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All logins/passwords missing

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Ripley

Ripley
Ripley
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Problem/possibly relevant info:

  • yesterday evening, auto-fill for logins/passwords was working
  • when I opened my laptop (from standby) this morning, my welcome screen was frozen at last night's day/time when I lowered the lid so I restarted (press and hold power button; this happens all the time as of the past 6 months or so)
  • logins/passwords have now disappeared
  • Windows 10, Firefox v.102.0 (updated July 1st)

After 2 hours of trying to find answers, I've done/discovered the following:

  • followed steps here: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-recover-your-missing-firefox-passwords-1835616191 -- didn't work
  • I don't have other profiles and am not synced to another device
  • I've had no luck finding an "Old Firefox" folder
  • logins.json, logins.json-2.corrupt, and logins-backup.json all have the same timestamp (this morning) and file size
  • when I open logins.json and logins-back-up.json in Firefox, I get the following message: SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data (I suspect this is where I'm in big trouble...)

I am very non-techy so any straightforward suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to decide if I want to pay to get it fixed or go to the hassle of re-setting all my passwords. ;)

Thanks!

Problem/possibly relevant info: * yesterday evening, auto-fill for logins/passwords was working * when I opened my laptop (from standby) this morning, my welcome screen was frozen at last night's day/time when I lowered the lid so I restarted (press and hold power button; this happens all the time as of the past 6 months or so) * logins/passwords have now disappeared * Windows 10, Firefox v.102.0 (updated July 1st) After 2 hours of trying to find answers, I've done/discovered the following: * followed steps here: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-recover-your-missing-firefox-passwords-1835616191 -- didn't work * I don't have other profiles and am not synced to another device * I've had no luck finding an "Old Firefox" folder * logins.json, logins.json-2.corrupt, and logins-backup.json all have the same timestamp (this morning) and file size * when I open logins.json and logins-back-up.json in Firefox, I get the following message: ''SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data'' (I suspect this is where I'm in big trouble...) I am very non-techy so any straightforward suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to decide if I want to pay to get it fixed or go to the hassle of re-setting all my passwords. ;) Thanks!

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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What is in the logins files if you open these files in a Firefox tab or suitable text editor/viewer ? A valid logins.json is a text file without line breaks.

Did you previously had passwords stored in Firefox ?

Since it is likely that the current logins.json file is broken beyond repair, you can try to move the current logins.json and key4.db files to a safe location and let Firefox create new file logins.json and key4.db by saving a new login or by using "Create New Login".

Ripley
Ripley Question owner
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Hi cor-el,

Sincere apologies for not responding in a timely manner. Life got weirdly and unexpectedly busy and I just didn't have the brain power during the down times to deal with this issue.

I did have Firefox saving my logins/passwords previously, yes. In the time since they all disappeared I've re-set a couple of them. Those are working properly. My previous ones are still MIA. When I look at logins.json in the JSON view, I can see info for my newly re-set logins/passwords but none of my old ones are present. In the Raw Data view, it does appear to be an unbroken line of text. I can make out the website links to my new info.

If I understand your second link properly, basically I'm just starting over from scratch and there's no way to recover all of my old logins and passwords, correct?