Firefox 95 (windows x64) not saving new passwords
Firefox will not save ANY new passwords. Some older ones still work. Checking menu->passwords gives 'no logins found'
I use Thunderbird Mail which I had not updated for years. I was starting to get a lot of certificate errors of some emails so I did an update (and set auto update) It's now at 91.4.1. This update broke Thunderbird in that is needed a passwork every time is started, or sent email, or attempted to check the server for emails. Totally unusable. Searches to fix this suggested two files are used, and one post suggested a third file. Suggestions were delete these files and Thunderbird would recreate them. I did, it did and the problem remained. However the third file mentioned in only one post DIDN'T get recreated. From memory the three files were cert9.db, key4.db and logins.json and I think it was logins.json that didn't create. I created a dummy file of the same name and now I can save my email login.
As a result of the above cert9.db, key4.db and logins.json were deleted, from the Firefox profile as well as the Thunderbird one.
On starting Firefox I quickly found I'd lost all the logins, and started re-adding them as I needed them. This worked for a while, but now I can't add any more. Firefox still prompts to save but next time that site is accessed it asks for the password again (earlier sites are still remembered) The dates on the files are logins.json 14/11/2021, cert9.db & key4.db 15/11/2021 (current date 26/12/2021) I removed all these files from the Firefox profile, started Firefox and it recreated the two db files with the current date, logins.json was created with the date 13/11/2021, which is the date of logins-backup.json Next I deleted the three files and logins-backup.json and started Firefox, db files recreated but not logins.json this time.
In both cases the earier web sites still remember the passwords and the laster ones don't, and firefox still shows 'No logins found'
Where are the passwords stored? It's clearly not cert9 or key4, there's a hight source that can recreate these files
Is there a registry problem?
Thanks
Solución elegida
You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.
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The logins.json file is not created by default, it should appear once you save a new login (username and password) for a website or use "Create new login" in Lockwise.
See also:
I can't create a new login in Lockwise, that's another feature of the problem. Just greys out the screen. Can't even close the error, have to close the whole page. As you can see there are no logon's listed, even though there are quite a few that are still remembered. Mozilla support hasn't saved, it knows it hasn't saved and gives the option to save. No error at that point but it's not there next time. Seems to me the registry entries associated with saving passwords are pointing somewhere different to those used for reading them.
Does the Browser Console show more details about the login manager directly after starting Firefox or when you create a new login ? You can temporarily set signon.debug = true on the about:config page beforehand to get more detail. Do not forget to reset signon.debug to false after you are done testing.
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can click the button to "Accept the Risk and Continue".
It looks that either key4.db database that stores the encryption key is corrupted or there is a problem with the logins.json file.
Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.
Turning on signon.debug didn't give any more info. Safe mode boot also behaved the same way.
If key4.db and logins.json save the login details then deleting these files should clear the saved logins. It doesn't. The ones that work still work but new ones aren't saved.
On restarting Firefox cert9.db and key4.db are both recreated with the current date/time, size exactly matches the ones deleted.
If logins-backup.json is present then logins.json is recreated with the same date and size as the backup. If logins-backup.json is removed then logins.json is not recreated, even after saving another password.
Accessing a web page that needs a password, I enter them and get prompted to save. There is no error at this point, it all looks like it has worked. Note date/time on the above files doesn't change, and on restarting Firefox I am again asked for passwords (note that all along the older entries are still working fine even though nothing is listed in Lockwise)
Passwords seem to be saved somewhere else that firefox doesn't know about when saving, but can read when opening sites.
This is still not resolved. In addition I have just discovered that the Thunderbird address book is empty and as with Firefox remembered logins I can't manually add adresses either. No error, just don't appear in address book
Solución elegida
You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.
I was thinking 'windows profile' when I read this. Now I see it's a Firefox profile, created a new one and passwords now save. The reason some appeared to save before is because I've set cookies to delete when closing, with some exceptions. The exception sites are the ones that were saving. Seems Firefox wasn't saving ANY passwords, but if cookies where allowed for a site then the cookies where saving the passwords. Now all passwords can be seen within firefox.
The problem was caused by an update to Thunderbird, and Thunderbird still has problems, like the address book is empty and can't be populated. Any ideas on this one?
Update on the Thunderbird adress book problem. Seems Thunderbird changed from abook.mab to abook.sqlite somewhere between my old and new versions, and didn't automatically import. Manually done now