Syncing Mystery Thriller! Confusion with online services...

[tinpanalley]

I have a giant mess I can't seem to sort out between my desktop, online services, a former laptop, and a work computer. I will provide the facts in the hopes that someone can help me solve this mystery... 😉

- I had a laptop, browsers were synced to online services: Firefox Sync, Xmarks
- This laptop was given to my mom, I wiped it comepletely (thought I did, I'd say 99.999% sure I did it thoroughly)
- My mom doesn't understand the difference between logging into the google WEBPAGE and logging into Chrome. So my mom loads Chrome and logs into it instead of just a Google page to access her online Google experience (searches, news, etc).
- My mom also doesn't know how to alter any of the default sync options so her defaults are all set to Google's obsessive "sync me EVERYWHERE I sign in" options.
- My mom signed into our Chrome here at home and we didn't notice for several hours because I don't use Chrome. Nothing but bookmarks synced there via Xmarks.
- One day, she tells me that all my bookmarks, all my bookmark toolbars and the default sign in on each site online is mine. On her WORK computer.

Ok, seriously, that's it. That's all I've got. I can understand something being left uninstalled on that laptop but her WORK computer??? I shouldn't be showing up there at all. Yes, she uses that Google login everywhere.

Please...😵...please...😱...help me with anything you can think of. Trying to figure this out with her over Skype, trying to ask her things she doesn't understand about, is driving me insane. 😀

Thanks!

 

[Mushkins]

Sounds like when she logged into *your* PC with *her* Google ID, it merged your local bookmarks and logins or overwrote her stuff with your stuff assuming it was the last updated copy when she eventually signed out.

Then she logged in at work and it copied over those bookmarks to her PC there. There's not really anything you can do about this aside from restoring her google ID favorites from an xmarks restore point prior to the incident.

This is just the nature of free cloud-based sync services unfortunately. It will happen again the next time she signs into her google ID on some random PC unless she changes her sync settings to not sync on new logins without permission.

 

[tinpanalley]

Sounds like when she...

Thank you. I was thinking along the same lines. I'm actually going to have to speak to the IT at her work to get them to fix things on her work terminal. I'm thinking they could uninstall Chrome, wipe all Chrome related profile folders, maybe if there's anything in the registry, and then set NO SYNC on the new install before signing in. Do you think that would cover it?