Syncing tabs removes bookmarks with same name in different folders

Describe the bug

I have 3 different sync “Accounts” setup: Tabs, Bookmarks Toolbar, Bookmarks Menu which sync to different folders on nextcloud bookmarks (using same account/password). What happens is when Tabs are trying to sync (and fail due to https://github.com/floccusaddon/floccus/issues/883) it also removes bookmarks with same URL from my Bookmarks Toolbar (and possibly Bookmarks Menu, have to do detailed comparison with backup).

Final effect is that any tabs I have open (or maybe only those I have open in multiple tabs?) are silently removed from all my bookmarks, which is bad.

When I disable syncing Tabs, problem disappears.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Click New account, set nextcloud sync with Local Folder=/Bookmarks Menu/, Server Folder=/book_main
2. Click New account, set nextcloud sync with Local Folder=/Bookmarks Toolbar/, Server Folder=/book_toolbar
3. Click New account, set nextcloud sync with Sync Tabs, Server Folder=/tabs_leia
4. Have many tabs open, some of which are from Bookmarks Toolbar
5. See Tabs sync fail
6. Note that your Bookrmarks Toolbar are now missing bookmarks which you had open in tabs

Expected behavior

I would expect that failure or success to sync of one New account does not affect other accounts. Especially, syncing Tabs should never alter state of “real” bookmarks!

Screenshots

Desktop

(please complete the following information)

• OS: Debian Buster GNU/Linux
• Browser:Firefox
• Browser Version:78.10.0esr (64-bit)
• Floccus version: 4.6.4
• Floccus sync method: Nextcloud bookmarks

Server

(please complete the following information)

• OS: Debian Buster GNU/Linux
• Nextcloud version: 20.0.9
• Bookmarks app version: 4.1.0

Debug log

It is often useful to provide a debug log file along with the issue. You can obtain a debug log of the most recent sync runs by clicking ‘Debug log’ in the bottom right corner of the floccus panel in your browser.

Note: As your debug log usually contains large parts of your bookmark data, instead of attaching it publicly to the issue here, I recommend uploading it privately at the following URL https://cloud.marcelklehr.de/s/PCi3iLWrzdMZSmw

• Debug log provided

Additional context

There is only this firefox syncing to that Nextcloud account, nothing other changes the bookmarks on Nextcloud instance (neither another floccus, nor manually via web interface - eg. it is used basically only as a backup for the time being).

[mnalis]

Ok, I’ve managed to reproduce it with verbose timeline from start to end. Probably too verbose, but hopefully it will also include interesting information.

(2021-07-16, times are TZ=CEST):

• 19:07 I’ve re-added bookmark, restarted firefox, and verified bookmark is still there. One copy of bookmark is open as tab.
• 19:09 I’ve enabled sync tabs in floccus
• 19:10 display says tabs: Synchronization in progress. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 1 hour ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 10 minutes ago
• 19:12 sync tabs has failed and restarted, bookmark is still there.
• 19:17 bookmark is still there, I open it in one more tab.
• 19:23 bookmark is still there. sync tabs fails and restarts all the time by itself…
• 19:25 I’ve noticed that some time before duplicate tab has disappeared, but bookmarks is still there (so 1 bookmark + 1 tab are active)
• 19:27 display says tabs: Synchronization in progress. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 2 hours ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 28 minutes ago
• 19:28 bookmark is still here. I click Sync now on Bookmarks toolbar
• 19:29 display says tabs: Synchronization in progress. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 32 seconds ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 30 minutes ago bookmark is still here
• 19:31 I save debug logs
• 19:33 I login to my nextcloud instance web interface (which I don’t usually do) and notice that this bookmark is missing from that Bookmarks toolbar subfolder (there are 12 instead of 13 entries in that subfolder)
• 19:35 bookmark is still there, I open it in one more tab. few seconds later, duplicate tab disappears, but is still in bookmarks.
• 19:36 I save debug logs
• 19:37 display says tabs: Synchronization in progress. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 9 minutes ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 38 minutes ago bookmark is still here in firefox.
• 19:39 I backup bookmarks. Bookmarks is still there in firefox. I close firefox.
• 20:40 start firefox display says tabs: E027: Sync process was interrupted. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 1 hour ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 17 minutes ago
• 20:41 bookmark is still in firefox
• 20:46 bookmark is still in firefox
• 20:55 open second copy of the tab, backup bookmarks
• 20:57 duplicate tab is gone, bookmark is still here
• 22:45 bookmark is still in firefox, backup bookmarks
• 23:23 bookmark is still in firefox, closing firefox

(2021-07-17, times are TZ=CEST)

• 00:18 start firefox
• 00:24 I notice bookmark is gone from toolbar!
• 00:25 display says tabs: Synchronization in progress. , bookmarks toolbar: Last synchronized: 6 minutes ago , bookmarks menu: Last synchronized: 6 minutes ago
• 00:26 I save debug logs (this is floccus-4.6.4-2021-07-17_0026_anon.log)
• 00:27 I backup boomarks and stop syncing tabs
• 01:33 I re-add the bookmark

attached in the cloud are floccus-4.6.4-2021-07-16_2042_anon.log (last log before closing firefox) and floccus-4.6.4-2021-07-17_0026_anon.log (really last log - when bookmark is gone). Problematic URL is the same as before https://XXX.XX.XXX.XXX:XXXXX/. I’ve noted in timeline above when I made bookmarks backups, so let me know if some value from some of them (dateAdded / lastModified / guid / id etc.) is useful for further debug.

[marcelklehr]

Thank you for the detailed write up!

I’ve finally been able to reproduce this and it’s indeed a bug in the create method of the nextcloud adapter. If there’s already a bookmark with the same URL in a branch of the server tree outside of the current server prefix, that bookmark will be moved to the location of the newly created bookmark, instead of copying it.