Product Features: Sync Profiles
From Foxmarks Wiki
Sync Profiles makes it easy to keep some bookmarks from syncing to all your computers. If you use different Toolbars at work and at home, or if you have some private bookmarks that you don't want to sync to your work machine, Sync Profiles is your solution.
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Setting up Sync Profiles
- Go to http://my.xmarks.com and log in to see all your bookmarks.
- Click on 'Sync Profiles' in the tool bar.
- You should see a Profiles Manager pane. Select one of the pre-defined Profile names, or create a new one.
- On the right hand pane, you will see a list of bookmarks and folders with checkboxes. By default, all bookmarks will sync to all locations. To exclude particular bookmarks or folders from this profile, uncheck the box next to that bookmark or folder.
- Click the "Save and Close" button.
- Open your Xmarks Settings dialog (located in Tools > Xmarks > Settings...). Select the Profiles tab.
- Click the Change button. You will be prompted for your Xmarks account password. (This is to make sure your mom/kid/boss doesn't decide to check out all your Profiles while you're not around.) After you've entered your password, you'll be able to select the profile name you want to use from a drop-down menu. Select "OK" when you are finished.
- You should see your selected profile name displayed in the Profiles tab. Xmarks will automatically sync with the server so that your local bookmarks reflect the selections you made for your chosen profile.
Questions you may have about Sync Profiles
Which bookmarks and folders can I select for a particular profile?
The right pane of your Profile Manager has a drop down control that allows you to display one of three lists:
- Bookmarks. This list contains all your top-level bookmarks and folders. You can only exclude or include items at the top level of your bookmarks.
- Bookmarks Toolbar. This list contains all of the bookmarks and folders at the top level of your Toolbar folder. By excluding items in this list, you can customize what you see on your toolbar for each profile you define.
- Passwords. If you sync your passwords with Xmarks, you can exclude certain passwords from your sync profile. Note that the list will not actually display your passwords, only the password entries (e.g. "www.google.com").
Why can't I select subfolders?
Although it isn't immediately obvious, we're just trying to keep you out of trouble.
Imagine for a moment that we allowed you to exclude or include folders at any level of your bookmark hierarchy. Then imagine that you have a folder A, and A has a subfolder B. You decide that you want A to be in profile 1, but B to be in profile 2. Now imagine that one day, in a fit of pique, you delete folder A. Now when profile 2 goes to sync with the server, B no longer has a parent folder. Yikes!
You can probably imagine how we could fix up holes for you in your bookmark hierarchy, but the above example is just one of many troublesome situations, and frankly the solution isn't always obvious, and is nearly always very complicated.
We hope that you can get all the functionality you need by creating top level folders and using those to store all your profile-specific bookmarks.
Can I set up profiles for my passwords too?
Yes! You'll need to enter your password sync PIN to see your list of password entries (although we never decrypt or display the passwords themselves). You can then de-select password entries to exclude from your sync profile.
What is that mobile.foxmarks.com profile, and why can't I delete it?
When you visit http://mobile.xmarks.com, it will automatically use this profile. So if you access MyXmarks from your phone, you can use this profile to restrict your view to just those bookmarks that you want to see while you're on the go.
Can more than one machine use the same sync profile?
Absolutely! Feel free to use the same profile on all your home computers, for example.
