Is it okay to say "it depends"?

The built-in version of Lockwise in Firefox 70 can work with your locally saved logins, as a new interface on the same data.

If your Firefox is connected to a Firefox Account with Sync configured, the Sync preferences on the Options page allow you to control whether your login data is sync'd, or only Bookmarks and other categories.

If you had BOTH the Lockwise add-on AND locally saved logins in earlier versions of Firefox, I'm not sure how they work together, if there is different data in each. ??

Thanks jscher2000. I never used Sync, so this means everything stays local right?

Right, if you have not set up Sync in your Firefox profile, then Firefox doesn't synchronize data from that profile with the cloud.

(I say it that way because I created a separate profile connected to sync as a way to back up my mobile bookmarks from Android from time to time.)

The alpha version of the Lockwise extension only worked via Sync because it wasn't possible to access the Firefox Password Manager directly. This Lockwise extension doesn't work with Firefox 70 and later (it has a maximum version of 69). Firefox 70 and later come with the builtin version of the Lockwise Password Manager that can access the passwords locally. You can connect to Sync and enable syncing logins if you want to use the Lockwise app on mobile devices to access desktop logins.

If it is stored locally - do different users on a device share the same storage? I am logged in as a different user and the FF account is only on this laptop - user and account created for work - yet my personal accounts and passwords pop up!!!

LorraineJoubert said

If it is stored locally - do different users on a device share the same storage? I am logged in as a different user and the FF account is only on this laptop - user and account created for work - yet my personal accounts and passwords pop up!!!

Each Firefox profile has its own logins.json file storing saved logins.

Normally different Windows users do not even see one another's profiles because they are stored under the Windows

C:\Users\username

folder. Firefox should focus on the profiles in the current Windows user's folder.

One exception might be if your Firefox shortcut is modified to start a specific profile. Depending on your level of privileges, that could in theory be used to point Firefox to a different Windows users' profile folders, but I've never tested that.

And most likely, yours is not set up that way.

If your computer is managed by an IT department, there might be extra files or Registry keys set up that modify Firefox's behavior. I don't know whether any of those would force Firefox to use a work profile when running under the non-work user.