into this storage and you won't have access to the data unless the addon offers some kind of an export functionality. I decided to store what user would consider important data into "Bookmarks" because they users will be in control of it and not the addon and data will be there (visible) always. Please understand that not saving everything into bookmarks is not an issue but the other way around. I tried to offer something better by saving only those things that matter to you (every user) in the most transparent way possible (through bookmarks).
The reason why auto-saved data can't be stored in bookmarks:
- because it is saved periodically and saving into Bookmarks would create performance issues for many users as well as possible sync errors (bookmarks are not really intended to be changed that often, I mean not once every 10 seconds)
- bookmarks are usually intended for things that you want to keep for a longer period of time
- auto-saved sessions are usually intended only as recovery options/backup restoring: browser crashing, system crashing or getting back to a certain site that you know you visited a few hours ago/days
Because of this decision only bookmarks are synced across Firefox accounts. But I would say that is ok because you can always decide if you want to promote an auto-saved session to a synced session by saving it into Bookmarks.
Usually there are many things to consider when building such an extension and I tried to keep a good balance between functionality and features. It won't be perfect for everyone but as I receive feedback I try to improve it. Thanks again for feedback. Promise that I will have an update for this ASAP. I will update this comment as soon as the implementation is ready.
237 reviews
- Rated 5 out of 5by 远离中共邪教快退出党团队, 4 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Doza_Vikadina, 22 days agoОтличное и весьма удобное дополнение, поэтому здесь нечего добавить
- Rated 5 out of 5by 敬念法轮大法好远离瘟疫, 2 months ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by HumanistAtypik, 7 months ago
- Rated 2 out of 5by Jim Aldon D'Souza, a year agoI wish they would add firefox container support. I have tabs stored that are assigned to specific containers, which go haywire when restored in a new session because they get assigned to "no container" and go on a loop
- Rated 3 out of 5by rediffusion, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Mostly Harmless, a year agoAlthough not updated for some time, this add-on has consistently worked for me for over 5 years. It's been my go-to research tool when using Firefox. Bookmarks are OK but fall short when trying to do some concerted research but this session manager is fantastic. It's never failed me and syncs easily between devices using Mozilla Sync. Thanks to the dev for this gem and hopefully it stays updated as Firefox progresses.
- Rated 4 out of 5by Montanagrl5, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by EcksDy, 2 years ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 14684093, 2 years agoThis addon does what firefox sync should do. And it does even more. You can setup collections of links. Fortunately firefox sync does sync bookmarks reliably. But it fails in syncing tabs in a reliable way. Here session sync comes in as a convenient workaround.
- Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 16850052, 2 years agoLost all saved history when I encounter a PC crash.
Developer response
posted 2 years agoPlease do not use Session Sync for auto history saving. It's not something that it's guaranteed and it's even in the description of the addon on the first line with bold. It's just a feature that is most of good enough but not something that is perfect.
THIS ADDON IS NOT INTENDED FOR AUTO-SAVING OF SESSIONS!
As for saving sessions manually, those sessions are stored into bookmarks so it should be impossible to lose them unless the whole Firefox profile is broken in which case is not the addon fault. - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17989927, 2 years agoI use Session Sync since 3 years now and it worked super for me, fast, reliable and neat to use. After a recent computer breakdown, at the computer store they made a new operating system installation and a minor recovery of my data. Mr.Ivanica helped me providing precious information and all the support in order to get the extension back at work again with all my sessions 100% restored.
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17422724, 2 years agoExtremely useful addon. I have used this for at least 3 years.
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17698144, 2 years agoGreat add-on! Pinned tabs are saved, but not restored as pinned in Firefox on Linux. It would be fantastic to be able to find duplicate tabs also! Cheers!
- Rated 3 out of 5by BryanChance, 2 years ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17687656, 2 years ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Shodaime, 2 years agoGreat add-on. I wish there are options to change the colour or theme of the interface. Something even basic, like; light, grey and dark.
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 6010058, 2 years ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by PeaceByJesus.net, 2 years agoSorry: I had stated that "there is no option to save a session" since I did not see one, or read that this was to be found via mouse hover over a heart icon (like "favorites"). I thought it would be in text, and maybe via right click. As a long time user of the legacy Session Manager I also assumed that this add on would auto save sessions depending on how often you wanted, and where you wanted. And restore local web pages as well.
However, the untitled heart icon does work to save that session as a bookmark, which is good though where the bookmark is saved is not an option.
And I also see via the tutorial (moz-extension://cf54e725-638a-4074-b4ae-b519e7d0f380/data/home/home.html) that Gabriel Ivanica has put a lot of work into this add on and that there are some options!
So thanks for this needed good add on, and it works for me even while using the Izheil Multi-row tabs patch.Developer response
posted 2 years agoWhat do you mean by no option to save sessions?
There's a red heart icon that has a tooltip with "Save Session".
Auto-save is not saving in bookmarks, only manual saving will do so because otherwise I would create thousands of almost useless bookmarks for users.
The addon should work as intended, but in case some other addon creates some weird incompatibility it might not, but that's something I can't fix or change. Though, there should clearly be no issues to save a certain session. - Rated 5 out of 5by asdasd asdasasd, 2 years agoExcellent!!! very few plugins are as useful as this one. I like to have many tabs open and this tool allows me to manage them in a spectacular way. Thank you very much!!!
I hope that in the future it will continue to be updated, even if they don't add more features, it should be incorporated by Firefox natively. - Rated 2 out of 5by dafFDasd, 3 years agoOK, so I have updated the review:
Lists currently open windows and tabs, clicking switches to clicked tab. But no tab delete nor search in tabs functionality. Max Pop up window size is too small. It needs to be a full page in new tab.
Does not auto save sessions.
UPDATE: The „Tab View” button opens a new page instead of a pop up. I'd rename it to something more intuitive (maybe view everything in new tab). It is possible to search the tabs there using Ctrl+g.
But despite the entry being highlighted after exiting from the search, the Enter key does not activate the tab.
Also Ctrl+Shift+V is a bad choice of hotkey. It is already universally reserved and used as „Paste without formatting”. I'd recommend opening in new tab view by default instead.
UPDATE 2: The hotkey can be changed. But the Settings popup closes every damn time I set something. It requires to reopen the stupid main pop up, then the settings pop up again and scroll down again to the last place.
Additionally the developer has not responded to the lack of close current tab/window functionality. This is the most important feature remaining.
Instead of practical functionality, this add-on includes wasteful animations without option to turn them off. They should be off by default or removed completely. It is an (annoying) anti-feature to waste time staring at unnecessary delays in workflow.Developer response
posted 3 years agoHi. I understand that you would expect something from an addon but the description states clearly that the addon is not intended for Auto-Saving of session. At the same time popup size is simply limited by Firefox, that's the maximum any developer can do, simply I can't make it bigger than that because that's and API limitation (nobody knows why just Firefox stupid decisions).
Regarding the full-page or new-tab -> those options are already available
Regarding search in tabs: yeah.. sorry that's a feature that would've been nice but was not able to implement it.
Auto-Save: There is some autosave implemented but not a full-featured like maybe other addons might have, but the whole purpose of the addon is to manually save what you need. - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17455306, 3 years ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by SiteBuilderOne, 3 years agoExcellent add-on, highly intuitive.
The ability to dock this in to native FireFox Sidebar would be awesome (Simple Tab Groups has this option). Currently using Tab View working great - thanks!!!