OK so as a work around I did the following

I use my PC on opera and go to opera.com/connect

I went to my opera app on android mobile and go to the section synchronization and backup in the option menu.

I go to connect device always with android app

on PC a click on synchronize your data and it will reveal a QR code

on android opera app click connect it will give you your mobile's camera. Scan the Qr code and everything synced over,

I also tested adding a bookmark on the PC and on the phone and both synced to each other.

not sure why default way didnt work

@jacob0301 There isn't such option

@stevenjcee What do you mean by "sign me out of Opera" ? You logged in to Sync, so if you logout then you would be logging out of Sync.

Anyway, in sync settings you should be able to just turn synchronization off.

@gonzo2632 said in Opera Sync acting as backup instead:

some reason a new full install from zero and wiping all Opera content did the trick.

Awesome!

@jood97 As far as I know, only typed history is synced.
Also, Chromium has a 90 days limit to keep history.

@stechagas On the bottom left of the tabs page/menu there is a icon of a desktop with a phone. Click there to see the opened tabs from other devices.

@fujiyamage If you have the old Bookmarks file, you can just paste it into the new profile directory. That way you should recover the old bookmarks, but will loose the current ones.

You can export them and import later.

@fantasticdanger0 In opera://sync-internals/, the Type info table says that Sync is running?

@parsianshop The place to check synced data is www.sync.opera.com.

@leocg Yes, I understand. But as you can see, they are not. A bookmark created on a new device is synced. Are there any other methods?

@harrisonbrode It may be asking for the old password.

@kelibug In settings page > synchronization and backup, you can click on cryptography to change it.