{"id":605,"date":"2015-07-31T07:39:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T07:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/?p=605"},"modified":"2015-11-06T06:08:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T06:08:28","slug":"shutting-down-the-legacy-sync-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/2015\/07\/31\/shutting-down-the-legacy-sync-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutting down the legacy Sync service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In response to strong user uptake of Mozilla\u2019s new Sync service powered by Firefox Accounts, earlier this year we announced a plan to <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/2015\/02\/03\/legacy-sync-migration\/\">transition users off of our legacy Sync infrastructure<\/a> and onto the new product. \u00a0With this migration now well under way, it is time to settle the details of a graceful end-of-life for the old service.<\/p>\n<p><b>We will shut down the legacy Sync service on September 30th 2015.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We encourage all users of the old service to upgrade to a Firefox Account, which offers a simplified setup process, improved availability and reliability, and the possibility of recovering your data even if you lose all of your devices.<\/p>\n<p>Users on Firefox 37 or later are currently being offered a guided migration process to make the experience as seamless as possible. \u00a0Users on older versions of Firefox will see a warning notice and will be able to<a href=\"https:\/\/support.mozilla.org\/kb\/how-to-update-to-the-new-firefox-sync\"> upgrade manually<\/a>. \u00a0Users running their own Sync server, or using a Sync service hosted by someone other than Mozilla, will not be affected by this change.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update: shutdown of the legacy Sync service has been completed.<\/strong> \u00a0 Users who are\u00a0yet to migrate off the service will be offered the guided upgrade experience until Firefox 44. \u00a0Firefox 44 and later will automatically and silently disconnect from legacy Sync.<\/p>\n<p>We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for Firefox users. \u00a0If you have any questions, comments or concerns, don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to us on <i>sync-dev@mozilla.org<\/i> or in #sync on Mozilla IRC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>FAQ<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What will happen on September 30th 2015?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After September 30th, we will decommission the hardware hosting the legacy Sync service and discard all data stored therein. \u00a0The corresponding DNS names will be redirected to static error pages, to ensure that appropriate messaging is provided for users who have yet to upgrade to the new service.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><b>What\u2019s the hurry? Can\u2019t you just leave it running in maintenance mode?<\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unfortunately not. \u00a0While we want to ensure as little disruption as possible for our users, the legacy Sync service is hosted on aging hardware in a physical data-center and incurs significant operational costs. \u00a0Maintaining the service beyond September 30th would be prohibitively expensive for Mozilla.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What about Extended Support Release (ESR)?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Users on the ESR channel have support for Firefox Accounts and the new Sync service as of Firefox 38. \u00a0Previous ESR versions reach end-of-life in early August and we encourage all users to upgrade to the latest version.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Will my data be automatically migrated to the new servers?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No, the strong encryption used by both Sync systems means that we cannot automatically migrate your data on the server. \u00a0Once you complete your account upgrade, Firefox will re-upload your data to the new system (so if you have a lot of bookmarks, you may want to ensure you\u2019re on a reliable network connection).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Are there security considerations when upgrading to the new system?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both the new and old Sync systems provide industry-leading security for your data: client-side end-to-end encryption of all synced data, using a key known only to you.<\/p>\n<p>In legacy Sync this was achieved by using a complicated pairing flow to transfer the encryption key between devices. \u00a0With Firefox Accounts we have replaced this with a key<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/2014\/04\/30\/firefox-syncs-new-security-model\/\"> securely derived from your account password<\/a>. \u00a0Pick a strong password and you can remain confident that your synced data will only be seen by you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><b>Does Mozilla use my synced data to market to me, or sell this data to third parties?<\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No. \u00a0Our handling of your data is governed by Mozilla\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/accounts.firefox.com\/legal\/privacy\">privacy policy<\/a> which does not allow such use. \u00a0In addition, the strong encryption provided by Sync means that we cannot use your synced data for such purposes, even if we wanted to.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Is the new Sync system compatible with Firefox\u2019s master password feature?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes. \u00a0There was a limitation in previous versions of Firefox that prevented Sync from working when a master password was enabled, but this has since been resolved. \u00a0Sync is fully compatible with the master password feature in the latest version of Firefox.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What if I am running a custom or self-hosted Sync server?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This transition affects only the default Mozilla-hosted servers. \u00a0If you are using a custom or self-hosted server setup, Sync should continue to work uninterrupted and you will not be prompted to upgrade.<\/p>\n<p>However, the legacy Sync protocol code inside Firefox is no longer maintained, and we plan to begin its removal in 2016. \u00a0You should consider migrating your server infrastructure to use the new protocols; see below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Can I self-host the new system?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes, either by hosting<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.services.mozilla.com\/howtos\/run-sync-1.5.html\"> just the storage servers<\/a> or by running a<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.services.mozilla.com\/howtos\/run-fxa.html\"> full Firefox Accounts stack<\/a>. \u00a0We welcome feedback and contributions on making this process easier.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What if I\u2019m using a different browser (e.g. SeaMonkey, Pale Moon, \u2026)?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your browser vendor may already provide alternate hosting. \u00a0If not, you should consider<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.services.mozilla.com\/howtos\/run-sync.html\"> hosting your own server<\/a> to ensure uninterrupted functionality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to strong user uptake of Mozilla\u2019s new Sync service powered by Firefox Accounts, earlier this year we announced a plan to transition users off of our legacy Sync infrastructure and onto the new product. \u00a0With this migration now &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/2015\/07\/31\/shutting-down-the-legacy-sync-service\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41992,42007],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}