Android Browser Not Showing all Bookmarks from Chrome

[DLCPhototography]

I posted this on Google's support forum as well, but since I never seem to get any response there, thought I'd try here as well:

Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Stock ROM 4.0.2
Stock Android Browser

I just found that the Stock Android Browser no longer shows all of my Chrome Bookmarks. It could be a coincidence, but this was first noticed the same day that I switched over to "Google Play" from the Android Market.

I have a fair number of Bookmarks and Folders. All of the Folder seem to be showing up, but only 2 of the 30 or so of those on the "Bookmarks Bar" for quick access.

When I check Settings...Accounts & Sync... I find the following:

Gmail - "sync error" with a red icon

At the bottom of this page it says:

"Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly."

Despite this message sync for Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Skype, Dropbox are all actually working fine.

It's only the Bookmarks Sync, and specifically those on the Bookmarks Bar, that seems to be broken.

Is anyone else having this problem, or know what could be causing it? I'm inclined to think it's a Google glitch which will eventually be resolved, rather than something on my particular phone, but who knows...

Thanks.

 

[zero neck]

Have you tried the chrome mobile browser?
It shows all chrome-connected to your gmail-bookmarks, and all mobile bookmarks as well. plus web pages you have left open on the cpu sync to chrome browser

 

[DLCPhototography]

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't tried this yet. But I have seen posts from a few people having the same problem that I have, who report the same issue with that browser as well.

To update my original post:

Without doing anything on my end, yesterday afternoon when I checked the 'Accounts & Sync' in Settings, Google was now showing normally, with the "Sync Error" gone. Also the "Sync is experiencing problems..." error message was gone as well.

When I clicked on the Google Sync Icon, I could see the multitude of different elements that it Syncs. All of them were showing as up-to-date in terms of the last sync being quite current, but the "Browser Sync" had a Grey Refresh Icon next to it. The Checkbox was checked. The last Sync was 3/5/2012.

So I unclicked it, and re-enabled it, forcing it to Refresh, but after 20 seconds or so of the Icon 'spinning' it didn't complete, and the date remained at 3/5/2012.

So it seems that it's something on Google's end here. The Sync error message disappeared on its own. I'm hoping that will also happen with the Browser Sync.

And I'm guessing that not everybody sees or has this problem because of some individual circumstances - the number of Bookmarks or Folders, when the last Bookmark was entered, some character in a given Bookmark, etc.

I started a thread at the so-called Google Support Forum, but as usual, nobody from Google has chimed in.

 

[DLCPhototography]

Further Update:

I disabled Browser Sync on my Phone.

Next I went to Google Dashboard, and chose the option to Stop Sync and Delete All Data for the Chrome entry there. I allowed it to complete.

I went back to Chrome, had to re log-in and re-enabled Chrome Sync.

Went back to my Phone, re-enabled Browser Sync, but it still didn't complete, and the Grey Refresh Bar remains.

I went to chrome://sync-internals and verified that Chrome Sync is "READY" and can see it sync whenever I make a change, add or delete, a Bookmark.

On that page, there is a section as follows:

Actionable Error

Error Type SYNC_SUCCESS
Action UNKNOWN_Action
url
Error Description

I'm not sure what this section means, if it is acknowledging some type of error occurring or what. Anybody have any idea on the original problem, or the specific meaning of the "Actionable Error" section above?

 

[zero neck]

Further Update:

I disabled Browser Sync on my Phone.

Next I went to Google Dashboard, and chose the option to Stop Sync and Delete All Data for the Chrome entry there. I allowed it to complete.

I went back to Chrome, had to re log-in and re-enabled Chrome Sync.

Went back to my Phone, re-enabled Browser Sync, but it still didn't complete, and the Grey Refresh Bar remains.

I went to chrome://sync-internals and verified that Chrome Sync is "READY" and can see it sync whenever I make a change, add or delete, a Bookmark.

