Upgrade from V52.esr to V81 - no Logins imported, no Fix working
I'm trying to upgrade from V52 ESR - kept for known and obvious reasons concerning addons compatibility - to a current V81. Copied the profile data from user/appdata/mozilla/firefox.../myprofile/*.* - including "key3.db" (in use), "key4.db" (don't know where this one originates from - shouldn't exist at all for versions < 57 or so) and "logins.json".
So far stumbled upon:
- No Logins in new system visible. No master password set. After setting a new master password, still no logins visible.
- This very forum here suggests - in many threads for version upgrades from somewhere in the 50s to up to the 70s - to simply copy the "key3.db" and "logins.json" and to delete the "key4.db" on the new system's profile. That does not change anything at all.
Am i forced to keep the V52, now not only by means of addons compatibility, but also by means of login manager compatibility?
What would the correct path to upgrade be? Would i have to install each and every in-between-version from 52 to 81 to be able to migrate? Will i run into the exact same trouble doing it that way, only burning daytime for nothing? Or is it guarantied to somehow get the logins data transfered to the current version? How did all the Millions of other users fare with that aspect? Is that an extremely rare case where users set a master password, so that developers decided to not care anymore about those nasty paranoids?
Chosen solution
Finally: After upgrading v68.12.0 esr -> v78.3.1 esr: History + Bookmarks + Logins + Settings still there and working.
To summarize: It was necessary to at least go through every ESR on the way from the last used version to the current version. No "tip" or "trick" presented in this forum worked for a direct upgrade from v52 to v81. Somehow the developer seem to hide something about the files in the profile folder from the public. Something that got manipulated on the path from v52esr to v78esr that is not contained in those "key#.db" and "logins.json" files.
Problem, for the moment, solved.
And you now know why i will NEVER EVER allow firefox to upgrade itself automatically, do you? And why i will stick to ESR's...
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (6)
To become a little more specific: The many threads about password migration problems seem to concentrate about one single problem:
Users who set their master password, and the migration of the storage of that master password from "key3.db" to "key4.db".
Looks as if i have to do a multistep-upgrade: First install the old version (v52 esr) on the new system, then upgrade to the one which correctly takes the master password from key3.db to key4.db (unknown to me so far), then the one from that version to the current.
So: WHICH VERSION of firefox was THE ONE which started that migration from key3.db to key4.db? Which one did it RIGHT?
For the moment, i downgraded to v52 esr on the new system. Everything works well - as expected. Now, i will try to upgrade the esr path by taking every esr up to the current (78.3.1)...
After upgrading v52.9.0 esr -> v60.9.0 esr: History + Bookmarks + Logins + Settings still there; addons, as expected, gone. Since i have the goal of upgrading to v78 esr, i will not correct anything concerning addons yet...
At least, now i know when you the developers made the bookmarks folder so ugly...
Modified by White-Gandalf
After upgrading v60.9.0 esr -> 68.12.0 esr: History + Bookmarks + Logins + Settings still there and working.
Chosen Solution
Finally: After upgrading v68.12.0 esr -> v78.3.1 esr: History + Bookmarks + Logins + Settings still there and working.
To summarize: It was necessary to at least go through every ESR on the way from the last used version to the current version. No "tip" or "trick" presented in this forum worked for a direct upgrade from v52 to v81. Somehow the developer seem to hide something about the files in the profile folder from the public. Something that got manipulated on the path from v52esr to v78esr that is not contained in those "key#.db" and "logins.json" files.
Problem, for the moment, solved.
And you now know why i will NEVER EVER allow firefox to upgrade itself automatically, do you? And why i will stick to ESR's...
Modified by White-Gandalf
This is a known issues because of changes to the password storage. Some versions of Firefox have migration code to deal with situations like this and there are special watershed builds used as an intermediate update version that have this migration code.
See this thread:
- /questions/1292977 Moving my passwords from old profile to profile in a newer version of firefox