Config parameter to disable completely "Sync Reset" options ?

hdevloed

Hi, is there a (maybe hidden) parameter in about:config that allows to "disable/hide" the Restore to Online Library" and "Reset File Sync History" and the Reset button options in the Reset tab of the Preferences menu item ?
As these are "only to be used in rare, specific situations", i would like to block our user community from using this inadvertently.
Thanks,

hdevloed

Hi, No reaction to my request until now, so I am just adding some background info why I am asking this.
We have a group of about 30 users here, all working with the same group library. All those users are updating/creating/deleting items in that same group library, and I feel not comfortable that this "Restore to Online Library" option (although very useful in some situations) is just some clicks away for a "standard" user (who mostly does not take the time to read the warnings). A user that maybe has made some mistake in managing items locally, and then in his/her confusion starts to upload their incomplete/incorrect local copy of the library to the server, and in that way "imposing" his erroneous copy of the library to everyone.
That is the reason why I wanted to "hide" this Reset tab (using a config setting ideally, as we are rolling out the client centrally.)
Hope that is clear now, and a solution comes up.
Thanks for your time.

dstillman

There's no such option, and I don't think it really makes sense. (This is only about Restore to Online Library, since Reset File Sync History just triggers some extra file checks and doesn't put any data at risk.) Fundamentally, even if it were possible to disable the restore function, someone could just as easily delete all items locally — say, because they wanted to unsubscribe from the group and thought that they could just delete all items to do that — and then sync.

Really your best defense against this is just to make sure that one or more people are making regular automated backups of the entire data directory (or really just their entire home directories or disk drives, which is how most backups should be done). Then if someone did make unwanted major changes, regardless of how they did it, it'd be easy enough to recover from using Restore to Online Library.

There've been requests in the past for more fine-grained group permissions — say, to allow people to add new items but not edit or delete existing items — and that's something we may offer in the future, but if you want people in the group to be able to edit items, there's not really any sort of technical solution to prevent them from making unwanted changes.