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Updated to Firefox 43.0.1 and LOST ALL MY PSSWRDS, PLEASE HELP ASAP

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Last night I updated to Firefox 43.0.1, and just today in the morning after restarting Firefox I realised ALL MY PASSWORDS WERE GONE. ALL OF THEM, both in the list accessible from Options/Security/Saved logins and from the websites, if for example I try entering my emails and seeing if the passwords appear below, they don't. PLEASE HELP ASAP, I'm an adult professional who uses his computer daily for work, please also recommend a good way to backup this stuff (used to have an automatised add-on for that but I reckon it was stopped with some update some time ago.

Thanks a lot

Last night I updated to Firefox 43.0.1, and just today in the morning after restarting Firefox I realised ALL MY PASSWORDS WERE GONE. ALL OF THEM, both in the list accessible from Options/Security/Saved logins and from the websites, if for example I try entering my emails and seeing if the passwords appear below, they don't. PLEASE HELP ASAP, I'm an adult professional who uses his computer daily for work, please also recommend a good way to backup this stuff (used to have an automatised add-on for that but I reckon it was stopped with some update some time ago. Thanks a lot

All Replies (5)

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I have an Asus with Windows 8.1, by the way. Never had a similar problem before.

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Do you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop in case you have used the Refresh feature in Firefox and have created a new profile?

When you Refresh/Reset Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, form data) is automatically imported. The current profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

It is possible to recover data from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

You can copy files like these to the current Firefox profile folder to recover specific data.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • SQLite files like cookies.sqlite (cookies) and formhistory.sqlite (saved form data)
  • logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  • cert8.db for stored intermediate certificates (Certificate Manager)
  • persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for Permissions and Site Preferences
  • sessionstore.js for open tabs and pinned tabs and tab groups

Note that your System Details List shows multiple Flash plugins.

  1. Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0
  2. Shockwave Flash 18.0 r0
  3. Shockwave Flash 19.0 r0
  4. Shockwave Flash 20.0 r0

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

You can check the Flash player installation folder for multiple Flash player plugins and remove older version(s) of the plugin (NPSWF32) and possibly (re)install the latest Flash player.

  • (32 bit Windows) C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\
  • (64 bit Windows) C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\
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Hi, thank you for your answer, no, there's not any "Old Firefox data" folder or anything similar in my desktop or elsewhere in my laptop. All what I need to recover is, fortunately, the passwords, as everything else seems to be fine. As you mention above, the files logins.json and key3.db will be necessary for retrieving the passwords, right? Could you please indicate the steps to do so, thank you again.

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Is there only one profile folder in the default location used for profiles?

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.


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Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac=Options)
key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?


In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.