How is Opera Link supposed to work!!?

Hello everyone, I've got a couple of questions about Opera Link.

Ever since it came into existence it was a bit unclear to me as to how Opera Link does synchronization if one is using multiple machines (after all, that's the purpose of the Link, right!), which machine is considered the "parent" machine.

Then I read that every time sync. is done the content is synced with the server. OK.

I use three Opera installations, one regular Opera which is my main browser, Opera Next, and Opera Mobile.

I want the last two to have the Speed Dial and bookmarks of the main, regular Opera. So I thought, if I delete all the bookmarks and the speed dial entries from Opera Next and Mobile, and then turn on Opera Link on those two, they will be synced with the server and will get set up the way I want them to be.

I did so, deleted all the bookmarks and speed dial entries from Next and Mobile (keeping Opera Link disabled on them). Then, I turn on the Link on my Opera Mobile and it finishes synchronizing. But nothing has changed. I thought maybe it's just a temporary bug in Opera Mobile so I close it.

Then, I start my Opera Next and turn on Opera link, it finishes syncing and there are no bookmarks and its old speed dial entries are back!

Prior to this, my Opera Link server account had only the data from my regular Opera, as I kept the Link on for a few weeks, and also manually checked the content of my account.

I go to my regular Opera and find out that all my bookmarks are gone and my speed dial has changed (it still has the same entries, but its size changed to the size of speed dial from Opera Next, which is smaller)! Sorry guys, I'm really pissed about this, although I may not show it.


So, my question to Opera developers is: how is Opera supposed to know which machine to consider the "main" machine?
I know that it's suppose to keep up with user's new bookmarks and other edits while on the go, by syncing the new content with the server, but it's clearly not working.

Imagine this situation: You come up to a public computer and you want to access your bookmarks and all other data. The existing installation of Opera already has some bookmarks and setup created by people before you. You log into your Opera Link account and it first uploads all other's content to your Opera Link server account and synces the computer with your data. You end up with your data mixed with the old data... When you wish to leave, the only option not to leave your data on a public computer is to delete everything, which also deletes other people's data!

I strongly think that Opera Link is one of the most useful recent innovations when it comes to browsers, but it's not well thought-out.

My advice is:

#1 There should be a way to tell Opera Link prior to syncing what to do, whether to sync computer data to the server, or just server data to the computer, or both.
#2 There should be an option to revert Opera to its previous setup when one has finished working on a public/shared computer.
#3 Even better than #1 and #2, I think the whole Opera setup should be linked with our accounts. It would work like this: the Opera browser has one (could be called Machine) account whose data is held locally, on the computer itself. When a user wishes to access his data, he would log-in and the Opera setup would be changed to match users' server (and his home machine) setup. When the user finishes using Opera, he would simply choose to revert to Machine Opera setup, and all his data would be permanently deleted!

I strongly hope that someone from Opera team will hear this and they will find a way to improve this feature which is so promising in its concept. Sorry guys, but it's just not going to work like this.

Moderator Note: Moved from My Opera: Feedback, questions and discussions

There is no 'main' machine, only a 'time' machine if you wish. Opera Link updates other version from wherever you make the last updates, just like how IMAP works for email. You delete something on one machine, and it will also be deleted on another.

I don't run Opera Next or mobile anymore. I only have Opera on desktop and laptop linked. I would not use Opera link the way you describe on a public computer. I don't think it is meant to do that, at least I'd never thought of it that way. It is for 'permanent linking'.

Opera mini was 'a pain' to me. It wouldn't run right on my Droid. But what I learned about the bookmarks is that the desktop/laptop version has a separate opera mini folder for links on the mini. For all that I know they require their own manual updates and don't sync automatically with bookmarks you add on your pc's.

I've always done the opposite - enabled sync and then removed the extra bookmarks.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I've always done the opposite - enabled sync and then removed the extra bookmarks.

