xbrowsersync abandoned?

[ghost]

No updates for very long time.

Has the project been abandoned?

[nero120]

Not abandoned as such, I just have no free time currently to work on it, let alone keep up with all the GitHub issues. I maintain the xBrowserSync server so users can still use the service.

[nero120]

I hope I will have some time to get v1.6.0 finally released but between my current job and family I literally have no time. I had hoped that some other devs (who know what they are doing) would step forward and help to maintain it but that never happened. It is what it is.

[ghost]

@nero120 talk to other devs (who know what they are doing) that you require help.

do not let this amazing project die!

[paulwratt]

when you do get a chance to make 1.6.0 public, make the "beta" 1.7.2 public as well (or the version tested for 2 months in the other thread)

I would guess most of those other developers are running there own server and hence dont need to fix too much

[nero120]

The 1.7.2 version was a requested feature for a patron but they never responded after I implemented it!

[nero120]

Please understand that running an open source project is incredibly demanding and time consuming, especially when you get lots of emails/github issues/requests to manage as well as cutting actual code! I'm not surprised others don't want the responsibility, but it's a shame as it means that projects go stale when the primary maintainer can't commit the time required to the project anymore.

[nero120]

I must have put 1000s of hours into this project so don't want it to die so I won't archive it, I'll come back to it when I am able.

[paulwratt]

Its fine dude, its been a while, and its come a long way - RL has just stepped up thats all.

If you look at the SB headers library, they only release once a year, even though they get quite a few PR's per week. Basically all they do is review the PR and merge it if its OK, otherwise they leave it to the person to "fix". That way they can still do there day jobs, and not get bogged down trying to keep up with various aspects of maintaining OSS

[tbjers]

I must have put 1000s of hours into this project so don't want it to die so I won't archive it, I'll come back to it when I am able.

I have been using XBS for a while now and I was wondering if you need help maintaining the project? I am interested, and vested, in the project and would love to augment your current efforts, if you are interested.

[ivy-reps]

@nero120, peoples just knows nothing about your project, and they not taking your approach yet. Also from those who are users of your software, not many of them are developers. So it needs time.

[Forceflow]

@nero120 Take all the time you need man, we appreciate and understand. The service is alive and working. Take care!

[drgnfyre]

I must have put 1000s of hours into this project so don't want it to die so I won't archive it, I'll come back to it when I am able.

I'm just getting this enabled on all my systems. Once I've confirmed things are working, I'll have no problems with signing up at the $5 a month tier, or possibly $15

Please consider finding additional people to help with the project. I'd hate to see it go away.

[zackmuc]

can anyone upgrade the manifest to version 3 the old one will soon not work anymore in chrome/ Edge :(

[RokeJulianLockhart]

@zackmuc, #423

[ShayBox]

Please just release v1.7.X, I'm unable to use the latest v1.6.X because I tried the earlier mis-versioned V1.7.X beta so now I have to use the V1.7 beta
I can't use stable because it's broken, and I can't use the latest v1.6 beta

[camilus667]

unfortunately it seems that the plugin is not working anymore https://i.imgur.com/IJEEoKj.jpg
I get this very recurrent error when updating any marker

[ShayBox]

I guess the service is dead now too, my sync that's been the same since 2019 and was logged into my browser prior to reinstalling Windows no longer exists... there goes my bookmarks.

[olavinto]

I guess the service is dead now too, my sync that's been the same since 2019 and was logged into my browser prior to reinstalling Windows no longer exists... there goes my bookmarks.

At least for me the sync still works just fine between several browsers. Manifest v3 support (or rather lack of it) will probably be a problem for Chromium based browsers next year as it is my understanding that older addons won't work anymore when it becomes mandatory.

[elvisisvan]

i wish i'm programmatically proficient enough to contribute to xbrowsersync, i really hope xbrowsersync can be an ultimate solution to sync bookmarks and browsing history across brave, vivaldi, microsoft edge, etc. different profiles in one single sync id

[olavinto]

@nero120 Let me tell you how I feel:

🪦😭💔

[swarnat]

Because I don't get the other MySQL fork working, I today finished my 100% compatible fork, where I replace Mongose with TypeORM and support MySQL, Postgres, SQlite.
Not a direct further development of this project, but I also updated all dependencies and use the major parts of original code.
Only the needed parts are changed for entity handling.