On that page, there is a section as follows:

Actionable Error

Error Type SYNC_SUCCESS
Action UNKNOWN_Action
url
Error Description

I'm not sure what this section means, if it is acknowledging some type of error occurring or what. Anybody have any idea on the original problem, or the specific meaning of the "Actionable Error" section above?

I've never seen anything like that. Did you go into settings - applications - and clear data for the browser/chrom browser?

I'm hesitant to suggest a factory reset - put the phone back to out of the box settings - but it might be a way to solve your problem ...

But you would lose everything, so it may not be an ideal experiement.

 

[DLCPhototography]

Thanks for the reply.

Thus far, I have not done the "Clear Data" for the browser - that would require re-entering a ton of information (usernames, passwords and such), and I'm not yet convinced that this is where the problem is.

Yet another update:

My GNexus is now showing all of the prior Bookmarks, including all those on the Bookmarks Bar. This is great.

But - when I check "Accounts & Sync" the Browser Sync entry in Google still shows the Grey Refresh Icon, and the date of 3/5/2012. I made some bookmark changes on my Desktop, and on my Phone, and those are not being synced between the two, so Sync is still not fully restored.

I think I'll wait it out for now, unless there are some other relatively painless things to try. I really think that the transition from Market to Google Play has messed up some Sync functions, on at least some phones.

As I have reported here, the anomalous behavior I found a day or two ago seems to be slowly fixing itself, without any direct intervention on my part.

Just out of curiosity - what do you see on your Chrome Browser Desktop when you go to:

Chrome://sync-internals

What is shown under the "Actionable Error" section on the Right?

 

[hawkeye62]

I have had the very same problem. First with Honeycomb and now with ICS. On both occasions, the bookmark sync worked, but after a while it stopped working. Just a very few bookmarks would show up on my TF101, not enough to be useful. Everything else would sync. The little wheel turns during sync and when sync is complete the little wheel goes away, but with Bookmarks, the little wheel stops turning and remains visible.

This went on for months on Honeycomb, it was never resolved. When I upgraded to ICS, sync worked again, problem solved? Nope, after a few weeks, I have the same situation with ICS.

Two solutions: One is to use Chrome for Android beta. It syncs perfectly so far. (About 24 hours.) Second is to use Chrome Marks which is just a bookmark manager, but when you select a bookmark, it opens your default browser to the bookmark. This continued to work for a few months until I upgraded to ICS.

I would be glad for any help on this problem. Chrome Marks is an awkward solution and I really like the features of the stock Android browser better than Chrome Android beta.

Thanks, Jim

 

[DLCPhototography]

Sorry you're having trouble, Jim, but it is useful to know I'm not the only one.

I am continually amazed how Google ignores its users, especially when they screw things up, and features aren't working on their OS and software.

If you want, you can add your experience to this Google Support thread I started on this subject:

Bookmarks Bar Not Syncing Properly - Google Mobile Help

Regarding Chrome for Android beta, I have read posts from others whose Bookmarks are not syncing properly there either, so I don't think I'm going to mess with that.

 

[jakeh0]

i am having a similar issue. all my bookmarks transfer except ones that are in folders. the folder names sync but are empty

 

[DLCPhototography]

Interesting - I had seen my Folders present, but didn't think to check inside them. I have found that for some folders, and even subfolders, the links are present, but for others, they are empty.

My Browser Sync continues to fail, with the last successful Sync being that same 3/5/2012.

Quite frustrating...

 

[DLCPhototography]

Still no joy. Acting on some suggestions found above and in other forums:

I unchecked "Browser Sync" on my phone.
On my phone, I went to Settings...Apps...All...Browser and Cleared both Data and Cache.
Tried again to Sync, and it failed.
Re-opening the Browser: *none* of my Bookmarks were there! Not one!

I then repeated the same 2 steps, disabling Browser Sync and Clearing Data and Cache
I turned the phone off.

