@avl I did just that, to no avail. Worse still, before logging out I noticed I was logged on even when the synchronisation was not working, now on the other hand, I'm not logged in at all!!!!

Dear Opera,
This has been going on for many updates now, but no change. I'm using Mageia 5, x64, and opera is regularly updated. Any attempt to download anything at all leads to Opera crashing.

Any suggestions?! I'd be much grateful