Unfortunatelly I don't have any MongoDB knowledge and cannot provide a migration from Mongo to SQL or provide tests of MongoDB version with new dependencies. So for me it isn't possible to backport (and test) changes into original version.

You found the fork here:
https://github.com/swarnat/xbrowsersync-api

For future topics:
When it is possible to access information like history, we can also implement that. But because of limited time, this is no feature I would implement.
I would only provide a solution for the migration to manifest v3 of extensions, because I'm using this software for my own sync over 4 devices + mobile access,
And there will be a version for arm64 cpu architecture.

[Hr46ph]

To people ending up here like myself:
https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus

[ivy-reps]

To people ending up here like myself: https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus

I'm not sure that there are privacy here. XBrowserSync is aboiut privacy. And NextCloud, WebDav and etc are not. No encryption.

[marek22k]

NextCloud can be encrypted as far as I know. https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/20/user_manual/en/files/encrypting_files.html
https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_files/encryption_configuration.html
https://nextcloud.com/encryption/

[olavinto]

What cloud service isn't encrypted? NextCloud can also be self hosted. One of the main points of xBrowserSync has been to allow the use of each browser's built in bookmarking features unlike all other choices out there.

[ivy-reps]

NextCloud can be encrypted as far as I know.

I don't think that xbrowsersync encryption approach can be comparable with mostly any service offered around the world. Your bookmarks sent from XBS will be encrypted with your password or whatever and if you will lose it, you will lose ability to decrypt your bookmarks. And they will be sent through channel between browser and the server in encrypted state. As far as I know NextCloud or WebDAV will sent this data in non encrypted way, and if you are provider, you will be able to read that even through HTTPS because now days hardware of provider there will be no problem to "man-in-the-middle" HTTPS channel and boom, especially with very popular services like NextCloud will be no problem to find any data that you has sent.
So if you are want to use NextCloud or whatever feel free.
It's nothing in terms of security and privacy comparingly with xBrowserSync.

This place is about xBrowserSync and not about Floccus, NextCloud or what ever
. So please, don't mess with peoples minds and leave that place if you love other projects.

[Hr46ph]

To people ending up here like myself: https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus

I'm not sure that there are privacy here. XBrowserSync is aboiut privacy. And NextCloud, WebDav and etc are not. No encryption.

haproxy, tls with lets encrypt. webdav backend doesn't matter when internal behind a reverse proxy when its self-hosted. Personally I use encryption at rest for the webdav storage.

Anyone opening services to the public not behind a reverse proxy needs a slap on the hand ;).

I see you talk about security and privacy in other posts as well, think about it this way. If a project is unmaintained, privacy and security are your first reasons to look elsewhere. You defend this place but its unmaintained. Pointing people to well-maintained alternatives is a good thing. You can keep your head in the sand, doesn't mean others need to.

[olavinto]

NextCloud can be encrypted as far as I know.

I don't think that xbrowsersync encryption approach can be comparable with mostly any service offered around the world. Your bookmarks sent from XBS will be encrypted with your password or whatever and if you will lose it, you will lose ability to decrypt your bookmarks. And they will be sent through channel between browser and the server in encrypted state. As far as I know NextCloud or WebDAV will sent this data in non encrypted way, and if you are provider, you will be able to read that even through HTTPS because now days hardware of provider there will be no problem to "man-in-the-middle" HTTPS channel and boom, especially with very popular services like NextCloud will be no problem to find any data that you has sent.
So if you are want to use NextCloud or whatever feel free.
It's nothing in terms of security and privacy comparingly with xBrowserSync

As far as I know xBrowserSync does the encryption on the client side and the server only stores encrypted data so it can't be read without your sync ID whichis basically the encryption key. It is end to end encrypted, which is pretty common these days in many cloud services.

[ivy-reps]

To people ending up here like myself: https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus

I'm not sure that there are privacy here. XBrowserSync is aboiut privacy. And NextCloud, WebDav and etc are not. No encryption.

haproxy, tls with lets encrypt. webdav backend doesn't matter when internal behind a reverse proxy when its self-hosted. Personally I use encryption at rest for the webdav storage.

