Workaround that worked for me:

• Install Opera 95
• Setup passphrase
• Update to Opera 96

Sync seems to be working

@dawndragon The workaround I used:

• Install Opera 95
• Setup synchronisation
• Update to Opera 96

It worked for me, I know, not the best way ...

@nicec https://get.geo.opera.com/pub/opera/desktop/

@dawndragon The workaround I used:

• Install Opera 95
• Setup synchronisation
• Update to Opera 96

It worked for me, I know, not the best way ...

Workaround that worked for me:

• Install Opera 95
• Setup passphrase
• Update to Opera 96

Sync seems to be working

@xentrax The problem is generic to the Opera Desktop version 96; it makes no difference if you specify a passphrase or use the standard (only encrypt passwords with your account credentials) - both don't work which effectively makes synchronisation useless in the desktop version. I had no trouble setting synchronisation up in the Android version.

Same behaviour on MacOS. I raised a bug report.
I'm able to specify a passphrase when I don't have any synced data yet.
Once the data is synced I can't enter a passphrase (tested on different Mac, new Opera setup).

@bloodseeker21 Same problem. I synced all my settings on one installation and specified a passphrase. When logging into another device I can't enter a passphrase. This is on Mac.