Over the past few weeks, I have been battling to work out why Microsoft Edge was Stuck "Setting up Sync".
I restored Windows on a PC and re-set up Edge with my account but the Syncronisation was constantly stuck at "Setting up Sync". I literally tried everything to work out what the problem was. I tried using the edge://sync-internals/ page within Edge to debug the problem. Nothing was showing as an error, the connection was silently failing and returning 0 updates from the server. I tried:
- setting up another account on Windows PC
- checking the sync services, ensuring the problem wasn't with windows internal sync.
- DISM & SFC /scannow to try repair windows.
- Adding the domain & IP address of update server to firewall exclusions.
- Resetting Cloud Sync data.
Logging out of Edge on each machine and trying to resync on each, I noticed that the machines that had BitDefender as the AntiVirus software would not Sync, but machines with other Antivirus software would instantly sync. I disabled protection and Edge would then Sync. Bit Defender is silently blocking Edge from accessing Windows.com with no notifications making it almost impossible to diagnose.
If anybody else is having a massive problem with Edge Syncronisation, BitDefender is the issue. Turn the protection off when you want to Sync. I tried to add "Windows.com" to the exclusion list, but checking the DNS route "edge.activity.windows.com" diverts dynamically to multiple server URL endpoints (I think as load management). This seems to stop the exclusion from allowing the Edge Synchronisation.
The only option I've found is to disable BitDefender every now and then to allow Edge to Synchronise your favorites