In Firefox 76, you need to enter your OS password in order to view or copy the plain text of a password you saved in Firefox's password manager (Lockwise). So try your Windows 8.1 login. Does that work?

More info: Firefox asks for authentication (password, voice, face or fingerprint) when accessing passwords

There is a temporary way to skip this requirement if you're not interested in that extra layer of protection. By temporary I mean this probably won't be available forever.

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste os-auth and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If the signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled preference has a value of true, double-click it to change the value to false

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.

Thank you. That at least lets me in now. Is there a way to permanently disable, as in UTTERLY DESTROY this Lockwise thing so I never have to see it again? I mean, if Firefox is going to pull stuff like this, I might as well say ta-ta after this decade and a half with them and start using a new browser.

What is it that you don't like about this new interface (which has a new name)?

You mean, other than being locked out of all my accounts and losing important access to things both personal and business? What's the point of a password hub on Firefox if they pull your pants down and shove an eggplant in it?

There has been a hotfix rolled out via Normandy to disable this feature to ask for the Windows password/PIN.

• app.normandy.enabled = true

You will notice this pref on the about:config page if you have this hotfix.

• app.normandy.startupRolloutPrefs.signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled = false

You can check this pref to verify that this feature is disabled.

• signon.management.page.os-auth.enabled = false

You've got me interested, but I don't know where this Normandy thing is or who it's by and I definitely don't see the paths you're showing.

I think I just need to get a new browser. Firefox has served me well, but you know companies and things that get too large start doing messed up things that are out of touch with their customers / users... such as this, a password hub that blocks you... from your passwords?

It's like, "Here... we blocked you from your passwords you typed years ago... ...so enter a password you typed even more years ago to get your passwords" WHAT. They had ONE job.

So if I understand, everything was fine until this new feature introduced in Firefox 76 that gated access to your saved logins.

Eh... well, more or less. Not having to ever bother with logins is one of the prime reasons I got Firefox way back when. Now that this function has been tampered with to the point of non-functionality, Firefox is therefore non-functional for my purposes. I'm told there's faster and more private browsers out there. There really seems to be no need for Firefox if the password system's clogged up now.