gmail question

[wpshooter]

How (by what means or mechanism) does Google know what gmail to assign to a particular computer ?

If I do a fresh install of Linux Mint and open Firefox and change my home page (among
other configuration changes) to Google, then gmail is available on the Google home
page without me even having to browse to or log into gmail account.

Is this done by Google's recording of my modem/router IP address ?

Thanks.

[trytip]

if you delete your complete history cache and cookies, then the homepage will still be at google.com but it will not log you in.

[wpshooter]

if you delete your complete history cache and cookies, then the homepage will still be at google.com but it will not log you in.

It would seem to me that if I have just installed Linux Mint from scratch, that there would be NO cache nor cookies to delete, did I miss something ?

Thanks.

[trytip]

you're saying that after a fresh install you setup your homepage to google and it logged you in? that's impossible

[wpshooter]

you're saying that after a fresh install you setup your homepage to google and it logged you in? that's impossible

No exactly. Once I changed the home page in Firefox to Google, the little Gmail link at the top right hand corner of
Firefox was there. And when I clicked on it, my Gmail account was opened to the email interface !!!

[JoeFootball]

Once I changed the home page in Firefox ...

Do you have a Sync account with Firefox? It's my understanding that it stores passwords, among other things. e.g., Gmail credentials.

Joe

[wpshooter]

Once I changed the home page in Firefox ...

Do you have a Sync account with Firefox? It's my understanding that it stores passwords, among other things. e.g., Gmail credentials.

Joe

Not to my knowledge, Firefox is just installed as default part of Linux Mint 19 mate.

[JoeFootball]

Not to my knowledge, Firefox is just installed as default part of Linux Mint 19 mate.

If you go to about:preferences?entrypoint=menupanel#sync in Firefox, it shows that you're not signed in to Sync?

Joe

[wpshooter]

From what I am seeing there I assume not, because it has a link which apparently offers to allow me to
do the sync.

Is it possible that the appearance of the gmail link on my Firefox is being created by my restoring
my bookmarks from which I backedup / saved from my previous installation of Linux Mint ? I would
have thought that that only restored the bookmarks but perhaps I am wrong.

Thanks.

[JoeFootball]

Is it possible that the appearance of the gmail link on my Firefox is being created by my restoring
my bookmarks from which I backedup / saved from my previous installation of Linux Mint ? I would
have thought that that only restored the bookmarks but perhaps I am wrong.

I know that Firefox has the ability to store passwords as well, so perhaps that was indeed part of the backup/restore.

If you go to about:preferences#privacy in Firefox, and then press the "Saved Logins" button, is there anything? If so, then that's it.

Joe

[trytip]

saved from my previous installation of Linux Mint

you didn't say you restored your firefox you said it was a fresh install. rename your .mozilla folder and you'll see what a fresh install looks like

[HaveaMint]

.

As Trytip stated renaming /home/username/.mozilla to .oldmozilla will force Firefox to create a new folder, there you can see a fresh install of FF. Later FF closed delete the fresh .mozilla and rename the old.

[wpshooter]

Is it possible that the appearance of the gmail link on my Firefox is being created by my restoring
my bookmarks from which I backedup / saved from my previous installation of Linux Mint ? I would
have thought that that only restored the bookmarks but perhaps I am wrong.

I know that Firefox has the ability to store passwords as well, so perhaps that was indeed part of the backup/restore.

If you go to about:preferences#privacy in Firefox, and then press the "Saved Logins" button, is there anything? If so, then that's it.

Joe

No, nothing under either of those.

[wpshooter]

saved from my previous installation of Linux Mint

you didn't say you restored your firefox you said it was a fresh install. rename your .mozilla folder and you'll see what a fresh install looks like

That's correct, I did not restore Firefox, only used utility under bookmarks to save and then subsequently restore those bookmarks.

Thanks.

[trytip]

i still don't understand what you're asking. on a fresh install there is no trace of google knowing any of my stuff. if you import something with firefox, then that's an issue for the the firefox forums. i gave up on firefox and i don't use any browser imports.

what i do is setup my browser the way i like it then delete every trace of history passwords cache and cookies or form data and then compress my profile. then i can copy my .mozilla or .config/google-chrome to whatever linux i have which does not work in windows BTW.

so the question remains, did you clear ALL the HISTORY and PASSWORDS and CACHE and COOKIES from your original firefox profile? if not then why are you surprised that the passwords are saved.

[wpshooter]

Well it is my understand that if I reinstall Linux Mint from scratch which deletes everything on
my hard drive (including Firefox and everything else) and the hard drive is repartitioned and
reformatted during the from scratch install, then how could any settings, etc. of any kind come
over to the new install ?

All I am saying that I did was to use the backup utility found in Firefox under Bookmarks to
save/backup my old bookmarks to a USB thumb drive and then to restore them to the BRAND new install of
Linux Mint after it's installation is complete. My understand of that backup utility is that ALL it does is
to allow me to move the bookmarks from my old install to a new install.

I have always wished that there was a straight forward utility to allow ALL of the browser info from an old
installation to be moved over to a new installation but I have yet to find one. I have even asked
questions on these forums before and I was advised that copying the Firefox profile from an old
install to a new install is NOT a good idea because they advised that it is problematic at best.

Thanks.

[MrEen]

All I am saying that I did was to use the backup utility found in Firefox under Bookmarks to
save/backup my old bookmarks to a USB thumb drive and then to restore them to the BRAND new install of
Linux Mint after it's installation is complete.

This might be where the confusion lies. I have nothing under Bookmarks that has a function such as this. However, if I go to Edit > Preferences and click on Firefox Account I have the setting there to sync my bookmarks, among other things. If this is what you did, then that explains why Google knows who you are. This area is for syncing between devices (inclucding old Mint, new Mint on same device.) This same sections covers exactly what follows:

I have always wished that there was a straight forward utility to allow ALL of the browser info from an old
installation to be moved over to a new installation but I have yet to find one. I have even asked
questions on these forums before and I was advised that copying the Firefox profile from an old
install to a new install is NOT a good idea because they advised that it is problematic at best.

Thanks.

[wpshooter]

Are you saying that if you click on bookmarks, then show all bookmarks and
then click on that drop down, that you don't see the backup and restore functions ?

See attached screenshot.

Thanks.

[MrEen]

My apologies. That extra step of Show all bookmarks is something I never do.

[phd21]

HI wpshooter,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

I install various editions and versions of Linux Mint and various browsers in them all the time to help others in this forum and for my own curiosity. I also use Gmail accounts. None of my browsers remember anything unless I login to the browser sync option with a specific GMail account or manually restore or import some things.

FYI: If you setup a browser like Firefox's sync option with Google (Gmail, etc...) then that will sync all bookmarks, passwords, add-on extensions, etc... perfect when installing Linux Mint to another computer or doing a fresh install (no need to back up (export or import) bookmarks, etc...). It can take a few minutes for everything to load, and you may have to restart the browser to finish updating, but it works great. Not all browsers retain everything which is too bad. Chrome sync works well too. With Opera's sync I always have to re-install all my add-on extensions unless I used an extension to back those up manually, but bookmarks and I think passwords are saved and restored.

Hope this helps ...