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Desktop and Phone Firefox synced; But newly created Primary Password on Desktop did not.

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  • 3 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

Jerry
Jerry
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My desktop and phone have been synced for a long time. Until recently, I never used Firefox’s password management tool for sensitive accounts, mainly financial. Then I read about Firefox’s Primary Password and realized that this was the security I needed so that I could use password management across all my accounts. The passwords all synced with my phone, but the Primary Password did not. The only temporary, not-very-good band aid I could find, was to turn off automatic fill on my phone. Should I delete the current Firefox app on my phone (version 84), reinstall, and re-sync? Is this the only way to get the same Primary Password on both devices? Thanks in advance for your help!

My desktop and phone have been synced for a long time. Until recently, I never used Firefox’s password management tool for sensitive accounts, mainly financial. Then I read about Firefox’s Primary Password and realized that this was the security I needed so that I could use password management across all my accounts. The passwords all synced with my phone, but the Primary Password did not. The only temporary, not-very-good band aid I could find, was to turn off automatic fill on my phone. Should I delete the current Firefox app on my phone (version 84), reinstall, and re-sync? Is this the only way to get the same Primary Password on both devices? Thanks in advance for your help!

Chosen solution

The Primary Password is used locally to encrypt the logins in the profile folder and is only available on desktop devices. The PP never leaves the device, so isn't part of Sync. Your passwords are encrypted locally with the password of the Sync account just like all other data and this encrypted data is uploaded to the Sync server. When logins are synced to mobile devices then they are stored in the profile folder on that device. The new Firefox versions for Android and iOS do not support the Primary Password and thus rely on OS specific measures to protect access. On mobile devices you do not have access to the profile folder and developer tools unlike on desktop devices where you can easily access the profile folder and also have access to developer tools and can run code in the Browser Console.

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cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

The Primary Password is used locally to encrypt the logins in the profile folder and is only available on desktop devices. The PP never leaves the device, so isn't part of Sync. Your passwords are encrypted locally with the password of the Sync account just like all other data and this encrypted data is uploaded to the Sync server. When logins are synced to mobile devices then they are stored in the profile folder on that device. The new Firefox versions for Android and iOS do not support the Primary Password and thus rely on OS specific measures to protect access. On mobile devices you do not have access to the profile folder and developer tools unlike on desktop devices where you can easily access the profile folder and also have access to developer tools and can run code in the Browser Console.