That in itself, before or after, doesn't really matter, does it?

OK, even if it isn't meant to be used on a public computer, how would a user use it if he has several computers?

Suppose you buy a new computer and you install Opera. And now you want the newly installed Opera to have all your data. You enable Opera Link and it deletes everything from the server, as if it assumes that that's your new preferred setup (empty opera). Is it supposed to behave that way? Is it just a bug? If it is, then it's hell of a bug.

Originally posted by miloskondic:

Suppose you buy a new computer and you install Opera. And now you want the newly installed Opera to have all your data. You enable Opera Link and it deletes everything from the server, as if it assumes that that's your new preferred setup (empty opera). Is it supposed to behave that way?

No, it's not supposed to work that way. But this is quite different from your original scenario.

For that original case, it is best to use a clean profile/new installation of Opera. Otherwise you wil indeed mix up the original bookmarks etc with those synced by Opera Link. If you've got your own data synced into someone elses (public) Opera installation, you should:
1. disable Opera Link syncing on that machine
2. go into opera:config and remove the settings in the 'Opera Account' and 'Opera Sync' sections (click 'default' for each item there, then 'Save' beneath each section)
3. and then you can delete your own bookmarks from that installation

If you skip step 2, and later you (or someone else!) enables Opera Link again on that machine, the actions in step 3 will be synced...

This is quite a lot of work, if you just want one-off access to your bookmarks on some else's machine, it is easier to use the web access via https://link.opera.com

For your second question, using it on a brand new computer: in that case there are no prior deletions to sync, so what will happen is that the current (default) bookmarks and searches and speed dials will get uploaded and the bookmarks etc in the server get downloaded: you get both. If you don't care for some of the default stuff to show up in all your synced Opera installations, you can delete those before first enabling Opera Link.

Originally posted by Rijk:

Originally posted by miloskondic:

Suppose you buy a new computer and you install Opera. And now you want the newly installed Opera to have all your data. You enable Opera Link and it deletes everything from the server, as if it assumes that that's your new preferred setup (empty opera). Is it supposed to behave that way?

No, it's not supposed to work that way. But this is quite different from your original scenario.

For that original case, it is best to use a clean profile/new installation of Opera. Otherwise you wil indeed mix up the original bookmarks etc with those synced by Opera Link. If you've got your own data synced into someone elses (public) Opera installation, you should:
1. disable Opera Link syncing on that machine
2. go into opera:config and remove the settings in the 'Opera Account' and 'Opera Sync' sections (click 'default' for each item there, then 'Save' beneath each section)
3. and then you can delete your own bookmarks from that installation

If you skip step 2, and later you (or someone else!) enables Opera Link again on that machine, the actions in step 3 will be synced...

This is quite a lot of work, if you just want one-off access to your bookmarks on some else's machine, it is easier to use the web access via https://link.opera.com

For your second question, using it on a brand new computer: in that case there are no prior deletions to sync, so what will happen is that the current (default) bookmarks and searches and speed dials will get uploaded and the bookmarks etc in the server get downloaded: you get both. If you don't care for some of the default stuff to show up in all your synced Opera installations, you can delete those before first enabling Opera Link.

Ok, thank you very much Rijk for clearing up how it actually works.

So, the mistake I made when I deleted everything from my existing Next installation and tried to sync it with my regular Opera is that I skipped the step no. 2 from your post? And that's why it synced those deletions with the server?

Well, I really didn't know that I need to clear the Opera Account and Opera Sync settings from :config.

Rijk, Thank you very much! I didn't know about deleting those things in the opera:config page, I've been having problems understanding how Opera Link worked and synchronizing my information.

Glad this helps... For improving your 'mental model' of the way Opera Link works:

- sync is always on and multi-directional
- when you disable it you are pausing the syncing from that Opera instance
- when you enable it again, it will continue the syncing from the point where you paused

How to delete all saved Bookmarks from Opera Link ?