Lost passwords
Hopefully some kind person can help!
Recently all my passwords that I have used for some time were available in web pages to assist logging in.
Today I only seem to have three listed, non of which are very important to me...but the rest are.
I have looked to see if there is a backup profile but cannot readily see one.
Questions: 1. Why has the profile gone missing? 2. Is all lost? 3. As there are a lot of passwords can the situation be recovered? 4. Did I have to manually set up Firefox to backup profiles? I must admit to assuming (dangerous, I know) that Firefox would keep a backup. There do seem to be some folders under Profiles: jsjmn1ws.default and also jsjmn1ws.def that both contain key3.db although the latter is quite old (2011 compares to file date 18/05/2013 for the current Key3.db with the duff info therein)
I have also used the savedpasswordeditor by daniel.dawson latterly today as a temporary measure and that comes up with the same results.
Any help to recover or prevent this happening again would be appreciated.
All Replies (4)
You can try to use the SQLite Manager extension in Firefox to inspect the signons.sqlite database file to see if there is a corrupted entry that may be causing others below it to disappear.
- SQLite Manager: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/sqlite-manager/
You will only see encrypted base64 names and passwords with the SQLite Manager extension.
Be sure to have a backup copy of both files if you want to try to make changes.
Do those other profiles have a signons.sqlite file as well?
You can make backup copies of all matching key3.db and signons.sqlite (or possibly signons3.txt) files and try to use the Profile Manager to launch one of these or create a new test profile and copy such a matching pair to this test profile. You would need to use the correct Master Password if one has been used used.
I let Firefox keep my passwords for me. But I also keep a file on my computer with the passwords in it as backup. You can do this as well. If you are worried about someone else getting in the file, you can zip the file using the zip program password option. Delete the original file, then whenever you need to check or add something in the file, unzip it, make your changes, re-zip the new file (with/without password).
Thanks peoples. I'll take up your suggestion, Fred, as soon as I recover my passwords...I hope! It is a good policy. I had hoped firefox would take care of that itself.
Cor-el. Thanks for that response it is much appreciated. Can you help further please?
I have downloaded and installed SQlite Manager. Very useful tool, though it's a few years since I did any SQL work, so a bit rusty!
I have loaded the signons database (I can only find one in my profiles sub/folders in the 'default' one. Table moz_logins shows up my many password etc. entries ( I see nothing that resembles what I see in firefox as per my first post- i.e. just the three entries!!) and at first glance it seems fine. I have taken a copy.
I have done a SQLite Manager database complete integrity check and the result is 'OK'. However I do note that the index entries have a missing index 2. i.e. rows are 1,3,4,5,6... and total 101 rows. Could that be the problem? If so can I just reindex without upsetting firefox?
If that is not the problem can you suggest where to go from here?
You can try to Reindex the signons.sqlite database file.