Konode 1.3.0 is out: every screen translated, five languages, and a device you forgot finally stays forgotten

I build Konode, a browser sync extension with an unusual premise: there is no Konode account and no Konode server. It syncs your bookmarks, open tabs, history and installed-extension list straight to storage you already own, a Google Drive, a GitHub repo, or any WebDAV server. Optional end-to-end encryption on top, so your storage provider cannot read it either.

It works on Helium, and Google Drive works here too. Konode does its Drive sign-in with an ordinary OAuth code-and-PKCE flow rather than chrome.identity.getAuthToken, which only works on real Chrome signed into a Google account. Brave, Helium and ungoogled-chromium do not ship Google integration, so the usual approach fails on all three and this one does not.

Every screen speaks your language now

The popup and the setup wizard already followed your browser's language. Settings did not. It stayed in English whatever the rest of Konode was reading in, which made it the one screen you had to switch languages for. Every tab, label and explanation on it now comes from the same translation files as everything else.

Five languages are complete at 308 strings each: English, Hungarian, German, Spanish and Chinese (Simplified). The Spanish and Chinese were done by native speakers who volunteered. There is nothing to choose in Settings, because Konode follows the language your browser is already set to.

Japanese, Italian and Estonian are in progress. If you want your language in it, this is the part where help actually makes a difference. No coding and no GitHub account needed, it is edited in the browser:

https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/konode/

A language ships once it is complete, because a screen that is half translated reads worse than an English one, and working out which half you were given is not something anyone should have to do.

A device you forgot went on haunting your other machines

Forgetting a device deletes its files from your storage, and the machine you did it on stopped listing it straight away. Every other device carried on exactly as before: the forgotten machine's tabs were still offered for you to restore, and its extensions still counted toward what is missing on this device, with nothing left in storage to justify either.

Each device now checks what it remembers about the others against what your storage actually holds, and drops whatever is no longer there. Not at the same moment, though: your other devices notice on their next sync, not the instant you click Forget.

A device whose file simply could not be read that time is left alone, because "I could not reach it" and "it is gone" are not the same thing, and only one of them is a reason to forget a machine you still use.

A way back into setup

Konode opens the setup wizard once, in a tab, the moment it installs. If you closed that tab, or were looking elsewhere when it appeared, there was nothing telling you what to do next, and setup had to be found by opening Settings and knowing what to look for. The popup now offers to finish setting up until a storage provider has been chosen.

Also in this release

Two fixes for browsers built on WebKit, where bookmarks were being split across two roots and a session restore brought back a single tab. Neither affects Helium or any other Chromium browser, but they are in the notes if you are curious.

Install: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/konode/mmlfiiimnpnjcjhhbldenpcmnibedkfa

Source: https://github.com/konabe-studio/konode

Bugs and ideas: https://github.com/konabe-studio/konode/issues

Happy to answer anything. The forgotten-device bug came from someone describing what they were seeing on a second machine, not from my test suite, so reports genuinely land.

reddit.com
u/benstone326 — 1 day ago
▲ 67 r/LibreWolf+5 crossposts

Konode finally available on Firefox Add-ons

I build Konode, a browser sync extension with an unusual premise: there is no Konode account and no Konode server. It syncs your bookmarks, open tabs, history and installed-extension list straight to storage you already own, your Google Drive, a GitHub repo, or any WebDAV server. Optional end-to-end encryption on top, so your storage provider cannot read it either.

Works on Firefox, Waterfox and other Firefox and Chromium based browsers.

🎉 1.2.0 is out, and most of it are fixes 🎉

History between devices actually works here now. It barely did before. Konode sent each page along with its original visit date, and Chromium rejects the whole request when that date is present rather than just ignoring the date. So nearly every page from another device was turned away, and the reason was being discarded before anyone could see it. If you tried history sync and got a lot of nothing, that was this, and it is gone.

Bookmarks are no longer silently dropped. When the receiving device had fewer bookmarks in a folder than the device sending them, the browser rejected the position Konode asked for and the bookmark disappeared without a word, on every sync, indefinitely. Konode now asks for a position the browser will accept.

Renaming a bookmark or a folder reaches your other devices. It used to reach none of them. The rename carried no timestamp, so no device could tell whose title was newer and the safe thing was to change nothing. Renames now carry one and the newest wins. Folders are renamed in place, instead of a second folder appearing under the new name.

Deleted bookmarks stay deleted. Deleting several at once fired several events that overwrote each other's record of the deletion, so only one was remembered and the rest came back from your other devices on the next sync. Each deletion is recorded separately now.

Switching storage provider uploads your data again. Konode skips an upload when nothing has changed, but it used to compare only the data, not where that data was going. After switching provider the new location sat empty while the popup reported a clean sync. It checks the destination too.

Also in this release:

  • a device list, so you can see every machine writing to your
  • sync folder by name, and remove one you have retired.
  • settings has been rebuilt, follows your browser's font-size setting, and fits a narrow window.
  • the activity log keeps warnings instead of turning over every 17 minutes and losing them

Install: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/konode/

Source: https://github.com/konabe-studio/konode

Bugs and ideas: https://github.com/konabe-studio/konode/issues

The next update adds translations

The next release makes the interface translatable, and it ships with English, Hungarian and German. If you want your language in it, this is the part where help actually makes a difference. No coding and no GitHub account needed, it is edited in the browser:

https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/konode/

Someone already started Estonian (thank you!). If your language is not listed yet, you can ask for it there and it will appear. Anything left untranslated falls back to English, so translating only part of it is still useful.

Happy to answer anything. The history bug above was found by hand-testing on a second machine, not by my test suite, so reports genuinely land.

u/benstone326 — 14 days ago
▲ 30 r/HeliumBrowserHQ+4 crossposts

I built a browser sync extension because my browser couldn't sync my own data

Hi everyone!

After months of development, I finally released Konode 1.0.0.

The idea came from a very simple frustration.

I was using the Helium browser on multiple computers, but my bookmarks, browsing history, and open sessions weren't syncing reliably. I wanted to keep using the browser, but I also wanted my data to follow me between devices.

Instead of switching browsers, I decided to build my own solution.

Konode synchronizes your browser data across your own devices, including:

  • Bookmarks
  • Browsing history
  • Open sessions
  • Installed extensions (Konode can't install your missing extensions, just listing them and can open the Chrome Extension store where you can install is manually)

Unlike traditional browser sync, your data stays under your control. You choose where it's stored instead of relying on a vendor-managed cloud.

Chrome Web Store:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/konode/mmlfiiimnpnjcjhhbldenpcmnibedkfa

I'm looking for people who are willing to try it in real-world usage and tell me:

  • Did anything break?
  • Was something confusing?
  • What features are missing?
  • What would make you actually keep using it?

If you enjoy it, a Chrome Web Store review would help a lot as well.

Roadmap

  • Firefox support is coming with v1.1.0.
  • Orion Browser (iOS/macOS) support already exists, but it's still somewhat buggy, so I don't recommend relying on it just yet.

I'm actively maintaining the project, so every bug report and feature request will be read.

Thanks for checking it out!

u/benstone326 — 1 month ago

Hello there,

is there an option to use mixed theme in Nobara Official version?

I’d like to set the start menu and the daskbar dark, but using light mode for windows and applications.

l cane from Win11 just today and I could really like this option 🙂

reddit.com
u/benstone326 — 4 months ago