On my Desktop, I went to Google Dashboard, and turned off Chrome Sync completely, deleting the data on the server, and verified that it had completed.
I re-signed in to Chrome, and enabled Sync - all items, Encryption only for passwords (as it was before).

I restarted my phone, re-enabled Browser Sync but it failed once again.
I went to the Browser and all my original limited-set pre 3/5/2012 Bookmarks were back.
Retrying Browser Sync was again unsuccessful.

Because I had deleted all the data on the phone's browser, I had to reconfigure settings, re-enter user names and passwords, etc. - what a pain!

So I'm back where I was to start with - some of my Bookmarks are present but not all. The Folders show up, but I've discovered that some are empty, some have all the Bookmarks, some have only a selection.

So, the bottom line is that "Browser Sync" stopped working 3/5/2012 and hasn't come back. It seems that the Cache of Bookmarks for my phone is corrupted on Google's servers - how else could I recover that limited set of bookmarks after deleting and disconnecting, and which is different from the set of bookmarks currently on Chrome?

And still not a single response from Google Support...

 

[hawkeye62]

Still no joy. Acting on some suggestions found above and in other forums:

I unchecked "Browser Sync" on my phone.
On my phone, I went to Settings...Apps...All...Browser and Cleared both Data and Cache.
Tried again to Sync, and it failed.
Re-opening the Browser: *none* of my Bookmarks were there! Not one!

I then repeated the same 2 steps, disabling Browser Sync and Clearing Data and Cache
I turned the phone off.

On my Desktop, I went to Google Dashboard, and turned off Chrome Sync completely, deleting the data on the server, and verified that it had completed.
I re-signed in to Chrome, and enabled Sync - all items, Encryption only for passwords (as it was before).

I restarted my phone, re-enabled Browser Sync but it failed once again.
I went to the Browser and all my original limited-set pre 3/5/2012 Bookmarks were back.
Retrying Browser Sync was again unsuccessful.

Because I had deleted all the data on the phone's browser, I had to reconfigure settings, re-enter user names and passwords, etc. - what a pain!

So I'm back where I was to start with - some of my Bookmarks are present but not all. The Folders show up, but I've discovered that some are empty, some have all the Bookmarks, some have only a selection.

So, the bottom line is that "Browser Sync" stopped working 3/5/2012 and hasn't come back. It seems that the Cache of Bookmarks for my phone is corrupted on Google's servers - how else could I recover that limited set of bookmarks after deleting and disconnecting, and which is different from the set of bookmarks currently on Chrome?

And still not a single response from Google Support...

Yes, I had seen that sequence of events touted as a cure. And yes, I have all of my folders show up but only one folder actually has any bookmarks. And all of the stand alone bookmarks in the base list show up.

The problem appears to be only with Android devices. I have two Windows 7 PCs, a Windows 8 PC and a Windows XP PC all sync perfectly.

Regards, Jim

 

[hawkeye62]

Just a quick addition. All of my PCs are using Chrome as the browser. My TF101 Android has the stock browser and Chrome beta. Chrome beta continues to sync properly, the stock browser fails to sync.

Jim

 

[jakeh0]

DLCPhotography, i went through the exact process you went through with the same results

 

[Nic Ole]

After many tears I bring you the solution that worked for me. I use a note 2. I force stopped chrome to see if that would help. It disappeared off the list of programs. I couldn't find any evidence of it on my phone except when going to download it again it said it was installed. What I did was I re-installed chrome and logged in. Suddenly, the bookmarks holding a year of researched links was there. halalujah chorus. lesson: back up bookmarks somehow other then chrome.

directions
1. Force stop and deativate chrome.
2. go to google play and re-install the already installed chrome (must be after force stopping and deactivating the program).
3. Sign into chrome and hopefully your bookmarks will be there.
4. Let us know if this worked for you.

(Help you? Support the spread of free online help. Know an answer, take the time to share. cheers).