I have been using Firefox for years. I want to put it on my new computer. I have no idea what email address I used when I first installed it. How do I proceed?
I have been using Firefox for many years. I recently purchased a new computer and want to install it and sync my information. I get a prompt to enter my email and password. Unfortunately I can't find what email & pw I used many years ago. Do I just have to create a new account and forget about being able to sync my info? Thanks for your help.
Dee
Chosen solution
If you would reset the password of the Sync account then this will reset data stored on the Sync server (the password is used to encrypt data and needs to match to be able to decrypt).
If you still have access to the old computer then best is to copy data to a USB jump drive to transfer specific data to your new computer.
Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data in "AppData\Roaming".
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.
You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved form data
- logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
- cert8.db and possibly cert_override.txt for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other Site Preferences
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs
See also;
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<strike>Once you have the email address part, you can reset your password</strike> [edit: This is incorrect, see cor-el's response below], but without knowing the email address, there's not going to be any way to access your account. Do you still have your old computer? If you do, you could go back and see what account you're signed into there. Alternatively, you could go through each of your email accounts, and try searching for emails from Firefox Sync (if you signed up for sync with that account, you should've recieved at least a few emails).
Modified by user1929
Chosen Solution
If you would reset the password of the Sync account then this will reset data stored on the Sync server (the password is used to encrypt data and needs to match to be able to decrypt).
If you still have access to the old computer then best is to copy data to a USB jump drive to transfer specific data to your new computer.
Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so make sure to look in the correct location. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data in "AppData\Roaming".
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.
You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved form data
- logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
- cert8.db and possibly cert_override.txt for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other Site Preferences
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs
See also;