Anyone opening services to the public not behind a reverse proxy needs a slap on the hand ;).

I see you talk about security and privacy in other posts as well, think about it this way. If a project is unmaintained, privacy and security are your first reasons to look elsewhere. You defend this place but its unmaintained. Pointing people to well-maintained alternatives is a good thing. You can keep your head in the sand, doesn't mean others need to.

I was in a rough state of mind, sadly. Please take my apologies, for previous posts. And please take my apologies for next one messages.

I see you and I see you are trying to make me get your idea rightly. I'm very thankful for sharing project. But please, you or anyone, please, when you are writing about any other XBS like tool, in XBS thread repository, please, write what's the key difference between XBS and others projects that you have decided to advertise. Better probably will be if you will ask author about that. Key difference is - it's haves nothing with XBS because XBS bookmarks encrypted from client and it will be encrypted with or without HTTPS layer and on other project there is no encryption from client side.

Please keep in mind that:

1. https://www.xbrowsersync.org/ is working
2. https://api.xbrowsersync.org/ is working
3. @nero120, just have no time to develop, but project is not dead.
4. Just debug and contribute your fixes here or make a fork and fix it there, may be @nero120 will return and will use fixed or merge your changes.
5. Don't mix non encrypted similar projects which have nothing about encryption like on XBS, at all! That's not fair, and you don't respect authors idea!

[olavinto]

That is a pretty strict stand on things, and very limiting in terms of basic information sharing. I don't see any problem recommending alternatives in a thread like this, in a project that has been stagnant for a long time. If the project was even relatively actively developed and/or the links were posted as new issues/topics, then I would see a problem. Also, the xBrowserSync extension will most likely stop working with (at least) Chromium based browsers when Manifest V2 support is dropped (unless it gets an update for that). And that time is prety much now: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/mv2-deprecation-timeline. So either someone has to update the extension or we are forced to find alternatives and for my needs Floccus seems like a very viable option.

Excryption also comes in various forms and options and using end to end encryption is always a good thing. But xBrowserSync is not unique in that regard (at least not nearly as unique as it once was) and even some browsers use end to end encyption for their built in synchronizations these days. And just for the record, Nextcloud's later versions also support end to end encyption. Personally though, I couldn't care less if my bookmarks are encrypted or not (I have a few hundred, perhaps thousands) of them, accumulated over a couple of decades. I only care about being able to sync them accross various browsers while being able to manage and use them with each browser's native features (otherwise I would have switched to Raindrop or some other bookmarking service well over a decade ago, long before xBrowserSync even came about – I've certainly tested a multitude of these services over the years but I've always found myself missing each browser's bookmarks bar). And yes, I actively use several browsers, for various reasons. If xBrowserSync were to add synchronization support for additional data like history (like was planned), then it would have much more value (for me).

But I am fully aware of my needs and in my opinion posting a link in GitHub (which is basically an enthusiast level site) we can expect people to figure out if the linked option suits their needs or not. I, for one, am thankful for the post because I had never heard of Floccus before, and while I haven't really been looking for alternatives for a while either I am increasingly concerned of what I will use when MV2-support is dropped. I also happen to be "one of those" users who enjoys getting constant updates and I rarely stick with anything that sits still as long as xBrowserSync has done (speaks for the value of its unique approach and for the respect I have for it).

I would have also liked to have seen my Finnish translations published some day as I spent quite a while doing them but I guess those will forever only be seen in the betas. :(

[xkonglong]

I haven't seen the author for a long time.

[magicdawn]

To people ending up here like myself: floccusaddon/floccus

this is a good alternative, thanks.

[iagogv3]

Assuming xbrowsersync is more secure/private than floccus or other alternatives, based on @ivy-reps comment #425 (comment)

Ideally, xbrowsersync would be continued, updated to fix issues and gain compatibility with more browsers and in a future adapted to new (unfortunate) Manifest V3.

Ideally, if @nero120 can't continue with its development, maybe some privacy aware IT company (such as @tutao or @ProtonMail, for example) could take charge of xbrowsersync or develope something similar.

[rwjack]

hey @swarnat, any plans on upgrading the node version to latest on your fork? 20.9.0 has critical vulnerabilities, albeit less than 14 that's in the current "official" release, but still.

