diff --git a/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.js b/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.js
index 8d58f11d034..0fab01450b4 100644
--- a/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.js
+++ b/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.js
@@ -425,19 +425,6 @@ var gSyncPane = {
     }
   },
 
-  // Called whenever one of the sync engine preferences is changed.
-  onPreferenceChanged: function() {
-    let prefElts = document.querySelectorAll("#syncEnginePrefs > preference");
-    let syncEnabled = false;
-    for (let elt of prefElts) {
-      if (elt.name.startsWith("services.sync.") && elt.value) {
-        syncEnabled = true;
-        break;
-      }
-    }
-    Services.prefs.setBoolPref("services.sync.enabled", syncEnabled);
-  },
-
   startOver: function (showDialog) {
     if (showDialog) {
       let flags = Services.prompt.BUTTON_POS_0 * Services.prompt.BUTTON_TITLE_IS_STRING +
diff --git a/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.xul b/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.xul
index f06ab96f461..4101cab8783 100644
--- a/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.xul
+++ b/browser/components/preferences/in-content/sync.xul
@@ -4,8 +4,7 @@
 
 <!-- Sync panel -->
 
-<preferences id="syncEnginePrefs" hidden="true" data-category="paneSync"
-             onchange="gSyncPane.onPreferenceChanged();">
+<preferences id="syncEnginePrefs" hidden="true" data-category="paneSync">
   <preference id="engine.addons"
               name="services.sync.engine.addons"
               type="bool"/>
diff --git a/services/sync/modules/service.js b/services/sync/modules/service.js
index 7f507be203c..1161e3c18b9 100644
--- a/services/sync/modules/service.js
+++ b/services/sync/modules/service.js
@@ -299,21 +299,6 @@ Sync11Service.prototype = {
     return false;
   },
 
-  // The global "enabled" state comes from prefs, and will be set to false
-  // whenever the UI that exposes what to sync finds all Sync engines disabled.
-  get enabled() {
-    return Svc.Prefs.get("enabled");
-  },
-  set enabled(val) {
-    // There's no real reason to impose this other than to catch someone doing
-    // something we don't expect with bad consequences - all setting of this
-    // pref are in the UI code and external to this module.
-    if (val) {
-      throw new Error("Only disabling via this setter is supported");
-    }
-    Svc.Prefs.set("enabled", val);
-  },
-
   /**
    * Prepare to initialize the rest of Weave after waiting a little bit
    */
@@ -343,6 +328,8 @@ Sync11Service.prototype = {
     this._clusterManager = this.identity.createClusterManager(this);
     this.recordManager = new RecordManager(this);
 
+    this.enabled = true;
+
     this._registerEngines();
 
     let ua = Cc["@mozilla.org/network/protocol;1?name=http"].
@@ -1239,10 +1226,6 @@ Sync11Service.prototype = {
   },
 
   sync: function sync(engineNamesToSync) {
-    if (!this.enabled) {
-      this._log.debug("Not syncing as Sync is disabled.");
-      return;
-    }
     let dateStr = new Date().toLocaleFormat(LOG_DATE_FORMAT);
     this._log.debug("User-Agent: " + SyncStorageRequest.prototype.userAgent);
     this._log.info("Starting sync at " + dateStr);
diff --git a/services/sync/services-sync.js b/services/sync/services-sync.js
index 6045eb38df7..c6cc2d65ea2 100644
--- a/services/sync/services-sync.js
+++ b/services/sync/services-sync.js
@@ -24,11 +24,6 @@ pref("services.sync.scheduler.sync11.singleDeviceInterval", 86400); // 1 day
 
 pref("services.sync.errorhandler.networkFailureReportTimeout", 1209600); // 2 weeks
 
-// A "master" pref for Sync being enabled. Will be set to false if the sync
-// customization UI finds all our builtin engines disabled (and addons are
-// free to force this to true if they have their own engine)
-pref("services.sync.enabled", true);
-// Our engines.
 pref("services.sync.engine.addons", true);
 pref("services.sync.engine.bookmarks", true);
 pref("services.sync.engine.history", true);
diff --git a/services/sync/tests/unit/test_service_login.js b/services/sync/tests/unit/test_service_login.js
index 62f406fe3db..42c163915f0 100644
--- a/services/sync/tests/unit/test_service_login.js
+++ b/services/sync/tests/unit/test_service_login.js
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ add_test(function test_login_on_sync() {
     // This test exercises these two branches.
 
     _("We're ready to sync if locked.");
-    Svc.Prefs.set("enabled", true);
+    Service.enabled = true;
     Services.io.offline = false;
     Service.scheduler.checkSyncStatus();
     do_check_true(scheduleCalled);