Syncing Chrome across devices

Google Chrome used to synchronise really well for me. Providing I was logged into my account, synchronisation simply happened in the background, and I never had to worry about it. At some point recently, the synchronising stopped, and three of my four devices appear to have stopped syncing at different times. Those three are all now different... which is not the idea with synchronisation!

I have gone into each device to check that the synchronisation settings are on, and that I am logged into Chrome as well as being logged into Google. I have been reluctant to push out the sync function from my laptop in case it over-writes the later versions.

It was time to tackle the problem. So first I needed to back up my bookmarks and passwords, so if one device over-rode another, I could restore from backup. First I located my Bookmarks and Login Data files at C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default, and made a copy on a different drive, renaming both files with the suffix "old".

Then I went into my laptop and made sure that I was (a) logged on to Google, and (b) logged into Chrome. The difference between these two things can be viewed at Google (n.d.). You will know if you aren't logged on by the fact that if you are using Chrome and you DON'T see two of your profile images, you are not logged into both Google, AND Chrome.

If you don't see two log in icons, then (a) go to your normal Google search engine shortcut on a non-Chrome browser. Click on the "Sign in" button on the upper right-hand corner of the page. This logs you into Google. To then ensure you are logged into Chrome, open Chrome, then Google, and login to your gmail account. You should then see two of your profile images.

Once you are logged in, then log out of both. Shut down, restart, and log back into both.

Then see if Chrome has synchonised, and your devices have harmonised. This process worked for me.


Sam

References:

• Google (n.d.). Google Resources for MVR-III: Logging into Google vs. Logging into Chrome. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/mvr3.k12.mo.us/google-for-mvr3/home/logging-into-
• Google Chrome Help (20 January 2015). Bookmarks in folders not syncing properly. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/chrome/forum/AAAAP1KN0B09ftiKpBmuZ8/?hl=en&gpf=%23!msg%2Fchrome%2F9ftiKpBmuZ8%2FomPa4LuQs0MJ&msgid=omPa4LuQs0MJ
• Chrome (n.d.). User Data Directory. Retrieved from https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/user_data_dir.md