Philipp von Weitershausen: How to file a good Sync bug

We always appreciate it when users let us know about problems they’re experiencing with Sync because it means we can improve it! Here are some guidelines on how to file a good Sync bug:

1. Get the Sync log on the machine you’re having problems (these steps assume you’re running the latest version of Firefox; if you’re not, please upgrade):
   1. Go to about:sync-log in Firefox.
   2. Find the last log file entry in the list and click on it. It should be called something like 1307991874508.log or error-1307991874508.log.
   3. Save it to a file on disk so you can upload to the bug later.
   4. If the list in step 2 is empty or only contains outdated logs (you can tell by the dates), go to about:config, find the services.sync.log.appender.file.logOnSuccess preference, set it to true, and sync again. Then repeat these steps.
2. File a bug
   1. Even if you’ve found an existing bug that may look like the one you’re experiencing, do not add your comments to it. Please always file a new bug, we will dupe it appropriately once we’ve determined the root issue. If you want, you can clone the existing bug or make a cross-reference to it in the summary.
   2. Attach the log file you saved earlier to the bug by uploading an attachment. Do not copy & paste the text into the comment field, it won’t hould enough text!

We’re hoping to automate much of this in upcoming versions of Firefox, so that a Sync problem can automatically be reported to us, or at least with just a few clicks.