Migration from older versions

FTP login details

Prior to version 3.6 users could specify their server login details in the Options. This feature was removed from 3.6 in preference to the standard system built into Firefox to allow more users to use SyncPlaces and to provide greater security. From 4.0.0 this feature has been restored for FTP users as it caused many users issues.

When upgrading from 3.6, for FTP users only, any hostname specified in the format user:password@host will be split up and converted into separate userid/password/host items and the appropriate options populated.

Compression and Encryption of JSON

In the past it was possible to have both 'Encrypt JSON' and 'Compress JSON' options turned on at the same time. This made no sense because the resulting file would be larger than if there was no compression. If you don't use both together then you can skip the rest of this section.

From v4.0.0 these options are now mutually exclusive. However, to aid migration if both were set in the previous version they will continue to be set until the 'Encrypt JSON' checkbox is explicitly selected.

Default encryption

Prior to 4.0.0 the default encryption method selected was AES. The default is now TEA which runs faster and is secure enough for most users needs.

Existing users already using AES encryption for their bookmarks/passwords must remember to select AES when configuring new browsers. Alternatively, you may wish to change over to using TEA, in which case remember that you must send (ensure 'Send safely' is off) your passwords/bookmarks using TEA first before receiving them on other browsers.

Passwords used for encryption

In previous versions separate passwords for encryption were used for the 'Encrypt JSON' option and for encrypting your Firefox passwords. This was overkill because there is no need to protect these two resources differently. If you don't encrypt both resources then you can skip the rest of this section.

From 4.0.0, only one encryption password is now required to encrypt JSON and your Firefox passwords. Migration to a single password is automatic: The password that you used to encrypt your Firefox passwords is selected if it exists, otherwise the password used to encrypt JSON is used.

This means that if you used two different passwords then your encrypt JSON password will have been discarded and you will have to send your Bookmarks to the server first using the new encryption password (the password that you used to encrypt your Firefox passwords), before you can receive them.