Lost Passwords...again!
This is the third time I've lost all my passwords (and logins) since the beginning of the year. I had over 200 when I lost it the first time. I've entered over 75 since then and today I just lost those. Fortunately, I had a backup of my profile. The old "key4.db" and "logins.json" files I had didn't work, although they have a significant size. In fact, looking at the "logins.json" using VS Code I see the logins are there but they don't display in the "Settings > Privacy & Security". How can I get access to them when this happens again. I was able to restore the profile from several days ago so I'm not completely in trouble. :-)
All Replies (7)
I would run more than one version of Firefox and use the other versions as backup. see screenshot
You can backup your passwords by clicking the dots at the top right then Export Logins... . To import them you have first to change a preference to true! signon.management.page.fileImport.enabled
Well, this doesn't help much as I've lost over a hundred passwords for the 3rd time. This is enough to get me to quit using Firefox after I've been using it as my primary browser since early in the 21st century. Frankly, I'm appalled this happens. I have all my passwords written down plus backups of my "profile" directory but it would be significantly easier to have some kind of auto backup of these logins/passwords so if it happens it is easy to restore them, rather than just overwriting the entire "profile".
What a world we're living in. Sigh...
Is that a recent backup or an older backup of logins.json and key4.db ?
The logins.json and key4.db files need to match as key4.db stores the encryption key needed to decrypt the logins stored in logins.json. When the Primary Password is changed then this would make an older key file invalid (i.e. no longer working).
You can temporarily set signon.debug = true on the about:config page to see whether errors are reported in the Browser Console (not the Web Console) when you start Firefox or open about:logins (Lockwise).
Solving this issue took time but was, I believe, the right thing to do. I downloaded "Bitwarden" and now use their free password manager. It does all I really need; keep all passwords in a single place and make them usable by any device/browser I use. So, whether I'm using Firefox, a chromium browser, or my iPhone I have access to my passwords...and, I only need to remember a single password. Plus I no longer have to rely on browsers to do this work for me.
I agree with you. Bitwarden is a server that encrypts passwords based on a key on my machine, so they don't even know how to decrypt our passwords (at least according to them, their literature, and forums). If they were hacked the hacker couldn't decrypt our passwords because Bitwarden doesn't have the key, i.e. Bitwarden has no recovery option so if you lose your master password you are SOL.
Your thoughts led me to acquire a password manager. Thanks,
Hello. This problem does affect the normal use of FireFox, I'm not quite sure what the problem is (I only saved 89 passwords and did not encounter this situation) You might try some browser extensions like 1Password to store passwords in FireFox instead. Hope this helps you.