I don't get the whole point of disabling issue reporting, but whatever floats your boat.

[swarnat]

Thanks for reminder.
I just pushed an update to node.js 22 including major library dependency updates. It is just building.
I think later today I can create the release for updates.

Btw: I used claude.ai to migrate from node-sass to dart sass, whtz can be a pain to do manually. I will try if this can also help us to migrate/update the browser extension. (Because chrome already complain and I'm lost to migrate the angular code to service workers)

[wuyilingwei]

One suggestion is to use https://github.com/apps/coderabbitai or similar AI code review, so that you can at least manage pull requests without so much trouble.

[2Kaleb]

I moved away from xbrowsersync.
I would like to delete my data on the https://api.xbrowsersync.org server.
I guess there is no such possibility?

[b0s-at-works]

@nero120, can you tell why did you stopped to make it? Just because you have no time for that?

Guys, I really don't understand you. If you want that to be fixed, why you can't take it and implement that the way it should be done?
If I understand it rightly, you can create list of tasks or issues to be implemented like it can be done on GitLab for example. Then may be random people will looking at issues and just will fix it or implement it.

Everyone wants to have it done, but no body doing something to support it.

Sadly I'm not JavaScript guy, and no nothing about JavaScript in a sense of browser context. Also I'm not familiar in how it all work in NodeJS, in packaging, compiling. It's just drives me crazy. When we are speaking about PHP or Golang - i'm "pretty not bad", or a bit better then bad, but in js I just don't give a damn.

You can also create discussions, if it's enabled on that project, to discuss with peoples some security concern if you don't know how these procedures have to be (re)implemented securely.

Just offer to do something. To make it right. Take your part. I'm pretty sure that some guys here are JS stuff guys, so you ca review code and to say what can be changed.

Also, do you really think that there are such a bunch of code written to implement that?
It's just a panel with buttons, you are not implementing panel itself. You are implementing client that supposed to exchange with bookmarks with server. That's it. Then also it have to be synced. I mean, it's not a lot of code should be there to send bookmarks. For me syncing logic the most hard logic. May be I'm telling mad stuff, but why we are have to remove bookmarks from DB for example if it's not on panel any more? We can mark them as deleted, and hide. I mean we don't need to sync existent bookmark for example.

Also there was some problem with syncing, which hangs for some reason. I just don't get how to debug that rightly.

Just off top
For example if you will take syncing between SSD and HDD when you want SSD data always be backuped to HDD, but HDD much slower and you have browse opened which recording to it's dbs something every second pulsing database or web site triggers that? How to store date with guaranty when HDD will always late to store actual data.

So may be something like that can be here when you syncing bookmarks from client and you also need it to have actual everywhere, it can be logically hard to implement, but if few peoples will sit and really sync about that, may be you guys find a way to make it right.

Also, @nero120, may be if you have no time to make it, may be you can set a list of tasks to give it to people, and piece by piece they will implement it?
If you here yet of course.

I really love that extension, and I think this is very important to make it, but anyone who making it should be interested and really love what he has doing.

[emjayess]

I "know javascript" (~20 years) and I did recently clone this project and review some of the code. I worked through most of the manifest v3 issues, but there's more to it than just that; there is the matter of migrating/refactoring in the direction of a service worker, and some other aspects of the extension codebase.

This project also leans heavily on Angular, and sports an architectural style that supports building mobile apps in addition to the browser extension from a single codebase... much to its credit, I might add. It is always impressive to pull that off successfully.

But personally, I wouldn't be interested in maintaining all that. I'm not crazy about Angular, and I have no particular desire or need of an android app for my bookmarks. If a fork or replacement were to emerge from this, I'd first stab at the basic browser extension and synching, and forget the mobile app (maybe someone else could maintain that separately, given a documented synching service api). I'd also propose authoring it in vanilla javascript unless or until it proved to be too cumbersome to do so. Then, there may also be an opportunity to reimagine for sustainability of backend storage, and, for example, offering users the option of owning their own data using a cloud storage device (or homelab closet server) of their own choosing. Or maybe even a "web3" decentralized manner of storage. Or maybe just their own private git repository.