Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Which config preference relates to 'remember passwords for sites' under Tools - Options - Security?

  • 11 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I want to lock down the preference for this so it can't be changed. I thought it might be privacy.clearonshutdown.passwords but that doesn't seem to be it. Any clarity on this would appreciated.

I want to lock down the preference for this so it can't be changed. I thought it might be privacy.clearonshutdown.passwords but that doesn't seem to be it. Any clarity on this would appreciated.

All Replies (11)

more options

hello Storm_Cloud, that would be controlled by the signon.rememberSignons preference.

more options

Thank you Phillip, appreciate the reply :)

more options

Having a problem.

I have created a file called mozilla.cfg in the default Firefox folder where the executable is located, it contains the following line:

//

lockPref("signon.rememberSignons", false);

I also created a file called local-settings.js in the the defaults/pref sub folder containing the following line:

pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");

Every time I try to start Firefox I get the message " Failed to read the configuration file"

I'm really not sure what's going wrong. Any ideas?

more options

there isn't anything wrong with the syntax that i would notice - i've copied the

lockPref("signon.rememberSignons", false);

line into my mozilla.cfg file and it did work. maybe try saving it with a different encoding (utf-8) and see if this is making a difference...

more options

Tried encoding in UTF-8 but still no joy. Tried on a different machine with different OS and Firefox vesion and still get same message.

Did a clean uninstall (Add/Remove, manually delete Firefox folder, restart) then did a fresh install and applied the code before doing anything else. Nothing has changed o.0

more options

Out of curiosity, if I set Signons to false, is there then a way to disable and lock down Tools or Tool/Options in the main menu bar?

more options

Can you post the full content of the mozilla.cfg file?

Make sure that the file starts with a comment line (//). You can try to save the file with Unix line endings (line feed characters; %0a)

You can also try to add the obscure_value to the local-settings file.

pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

You can try to save and use this file:

data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,Ly8KbG9ja1ByZWYoInNpZ25vbi5yZW1lbWJlclNpZ25vbnMiLCBmYWxzZSk7Cg==
more options

there was no mozilla.cfg before I created so it's literally:

//
lockPref("signon.rememberSignons", false);

local-settings is:

//
pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg"); 

As for the unix line ending, do you mean I should put %0a after the semi-colon in mozilla.cfg, if so I have tried that.

Excuse my ignorance but the save and use file you suggested at the end of your post has me a little confused. Should I put that code at the beginning of the mozilla.cfg file? I'm at the bottom end of the spectrum here, so you'll have to spell it all out :)

Appreciate the response though.

Modified by cor-el

more options

No do not add a %0a as that is the escaped code for a linefeed.
On Windows the default line endings are a CR/LF pair (0x0D/0x0A in hexadecimal code).
On Unix and with HTML pages there is only a linefeed used for the line ending.

The above posted data URI code when opened via the location bar shows a text file with Unix line endings in Firefox that you can save to the hard drive as mozilla.cfg.

data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,Ly8KbG9ja1ByZWYoInNpZ25vbi5yZW1lbWJlclNpZ25vbnMiLCBmYWxzZSk7Cg==
more options

OK I have it sussed.

I did as you suggested with the data into the URL and saved the file but still no joy. I did however notice that when saving the suggested filename was mozilla.cfg.txt

Assuming that that's what it may be saving it as instead of just mozilla.cfg, I altered the local-settings file to call mozilla.cfg.txt. This cured the problem, Firefox starts and the preference is locked.

As an extra check, I deleted the file, created and saved it again using a standard text editor (notepad) and the call to mozilla.cfg.txt still works.

Clearly this was the issue from the beginning, but not something obvious as it wasn't picked up when I posted my code on here.

It matters not though, issue resolved between us :)

more options

You always need to be careful on Windows and make sure to select "All files" and not "Text files" when saving a file as the latter makes Windows add a hidden .txt file extension.